Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead
by FlygonNick
Summary: When Zombies suddenly attack at a high school football game, a group of teens band together in a desperate fight for survival. Guided by Samantha Maxis and aided by zombie slayers new and old, this group takes on the remnants of Group 935 and waves of the undead in an attempt to save mankind from Doctor Richtofen. Will they succeed? Or will Richtofen's Grand Scheme be realized?
1. Apocalypse

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

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><p><em>Alright, so because I'm revamping this story to maximum awesomeness, I thought I should include a new author's note. I'll be editing these at some point, but here's what you need to know<em>

_This story began as a collaboration between me and my best friends, all huddled around a computer during band camp. Each of us, me and my friends, are put directly into this story with nothing changed. Names, personality, everything. This story was also started a year before Black Ops II was released, hence another reason why edits are necessary. I simply didn't have the information I do now. _

_This story at first was something we just did because we were bored. I originally just took suggestions from my friends and put pretty much anything they said into the story, which I didn't take seriously when I began it. _

_When the Marching Season ended and I was left with the reins of the story, I took it in a new direction, building off of the foundations of what me and my friends have started. I decided sometime into the story…that I wanted something that could build off of such an interesting storyline and make it even better. I wanted it to be serious. I wanted it to be griping, exciting, dark, and memorable._

_But most of all…_

_Special._

_Now that we have that out of the way, I hope you enjoy my first major story on this site. It may start off a tad slow, but it picks up for sure._

_Here it is._

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><p>Chapter 1: Apocalypse<p>

_"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success"-_ Henry Ford

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><p>Location: Bradburn County Florida<p>

Time: About 10:00 P.M.

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><p>It was the night of the last football game of the season for the Bradburn High School Marching Panthers, and it was one no one would ever forget. It was the night where everything would change. Where innocence would be lost, and the nightmare would begin.<p>

There was two minutes left in the 4th Quarter, and the score was 76-14, and it looked like the football team was losing _yet again_. The crowd was raving and cheering, or at least the Away team was. As for the Panthers, it was more of a "please let this end so we can go already" sort of attitude. The band watched on, eyeing the football team with distaste and silently thinking that the cheerleaders could probably play better than the football team was doing now.

One trumpet player in the Bradburn High School Marching Band, Nicholas, let out a sigh. He was a pale teenager of medium height of about 5 '10', with short blond hair and glasses that covered his green eyes.

"I think this settles it. Our football team will _not_ be winning this game. Just like last year…and the year before…and the year before." Nicholas said in an annoyed tone.

"Our team sucks" a baritone player named Liam said with a scowl. Liam stood a few inches taller than Nicholas and had a mess of black hair on his head and had a great deal of freckles on his face. He had a more muscular build than Nicholas, but was still fairly skinny.

"Not really, they're good. It's just that some teams get lucky, or are just better." Nicholas reasoned.

"I can see that." Liam said with a laugh.

Nicholas started laughing too and said "At least the band is good, that's all that really matters."

"So true." a trumpet player named Judith said walking up to the two teens. Judith was shorter than Nicholas by a good few inches, with dark-skin and short dark hair. She grabbed Liam's hand and rested her head on his shoulders. Liam looked at his girlfriend with an affectionate smile.

The group watched as the other team got the ball. The player with the ball dashed through all of the Bradburn Football players and scored yet another touchdown with two seconds left on the clock, as though to prolong their agony. The band members all groaned as one, unaware of what horrors lay in wait for them.

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><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Location: Unknown

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><p>"Ah…finally, after all zhis time…I can finally begin" a man spoke with a smile as he walked through his lab.<p>

The man stood at the top of a flight of stairs, looking down at the complicated machines with a grin. Attached to the machines was a series of rocks that glowed red and blue, giving off a wicked aura.

Element 115.

Ununpentium…the scared element capable of raising the dead.

Five hundred corpses were on dissection tables, ready-made Zombies awaiting the element's powers. For over fifty years, he had lived in the shadows, gathering his resources and the keys to revenge. He had spent all this time, slowly gathering his strength and power. This would be necessary to enact his grand plan. A scheme of sorts that would change the world forever.

The world would bow at his feet as waves of the damned destroyed all who opposed him. He would create a new world with his powers, and God help those who stood in his way.

"It…is…TIME!" the man yelled triumphantly as he walked over to a panel and threw a switch, causing each of the containers holding the meteorite to shudder and vibrate as their energy began to resonate with the area around them.

A greenish energy filled the cavern, coming from the powerful rocks, and the man's laughs intensified. Each of the corpses on the tables began to shake and rattle. Then, with jolt, each slowly began to sit up. The man's blue eyes suddenly shone with an incredible light, the same color as the Zombies eyes, and as a green aura flickered into existence behind him, he began to laugh manically. The Zombies broke through the door to the underground compound and made their way to the surface.

The man then turned to five men standing behind him, observing the proceedings with interest.

"You know what to do..." the man said in a low tone. The five men bowed to the man with the glowing blue eyes before vanishing on the spot in multicolored balls of fire. The man turned back around and said "Now…to draw those who wish to stop me out…and snuff out their hope once and for all…"

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><p>Bradburn High School Football field:<p>

* * *

><p>"Hey, do you guys feel that?" Nicholas said as the ground shook slightly.<p>

"It was probably Chuck Norris breathing." a short brown-haired bowl-cut boy named Nick said enthusiastically. He had a wide grin on his face and a cheerful attitude that usually couldn't be stopped, even with a kick to the nuts.

"Really? Another Chuck Norris fact?" Liam said in an annoyed tone. Judith shook her head and another student walked up to them.

"Hey Andrew, what's up?" Nicholas asked his friend, who had walked from the other side of the "Band Zone" to them.

"Guys, there's something serious going on underground, this doesn't…feel right to me" Andrew said to his friends with a frown on his face. Andrew had very short, peach colored hair and stood at about Nicholas's height. He had a muscular sort of build, and could probably beat most of the band members in a fight if he wanted to…he was also a massive flirt with the ladies.

"I wonder if it's an earthquake" Liam said as the ground shook some more, causing them to stumble a bit more.

There was a sudden tremor, the largest one yet, and the crowd screamed in response. There was a low, moaning sound that could be heard in the distance. The coaches were looking at the disturbance while the teams continued to play.

Nicholas's eye caught something emerging from the nearby woods, and after a moment he nudged Liam and said "Hey…take a look at that"

The other teen turned around and saw a group people stumbling out of the woods, looking disheveled and covered in blood and dirt. Their clothing was in tatters, and some of them looked as though they had been dead for weeks. They stumbled toward the field, drawing the attention of the fans and the officials.

"Oh wow, look at that, they're dresses like Zombies" Liam said in an offhanded way. Nick blinked and said "Kind of a weird time to do a prank, I mean the game's almost over"

One of the figure then let out a loud yell that quickly turned into a scream, and Nicholas gasped in surprise. Liam flinched and said "OK…déjà vu…that's a really weird scream…"

"That kind of scream ring any bells to anyone?" Nicholas muttered, getting a bad feeling about the figures stumbling towards the field.

"You mean the fact they've got glowing blue eyes, decomposing bodies, and are screaming like the Zombies from the Call of Duty games, then yes. Bells are ringing like a mofo in my mind, man" Liam replied with an uneasy smile.

"Wait…Zombies?" Judith said in surprise, looking at the two teens. Nick and Judith exchanged a confused glance before Nicholas paled in horror.

"Zombies! Get the hell out of here!" Nicholas yelled as he grabbed brass trumpet and began running towards the buses, followed by Judith, Andrew, Liam, and Nick, who realized what was happening.

The rest of the band stood there, looking at them like they were crazy.

"Zombies? What are you guys, high?" a clarinet player smirked.

"It's some sort of prank from the other team, don't be stupid" another one laughed. The rest of the band followed this logic, as did most of the crowd, but Nicholas began to flash back to the sounds they were making. The low groans and the feral yells, along with the glowing eyes were all too familiar too him.

"Guys, they're not kidding!" A tuba player named Joe said beginning to run with the others, followed by a trombone player named John.

Joe was tall and had brown hair, and had a good natured face and the eyes of someone you could trust, though he was a bit immature. John was about medium height and had light brown hair with a large nose and a rather pimply face. He was a rather smart teen, though he had a knack for complaining when things didn't go his way.

The group ran as fast as they could, the chill of the night upon them, leaving the crowd and the band behind. They could hear the Zombies moans from afar, and they could now hear the screams of the crowd as they realized the truth, though it was too late for them. A green light filled the stadium, causing most of the people to go unconscious from the strange energy flowing through them.

That left them to the mercy of the ravenous Zombies. Easy prey to be turned and new Zombies to be created. A few zombies were roaming the street, surrounding someone from the group that had run.

"_**And so…it begins again…" **_ a cold cruel voice said with a small laugh, vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

"Hey, where'd Nick go?" Nicholas asked with a pant as he ran into the road, noticing the Chuck Norris obsessed teen had disappeared.

"He's a goner, just go!" Judith said with a nervous look as she glanced behind her, eyeing the growing horde of undead behind them with apprehension. A lone figure was surrounded by fifteen of them, and suddenly yelled out "YEAH!". Several Zombies crumpled to the ground as their assailant took them down with an unknown weapon.

"Dang, whoever's killing those Zombies must be a complete boss." Andrew said, grinning at the sight of the undead falling to the ground.

Suddenly a flash of brass came up from the horde as a baritone smashed into a Zombies skull, killing it. (Yes, I know Zombies are dead, so you can't KILL them, but for the sake of convenience, I'm saying kill. Deal with it.) Nick came out of the horde, a pile of Zombies lying dead next to him. He jumped up on the pile and yelled out triumphantly "WOLVERINE!"

"Come on Shorty!" Joe said grabbing Nick by the collar and making him run back towards the buses, which were abandoned in the parking lot.

"Should we go back for the others?!" Joe said joining the group.

"No time Joe! They're close behind." Nicholas said as they got to the buses, where they beheld a scene of horror.

A group of Zombies stood in the group's way, blocking their escape, though they seemed a bit disoriented, as though trying to get their bearings. Andrew pulled out a switchblade from his shoe and said "I knew there was a reason I brought this"

Andrew ran at the closest Zombie and stabbed it savagely in the head and then yanked the knife free, sending up a spray of blood. He then kicked it in the chest as hard as he could, sending it crashing onto the ground with a groan.

The others ran forward, using the very instruments they used to entertain people at football games to protect themselves from the undead charging at them. Nicholas bashed a woman over the head with his trumpet and then delivered a powerful strike to the back of her skull, caving it in with the brass instrument and killing the Zombie instantly.

Judith and Liam were able to overcome three Zombies coming at them through teamwork, with Judith distracting and warding off each of the Zombies with her trumpet and then having Liam go in for the kill with his baritone, crushing the Zombie's skulls one by one while they were distracted. Joe managed to find an old pipe lying around and was using that to fend off a Zombie that was going towards him. John then ran up from behind and bashed it in the head with his trombone, killing the Zombie that was giving Joe trouble.

"Now you owe me" John said with a smirk.

"I'll never owe you" Joe replied with a frown.

"Oh? Well guess what?"

"What?" Joe asked, albeit in an exasperated tone

"You just lost the game" John said with a grin as he walked away from the now very annoyed Joe.

The group finally made it to the bus, but they could see through the window that the bus driver was gone, having probably fled. "You think he left the keys in the car or something?" Joe asked in a dubious tone.

"Probably not" Liam replied as he snatched the pipe from Joe's hands and began to bash open the doors to the bus, getting them open after a few moments.

The group carefully stepped onto the empty bus and Nick looked out the back window and let out a groan of despair. The Zombies were coming towards them now, and in much greater numbers than before. New Zombies had joined their ranks, innocent spectators from the crowd. Maybe their own band members and friends were among the undead…

"Can anyone hotwire a bus?" Nicholas asked his friends, sounding a bit doubtful with the answer he was expecting to get. If this didn't work, they'd have to run for it.

"Whose idea was this again?" John asked in an irritated tone, having just gone along with the flow and realizing that they didn't really even have a plan at this point.

"Yeah, give me a sec." Liam said, hoping into the driver's seat a few moments later. Nicholas starred at the black-haired teen in complete disbelief before Judith said "Hey, don't complain. You have a problem with it, you can walk"

"Hurry up man! Go ask fast as-" Nick began to say to Liam before he cut him off.

"Don't say it! I swear to God if you say Chuck Norris, Nick, I will throw you out of this bus and feed your ass to the Zombies." Liam said angrily as he worked frantically.

"OK…" Nick said sadly, looking crestfallen.

"Harsh, but necessary." Nicholas chuckled, a bit of relief in his tone.

"Less joking when we're not about to be torn apart by a Zombie horde." John said sitting down.

Suddenly, a decayed hand burst through the window and grabbed John by the throat, a scream erupting from the undead creature's throat as its electric blue eyes shone through the dark.

"John!" Judith screamed as John's skull slammed against the bus wall. Suddenly an object burst through the window and slammed into the Zombie's skull, causing it let go and fall onto the street below. John scrambled away from the window, panting heavily and looking up at Nicholas and his bloodstained trumpet.

"Thanks." John said breathlessly.

"No prob. Liam, how much longer?" Nicholas asked the black haired teen, who smirked.

"About twenty seconds." Liam said, obviously grinning from excitement and taking this much better than Judith and John, who both looked very worried.

Come on, hurry up!" Joe said angrily, grabbing an abandoned flute on the bus and jamming it into a Zombie's skull with a yell. The Zombie fell backwards and onto its brethren, who were surrounding the bus.

"Come on Liam, we won't last much longer!" Nicholas said bashing a Zombie in the head with his trumpet and knocking it down from the side of the bus. The undead were swarming around them now, dozens of Zombies screaming and clawing at the bus.

"And…done!" Liam said as the bus roared to life. Liam slammed on the accelerator and everyone was thrown backwards, including the Zombies who went flying into the street. The bus sped out of the school's parking lot and everyone got to their feet. Nicholas sat down at the front and said "Liam you get an F in efficiency, but I give you an A plus in dramatic timing."

"Thanks, I try." Liam said with a grin, turning the corner.

"OK guys, the school is gone, and we have no idea how many survived that attack. We're on our own. Options?" Nicholas asked the others. The group had a small moment of silence, contemplating what they could do next.

"We can keep driving, maybe find help." John suggested in a low voice, earning a nod of agreement from Nick and Judith.

"Maybe…but we don't know who is alive at this point, John. The Zombies could have taken over all of Bradburn County by now. No one would be ready to fight Zombies or any kind of threat at this hour…they're goners already… " Nicholas said in a soft and bitter tone, causing everyone to realize just how serious this was now. "I think we should stock up on supplies and weapons. We got really lucky just now…We might get lucky again…The only problem is…where could we go?" Nicholas asked.

The group thought hard as Liam turned another corner. And then it came to them. A place where one could get anything they needed, and was a great place to get stuff for a Zombie apocalypse or any other sort of emergency, and _all for a low price…_

"Wal-Mart!" everyone said at once except John, who scowled and said "And you guys actually think there's going to be supplies there for us to take?"

"If you've got a better plan, by all means, speak up now John" Joe said in a mocking tone.

"Yeah, we're all ears" Nick added.

"…"

"Thought so" Joe said as he plopped down on an empty seat.

And with that the bus turned another corner and the group headed for Wal-Mart, unaware that on the roof of the bus, they had an unwelcome visitor.

"So…you really think they're the ones?" the figure muttered to himself in a low voice. The figure spoke again, in a ethereal tone _**"Yes…they're the ones who can do it. We have to follow them…help them stay safe…"**_

"Until when?" the figure asked the voice within him.

"_**Until it's time for the truth to be revealed…until then…we remain in the shadows"**_the voice said to the figure, who nodded and held on tighter to the roof of the bus. The bus sped through the streets, trying to outrun the undead no doubt chasing them down…

A lone man standing on an empty sidewalk watched the bus speed by him and noticed the figure riding atop the bus, chuckling a little at the sight. As he looked up at the full moon looming in the sky, the man's chuckle became a dark laugh that echoed in the sky air. The man's laughter subsided a few moments later as he looked back down the street, the bus now gone.

"Run all you want, children…in the end, he'll find you…he'll stop at nothing until this world is burned to ash…" the man said with a twisted smile before he vanished in a flash of green light.

End of Chapter:

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><p><em>This is yet another edit-in progress, hopefully this version is better than what I had before.<em>

_Make sure to review and show your support. This may start out slow, but like all stories on this site, they pick up later on._

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	2. Cleanup on Aisle Five

_Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead_

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><p><span>Chapter 2: Cleanup on Aisle Five<span>

_"I hate last-minute shopping, it's always unsuccessful"-_ Cat Deeley

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><p>Location: Bradburn County Wal-Mart:<p>

Time: 11:30

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><p>"About time…" Nicholas muttered, glancing out of the window and ducking back down as Liam rolled the bus into the parking lot.<p>

They had encountered hordes of Zombies in the roads, causing Liam to have to take detours around the main roads and even then, he would have to smash through Zombies to keep going. The bus had taken quite a bit of damage along the way, but it was their only means of transportation at the moment, so they dealt with it.

They also realized that the Zombies had pretty much decimated the small town. Along the way they had spotted a few stranglers running through the trees or driving away in their own vehicle, and they had even stopped the traded information with the third group they had passed, but the town was deserted now.

Apparently the Zombies had arrived not only at the football field, but they were all across the county as well. It seemed as though the local cemetery had been unearthed and everything there was attacking as well. Anything that fell to the undead hordes joined their ranks and made it even harder to survive. Because it was night out, hardly anyone was prepared to fight off the Zombified invaders, they got killed in their sleep or just couldn't protect themselves. Even the police force was quickly subdued, according to other survivors. The Zombies were spreading like wildfire, and not just across Bradburn County, but all across Florida now.

Judith had managed to get the radio to NPR, which was currently covering the situation.

"Zombie attack in Florida?...Officials are saying that reports are coming in about a Zombie invasion in Central Florida. The attacks happened just an hour ago, and have completely overwhelmed the Police force in the area. Sources say this attack originated in Bradburn County Florida…" the reporter then said something to someone frantically off the set before saying "Residents in Central Florida are advised to lock your doors, board up your windows, and arm yourselves accordingly. We'll bring updates as we learn more about the situation"

"The hell is that going to do? Just tell everyone to stay where they are and get slaughtered?" Liam asked in an annoyed tone.

"Look at the roadways man. If everyone tried to leave now, there'd be mass panic" Joe shot back.

Liam rounded on Joe and said "What makes you think there _isn't _already, Joe?"

"Guys, stop! Liam, stop it man. Joe, you too. Judith, control your boyfriend" Nicholas said in a tired way to his friends, who fell silent at the older teen's request, though they still seemed angry. Like with Nick, Liam never quite got along with Joe either. Judith leaned over towards Liam and muttered something in his ear, and even though he rolled his eyes, he seemed to calm down little.

Nicholas ran his hand through his spiky dirty blond hair before saying "OK…we need a plan. The Zombies will be here soon…really soon…the Zombies pretty much took out the county in just under an hour…whoever planned this is a genius..."

"What makes you think someone planned this?" John asked curiously.

"Who knows? Maybe I've been playing too much Black Ops" Nicholas said with a small grin.

"OK, so what should we do now? Just run in and get some supplies?" Andrew asked, jerking his finger towards the Wal-Mart.

"Well, the way I see it…we have three options." Joe said with a wide grin.

"No, we are not feeding John to the Zombies as a distraction, Joe." Nicholas said immediately.

"…Ok, I have two options." Joe said with a disappointed expression on his face.

"Really, even at a time like this you would try that kind of crap?" John said angrily.

There was a pause.

"Yep. Now shut up and listen. Option one: we get out of the bus and use John as cannon-." Joe began to say.

"No." Judith said in a bored tone.

"OK, then how about option two? We drive the bus through the Wal-Mart wall and get in." Joe suggested.

"Loud and destructive. I like it" Liam said with a smirk.

"Just like Chuck Norris." Nick said fondly.

Joe started to give Nick an annoyed glance while Judith and Andrew held Liam back from strangling Nick.

"No, they'll probably get in through the hole." Nicholas replied dryly, looking out at the Wal-Mart and eyeing the entrances.

"Bow Chicka Bow wow." Joe muttered, smirking a little.

"How about this? We just walk inside, and get weapons and food. And then come back. Simple. All those in favor?" Andrew said to everyone. Nicholas deadpanned at Andrew who said "Hey, there's no need to overthink this. Worse case scenario we have to look somewhere else for supplies. If the Zombies took out the town as quickly as they say they have then we should just go in and out and get what we need before they get us too. So, all in favor?"

Everyone raised their hand except Joe, who muttered "I still think we can work feeding John to the Zombies into the plan."

"No, we need every person we can get. Why do you think Nick's here?" Nicholas said, jerking a thumb at the teen in question.

"Hey!" Nick said indignantly.

Nicholas ignored him with a smirk and said "All right, let's roll out."

"What are we, the Autobots?" Nick replied.

"One more outburst like that and I'm going to dropkick your ass and feed you to the Zombies" Nicholas said to Nick in an annoyed tone, who stuck his tongue out in response.

"Oh yeah, you can feed Nick to the Zombies, but I can't feed John to the Zombies. What the hell man, we all know he's gonna be the first to die." Joe whined.

"Why do you assume I'm going to die first?" John asked curiously.

Joe gave him a look and John sighed in response.

"Never mind."

"Can we please focus on getting the weapons? You know, this is a Zombie apocalypse." Andrew pointed out.

"Andrew has a point. We can argue later" Judith said to the others, who nodded.

"OK, let's get out of our uniforms first; they're not really good for fighting or moving around in. Since there's no one in there from what I can tell, we can just get whatever we need without the hassle of paying." Andrew said to the others, who nodded in reply and quickly got out of their heavy marching band uniforms.

"Come on." Liam said opening the door and stepping out.

The group stepped out into the chilly night, eyeing the parking lot around them with nervous expressions, as though a Zombie would jump out at any time and attack them. They ran towards the blue and grey building, and noticed a splash of blood on the automatic doors.

"Think they're inside?" John asked in a low voice.

"Probably..." Nicholas said walking closer to the doors.

"Maybe we should send John ahead, just to be sure." Joe suggested quietly.

"No, it's all for one and one for all. Let's just go." Nicholas said.

"So if one of us get killed, we all get killed?" Joe asked with a chuckle.

"I don't know, let's test that theory Joe. You first" Nicholas said with a grin.

"Never mind, I don't want to know." Joe said a moment later.

"Good."

They stepped into the store, and Andrew said "Holy crap."

There were corpses everywhere, littering the grounds and some leaning on the shelves. Blood seemed to flow like water as the group stepped over a corpse of a young woman with her head ripped from her shoulders.

"Damn, looks like Chuck Norris was here." Nick joked, earning a slap in the back of the head by Judith.

"Looks like the Zombies hit this place already, but whatever made the Zombies hasn't yet." Andrew said, looking at around.

"Apparently" Nicholas commented as he stepped gingerly over the slick floor.

"Huh…half off on Halloween candy guys" Nick said cheerfully, pointing to a nearby sign.

"Shut it" Joe said to Nick, who flipped him off.

"Can we please finds find some guns now? Seriously, there's a Zombie attack, we can pick on Nick later" Judith said.

"From the looks of it, this place has been ransacked a bit, but there's still plenty of supplies left for us to take. That must mean some people managed to survive the first few waves" John said as he eyed the produce sections and the clothing sections.

"I agree, but we can get more than guns and weapons here. Andrew and John, you both find medical supplies. Get whatever you can, bandages, medicine, vitamins, whatever. Anything you think we'll need, pack it" Nicholas instructed, and the two teens nodded.

"Nick and Joe, you go look for other things we can get, like flashlights and batteries, blankets and pillows, stuff like that. If you see anything else that looks useful, just grab it" Joe and Nick nodded in reply.

"Judith and Liam, you guys go get food supplies. Preferably non-perishables and things that don't need to be refrigerated, don't forget water bottles too." Nicholas said to the couple.

"Can do" Liam said with a nod, Judith gave Nicholas a thumbs up.

"Meet me by the sporting goods area in 30 minutes, I'll be looking through the guns and hunting supplies there. Get some new clothes while you're at it, stuff that's good for running and fighting in...and probably something warm too. Get whatever you need, and then meet me ASAP…and be careful" Nicholas added in a softer tone.

Everyone nodded and went towards where they had been directed. Nicholas walked calmly towards the sporting goods section, and of course ran into one of the lone Zombies stuck in the Wal-Mart.

Its arm had been severed, but it still charged at Nicholas with a scream of fury. Nicholas quickly ran around the Zombie and grabbed a blender off of the shelf as the Zombie turned around to face him. He hurled it at the Zombie's skull, causing it to explode in a shower of blood, gore and glass. Nicholas walked back towards the Sporting Goods section, pausing long enough to steal several hundred dollars out of the register in the video games area. With an evil grin, he made his way to the gun area of the sporting goods department.

And then…

"Crap, I still have to go to the damn clothes department!" Nicholas said dropping all of the money angrily, and running as fast as he could in the other direction.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Pharmaceutical Department:

* * *

><p>"OK, we gotta be quick before the Zombies come. Get whatever you can." Andrew said grabbing several bottles of pills.<p>

"Umm…Andrew?' John said started to say.

"There's no time! We gotta be quick man. Grab something useful and put it in the bag" Andrew said, stuffing the pills into a garbage bag.

"That pill bottle in your right hand?"

"Yeah, what about them?" Andrew asked, glancing at it.

"They're cyanide tablets asshole" John said dryly.

Andrew looked at the bottle and swore angrily, throwing the bottle as hard as he could across the store.

"OW! What the hell was that!" came an angry voice in the electronics department.

"Nice throw!" John said cheerfully as he grabbed a few boxes of bandages and gauze pads and tossed them into the bag.

"I think I just hit Joe." Andrew said.

"Exactly."

"Ah. Now I see." Andrew said getting more bandages.

"Uggh…" said a Zombie standing nearby.

"Oh, what's up Zombie dude?" Andrew asked, grabbing several bottles of cough syrup.

" Ruhhhhhh…" The Zombie replied.

"All right, well I'd love to keep talking, but we've gotta finish this, and then run like hell. We about done John?" Andrew asked casually.

"I'd say we are." John replied in an offhanded tone.

"Well then, RUN LIKE HELL!" Andrew yelled loudly, grabbing his bag and running towards the clothes department as the Zombie ran after them.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Food Department:

* * *

><p>"TWINKIES!" Liam screamed pointing at the shelf and scooping the lot of them into his garbage bag.<p>

"Keep it down genius," Judith said. "We don't want the…oh crap."

Human brains were displayed along the shelves, and there were labeled according to size.

"Look, this one says 'Small, but Nutritious.' Liam said with a small smile.

"Who would have time to do this?" Judith said, throwing her arms up into the air in exasperation.

Suddenly, a moaning sound came from around the corner and the two teens turned around to see seven Zombie round the corner, drenched in blood with blue glowing eyes.

"We'll talk about it later, RUN!" Liam said as he grabbed Judith's hand and ran down the aisle.

"Wait, look." Judith said urgently.

The Zombies instantly went to the brains and immediately began eating them. Judith and Liam ran towards the canned food section. with Liam holding the bag of supplies. Judith picked up a nearby fire extinguisher and slammed it into a nearby Zombie's skull, caving it in and sending it crashing onto the ground. She took aim with the extinguisher and sprayed down then undead horde with it while Liam ripped a metal bar free from the shelf and pounded on the distracted Zombies until they were all dead.

"Where now!?" Judith asked as the sound of groaning in the distance intensified. Liam snatched a few cans off of the shelf and tossed them in the bag and after a few moments said "That'll have to do for now"

"I hope so. We got really lucky..." Judith said in a soft tone as Liam tied the bag of supplies up and hefted it over his shoulder. The sound of screaming grew even louder as two Zombies burst into the aisle, only for Liam to bash both of their skulls in with the metal bar.

"Looks like they found us...damn..." Liam muttered, running his hands through his hair while handing the bar to Judith, who accepted the weapon silently. After a moment he looked at Judith and grabbed her hand.

"We need some new clothes, and then we've got to meet Nicholas in the sporting goods area. Come on!" Liam said to Judith, who dropped the extinguisher she had in her other hand and ran with her boyfriend.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile<p>

Electronics Department:

* * *

><p>"Batteries, Blankets, pillows, rope, and a whole bunch of supplies essential to a Zombie apocalypse, check, check, check, and…check!" Joe said happily.<p>

"Dude, they've got TV's here for only $700. That's cheap." Nick said sarcastically.

"Hey, get away from there! You'll break something." Joe said sternly.

"Why does it matter? We're the only ones in here and it's a Zombie apocalypse, we can do whatever the hell we want." Nick said with a smug look, grabbing a nearby T.V and throwing it on the floor, shattering it in a flash of light.

"Dude…that's awesome." Joe said kicking in a plasma screen T.V.

"Roaaaahh!" came a voice from behind them.

The two turned around and 20 Zombies we're behind them, slowly approaching. Both teens screamed at the top of their lungs and scrambled out of the Electronics Section as fast as they could. Nick slipped on a trail of blood however, and bashed his knee on a shelf. He fell to the ground with a yell of pain, clutching his knee and Joe looked back and ran to his aid. Joe began dragging Nick with him while Nick held on to the supplies. The Zombies were getting closer, and Joe was struggling under all of the weight.

"We're goners!" Joe yelled kicking a spindly chair at the horde.

"Any regrets?" Nick asked.

"Dying a virgin, but I'm only 16, so whatever." Joe said shrugging under Nick's weight.

"I regret not eating more pudding…and saying more Chuck Norris facts." Nick said cheerfully.

The Zombies we're about 5 feet away when suddenly there was a loud roar of sound. A forklift came crashing down on a nearby aisle, and they turned to face the Zombies, blocking Joe and Nick from their view.

"Run! Me and Judith got this! Get to the clothes section and find Nicholas!" Liam yelled from the driver's seat as he crushed the undead with his vehicle. Judith was swinging a metal bar at any Zombies trying to climb up the forklift with a yell.

"Thanks for the save buddy!" Nick called.

"Still hate you!" Liam called as the two began to run away.

"That's reassuring" Nick smiled as the two hurried to the clothing department.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"OK, so that's enough ammo to last us awhile, though I should probably grab a few more clips, just in case." Nicholas said.<p>

Taking inventory of the guns stored at Wal-Mart was a surprisingly difficult task. He made sure all of the guns were loaded and had organized the ammo. He grabbed a few knives, belting one to his waist with a grin. He looked at his reflection and said "You know what; Zombie apocalypse looks good on me.

Nicholas was wearing black and blue cargo pants, which were great for running and fighting in. He also had a dark blue sweatshirt on and had a thick black leather trench coat. He also had wicked looking black hiking boots on. Nicholas heard footsteps and grabbed a pistol off of the counter. He fired a shot, yelling "Come out! I know you're there!"

"Calm down man, it's just us." Andrew said walking out with a bag full of medical supplies. John was behind him looking nervous.

Andrew was wearing a black T-shirt with SpongeBob on the front holding an AK-47, with green and grey cargo pants and black Nike shoes. John was wearing the same except with a blue and white long-sleeved shirt and a white and grey American Eagle jacket.

"Sorry" Nicholas apologized before saying "I've been getting the guns ready. From the looks of it there's still a good amount of supplies that hasn't been touched yet, though some of the better pistols, rifles, and shotguns are gone. Then again, this is Wal-Mart, not a shooting range. Take a pistol and a knife for now." Nick said tossing a pistol to both John and Andrew.

"Thanks man, but why don't we use the other guns? You said there was some in the back" Andrew asked grabbing a knife.

"What do you mean?" Nicholas asked.

"You know, like the other guns in the back. You said some of the better rifles and shotguns were gone, not all of them. So why not use those?" John asked Nicholas curiously.

"It's only round 1, why the hell would we have shotguns?" Nicholas said in an amused tone.

"What do you mean "Round 1"? You think this is a game?" John asked, now annoyed.

"No, but in Zombies, there ARE rounds, and in the first three, maybe four or five if you conserve ammo, you use a pistol. Like so." Nicholas explained as he fired a shot at a nearby shelf to demonstrate.

"This is so stupid, I-wait…please…don't…don't tell me." John said in a low voice.

"Tell you what?" Andrew asked.

"He's basing his logic off of the Zombie Mode for Call of Duty: Black Ops! That has to the stupidest thing I have ever fu-"John ranted before being cut off by Judith and Liam bursting through a nearby aisle, clearly out of breath. Judith was wearing black cargo pants with a black and green T-shirt with a black hoodie and black Vans sneakers on. Liam had a white and black shirt that says "You ever wonder why we're here?" and had black and white cargo pants and black Vans sneaker like Judith.

_"It's official, cargo pants are best thing ever for Zombie fighting."_ Nicholas thought with a satisfied expression.

"Zombies…there were tons of them…tried to kill them with a forklift…" Liam panted as he glanced behind them nervously.

"How far away are they? And where's Joe and Nick?" Nicholas asked, concerned for his other friends.

"They'll be here in five minutes. As for Nick and Joe, they'll be here in maybe 2." Judith replied quickly.

"OK, get a pistol, these are called the M1911. You should get a knife too. We'll need to be ready." Nicholas said.

"Why pistols? Aren't there shotguns and stuff here?" Liam asked curiously.

"Yes, but we haven't killed enough Zombies to use them. We need more points." Nicholas explained.

"What is this, Black Ops?" Liam asked with a smirk, clearly amused.

"No, but its way more fun this way." Nicholas replied, and Liam simply shrugged in response.

"Fine, so we all get pistols and knives. How many should we kill before getting one of the other weapons?" Andrew asked.

"Five or six, and here's some extra rounds, just in case." Nicholas said handing them each a knife and a few cartridges of ammo.

"At least you're not taking half of our ammo." John said sarcastically.

"Don't give me any ideas, or it may just happen." Nicholas warned with a grin.

Everyone loaded their guns and attached them to their belts, which had holsters for their pistols on them and waited. Nicholas was rummaging through the supplies of weapons in the back and let out a yell of joy.

"OH HELL YES! Wait until those gutter slugs get a taste of this! Oh when I get enough kills, they're dead…er!" Nicholas cheered while holding an object they couldn't see.

Joe and Nick burst out of an aisle panting heavily and clearly having just escape a group of Zombies with their lives and limbs intact. Nick was wearing a red and grey hoodie and a black T-shirt with a pair of jeans. Joe was wearing a pair of jeans, a green baseball cap, a black and white shirt with a picture of a tent with a sniper rifle sticking out that said "It's a legitimate strategy", and a green and black jacket with a hood.

"Zombies…tons of them…took my pudding…hungry!" Nick gasped as he stumbled towards the group, tossing a small cup of pudding on the floor.

"Shut up, I can tell this is going to get annoying fast so just shut up." Judith said in an annoyed tone.

"Fine…you don't…get any…pudding!" Nick gasped as he caught his breath.

"I don't care, just shut up." Judith said angrily.

Liam pulled Judith into a hug, causing her to blush in surprise and stop her tirade.

"How far away are they?" Nicholas asked rejoining them.

"We killed the quicker ones, while the others are just stumbling here. Give it two minutes" Nick said to Nicholas.

"Do you guys even know how to use any of these weapons?" Joe asked the others, who were holding their pistols tightly. Andrew, Nicholas, and Liam nodded, while the others shrugged.

Joe pointed to those who knew how to shoot and said "Can you keep the Zombies off of us while I show them how to shoot and stuff?"

"No prob" Nicholas said with a grin as he, Andrew, and Liam drew their weapons and ran to the front of the area, aiming their pistols and keeping watch. Joe began to show the others how to fire and reload their pistols, and had them do it themselves a few times so they could get the hang of it. Joe noticed that his friends actually had the whole shooting and reloading thing down fairly quickly, though it was obvious that only practice would help their aim. It would have to do for now.

Nicholas fired a few shots at a nearby Zombie, blasting in twice in the chest before shooting it in the head and blowing its brains out, spilling blood onto the floor.

"How do you guys know how to use guns?" Judith asked as the Zombie crumpled to the floor.

"Me and Nicholas's dads are cops, while Liam and Andrew…no idea on that one" Joe said with a grin as they all walked to the front of the store.

"Get ready!" Nicholas said as he took aim, a scowl on his face, as the sound of approaching Zombies came closer.

Everyone else aimed as well as the sound of the undead approaching grew louder. The first Zombie came around the corner, and they opened fire at the horde that was coming. Zombies poured into the Sports Section, threatening to overwhelm the group of students. A barrage of bullets flew from their guns and kept the horde of the undead at bay, bullets tearing through decaying flesh and spraying the air with carrion and blood...

And just like that the small horde of fifteen Zombies was gone. This wave being dead, the group ran forward, trying to get back to the front of the store so they could leave with their supplies. They had taken but a few steps before the sounds of Zombies breaking through the windows in the back became audible.

"Guys go ahead; I'll take care of them and join you outside." Nicholas said as he reloaded his pistol.

"No, we're not going to leave you man!" Joe said angrily as he set down his supply bag.

"Go, I've got this" Nicholas said firmly, grabbing a second pistol.

"Nicholas, are you sure you-" Judith said.

"Yes. Go, now. We can't let them attack us from both sides." Nicholas said calmly as the Zombies broke through the window.

The group ran ahead, looking back as Nicholas opened fire upon the Zombies charging at him, eyes glowing bright blue and blood smearing their lips.

"He's going to sacrifice himself for us..." John said sadly.

"Hey, he can handle himself" Nick said in a surprisingly confident tone.

"Yeah…yeah, you're right" Liam said with a reassuring nod. But they all were faced with the harsh reality that their friend may not be coming back with them.

Five Zombies burst out of an aisle, jerking them out of their reverie. Andrew reacted first and slashed a Zombie's neck with his knife, killing it instantly as he flipped the knife in his grip and stabbed the Zombie in the back of the skull. Joe and Judith took care of the rest by emptying what was left of their clip into the four Zombies charging at them, rendering them immobile within seconds. The rest of the group ran past them and looked with dismay as Zombies poured in through the front doors. At least a hundred Zombies were in the store, most had not noticed them yet, but some had and were coming right at them.

"How did they all know we were here?" Andrew growled as he took a few steps back, trying to figure out where he should dedicate his firing to.

"What now?!" John yelled frantically, firing at an incoming Zombie that fell dead after John fired an entire clip into him.

"Not sure! Staying alive would be a good start!" Liam yelled angrily, pistol-whipping a Zombie's face in and sending it to the ground, where he caved in its skull with a fierce stomp.

Joe knifed a Zombie, cutting its throat and slamming it's head into a nearby shelf, causing it to fall to the ground with a groan as Liam blew another Zombie's brains out. Nick had grabbed a signpost and was swinging it like a bat, trying to keep the Zombies at bay while Judith simply shot at the advancing horde. Suddenly there was an explosion that rang out from the back of the store, creating a massive wave of fire in the back of the store.

"What the hell was that!?" Andrew yelled, knifing a Zombie in the chest and killing it after he unloaded three shots into it's chest.

"I don't know, but it was where Nicholas was. Hope he's OK." Nick said worriedly.

The group continued to fire at the Zombies, despite the fact that dozens continued to pour in through the front doors every minute. The group found themselves being pushed further and further back into the store. Judith ran out of ammo and stayed at the back, knifing when she could. Then Joe ran out of ammo, and then Andrew. Liam, Nick and John struggled to keep the Zombies away, but there were just too many.

"What do we do now!" Judith yelled as Nick ran out of ammunition.

"RUN!" Liam said as John's gun began clicking, signaling a lack of ammo. Liam fired two more shots, killing the lead Zombie when his gun began to click uselessly as well.

The group ran towards the back of the store, the Zombies hot on their tails. As they hit the back part of the sporting goods section, where they grabbed more cartridges of ammo and quickly reloaded.

"It's not going to be enough!" John yelled, opening fire as three Zombies burst into the area and charged at him.

BOOM!

A massive gunshot rang out next to John, blowing apart the three Zombies at once. Everyone turned around to see Nicholas holding a shotgun in his hands. He had a wide grin on his face and ran up to the front, blasting several small groups of undead running towards him with a few more shots, killing two of them per shot.

"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." Nicholas laughed, killing a Zombie with another blast of his shotgun.

"Nicholas! We thought you were dead!" Andrew yelled grabbing some of the extra weapons and putting them in the bags.

"Nope, I 'had enough points' to get a shotgun, which I did. Nothing says 'Death to the Undead' like a shotgun!" Nicholas said cheerfully.

"Awesome!" Nick said excitedly.

"Yep, now go out through the back, through that hole I made in the wall. Most of the Zombies are in the front of the store and coming this way, so we should be able to go around back and head up front without much trouble. I'll cover you, go!" Nicholas said quickly.

The group headed out the back while Nicholas blasted apart a few more Zombies, taking a few steps back to reload his shotgun when the area was clear, at least for a moment or two. Nicholas grabbed a few more pistols and put one in each of his shoes, pockets, and strapped another to his thigh, stashing a last few ammo clips in his pockets as well. Nicholas ran out of the back part of the store and caught up with the rest of the group, who slowed down for him.

"So what happened?" Nicholas said tossing Andrew, Liam and John an extra pistol and a clip each.

"We got overrun; there's just too many Zombies and not enough firepower to kill them all." John said in a tired tone.

"We need better guns" Nick protested.

John shook his head and said "Maybe we'd have better guns if someone, not going to mention any names, _Nicholas_, hadn't insisted on fighting a horde of Zombies with just pistols."

"Are you having fun yet?' Nicholas asked with a grin.

"Sorta, now that we're not going to die." John admitted.

"Good, then my plan worked. Now stop complaining and start running, they broke just through the back and the front doors." Nicholas said, sprinting even harder now.

Everyone began to run faster towards the parking lot, where the bus was waiting for them. Joe saw a few Zombies by the back of the bus, so he fired his pistol. Just as Joe fired, there was a loud crashing sound as a few Zombies busted their way out of the store,.

No one heard or saw the bullet Joe fired, but everyone heard the explosion as the bullet Joe shot hit the gas tank of the bus and blew it into a million pieces.

"Well…this sucks." Andrew said as the flaming parts come crashing down. Judith swore under her breath while Nicholas simply sighed in annoyance. Joe sweatdropped and took a step back, trying to look innocent.

"Great, just our freaking luck." John commented dryly.

"Come on guys, let's just steal another car!" Nick said nervously as the Zombies began to stumble towards them.

"There's no time to hotwire another one that can carry all of us, and the Zombies are going to be here any minute! We need another plan." Judith said.

Nicholas was thinking fast now, knowing that if they couldn't come up with something quick they would be dead within minutes. Finally he noticed a bunch of propane tanks over in the direction the Zombies would be coming. And it gave him an idea.

"Hey, I have an idea." Nicholas said.

"Does it involve Chuck Norris?" Nick asked.

"No." Nicholas replied.

"Does it involve sacrificing John to the Zombies?" Joe asked.

"No" Nicholas replied.

"Damn! There's always a catch." Joe complained, crossing his arms.

"Andrew, get your pistol and fire at those propane tanks on my mark." Nicholas said to the other teen, who nodded.

"Why Andrew?" Joe asked.

"This is the guy who shot a rubber band across the band room and got it into Gabriel's mouth as he was talking. Do NOT question this guy's aim" Nicholas said in a pleased tone, dwelling on the memory for a few moments before snapping out of it.

"You've got it." Andrew said crouching down and aiming at the propane tanks, smirking slightly. The sound of the Zombies groaning intensified and the first few Zombies came into view around the parking lot. Andrew waited until Nicholas yelled "FIRE!"

Andrew pulled down on the trigger and a single bullet flew out of the M1911. It soared over 70 feet and hit a propane tank protruding from the pile. The entire side of the Wal-Mart exploded in a colossal fiery orange blast. The group of Zombie-slayers could feel the immense heat from where they stood, and watched in amazement as Zombies fell to the ground and were reduced to ashes. However, the moment did not last long, as more Zombies began to come out of the front of the store.

"Guys, reload if you have to. This won't end well..." Nicholas said as he glanced at his friends.

"This is not, I stress, _not_ good." John said worriedly.

As the group of Zombies made their way towards the teenagers, a incredibly loud engine roared in the distance...It roared again as it drew closer...All of the Zombies paused for a moment, distracted just like the group was.

"What the hell is that?" Joe asked, looking towards the source of the noise.

"I think we're about to find out." Judith said nervously.

Suddenly a huge monster truck, midnight blue with black streaks on the side, came crashing through the parking lot. It sped towards the Zombies, which only had time for one last groan before being run over by the gigantic vehicle and being turned into a pile of gore. The group stared at the vehicle in amazement, wondering who had saved them and why.

"I bet the guy in there must be some huge, strong awesome guy!" Nick yelled excitedly.

The door swung open the owner dropped down onto the concrete lightly. "What the hell!" Joe said in surprise, for their savior was a short brown-haired girl. She was wearing a black and pink Ninja outfit, a thick fur jacket, and a pink woven hat on her head. She observed them all, holding weapons and giggling at their shocked faces. She then decided to break the silence.

"Hi guys! I didn't think I'd find you all here! How's it going?" the girl said excitedly as she pulled out an AK-47 of her monster truck and shot at a nearby Zombie trying to sneak up on them, killing it with a short burst of gunfire.

As the newly formed group Zombie slayers continued to stare in surprise of the new arrival, a lone figure watched them from the other side of the parking lot in the shadows, smirking under a thick hood covering their face.

"I told you" the figure said to himself.

**_"Yes...they got lucky though"_** the voice replied.

"Hey, I'd rather be lucky than good any day" the figure replied with a laugh.

**_"I don't need luck...I need people who can help me"_ **the figure growled.

"Fine, fine...we'll keep watching them. It's up to you in the end you know...we can't do this alone" the figure said with a small sigh.

_**"I know..I just hope that we're not too late"**_ the voice said in a small whisper before fading away, leaving the figure standing in the parking lot with their thoughts as they gazed at the group of students from afar.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I sure as hell enjoyed writing it.<em>

_Please leave a review in the section below, it means a ton to me and helps keep this story going._

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	3. The Artifact

_Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead_

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: The Artifact<p>

_"Humor is one of the best ingredients of survival"_-Aung San Suu Kyi

* * *

><p>Wal-Mart Parking Lot:<p>

* * *

><p>"Jess!" Judith said in an amazed tone as she ran forward and hugged her friend.<p>

"It's so good to see you guys! How've you been holding up?" Jess asked the others.

"You know, killing Zombies, blowing up Wal-Mart, the usual." Nicholas said with a grin, Andrew and John laughed.

"So, who blew up the Wal-Mart?" Jess asked.

"Andrew did that. He shot a bunch of propane tanks with a pistol and blew the place sky-high. It took out more than half of the Zombies, but the rest cornered us at the bus. Which somehow burst into flames…that was weird…" Nicholas trailed off, still puzzled by that.

"Yeah…weird." Joe said as he started to walk away a little.

"Anyway, you saved all of our hides…even Nick's." Nicholas said, sounding a bit disappointed as he realized his annoying friend was saved as a result of Jess's actions.

"Yeah! I lived too!" Nick cheered.

Everyone swore at once, except Nick, and Jess said "So do you guys need a ride? My monster truck can carry all of you guys, plus any supplies you've got. I only managed to grab this because I found some dead people who had managed to get some weapons"

"So you looted their corpses?" Liam asked, causing Jess to flinch.

"I…I didn't mean to steal…" Jess muttered. Judith punched Liam in the arm and glared at him, and after a moment he said "Hey, it's not stealing. I'm sure they would've wanted their supplies to at least help someone else survive. If you hadn't found their supplies, you'd be dead. No use feeling bad about it"

"Right…" Jess nodded, looking moderately less depressed.

"Can I drive?" Liam asked, jerking a thumb at the truck.

"NO!" Everyone screamed at once.

"Why not?" Jess replied with a shrug.

"Awesome!" Liam said hoping up to the truck.

"Shotgun!" Jess proclaimed.

"Damn!" Nicholas growled under his breath.

"Come on, let's go to Sam's Club. We can get more weapons, as well as anything else we need there. Mainly supplies though" Nicholas said to the others.

"Are you the leader Nicholas?" Jess asked.

Nicholas looked at everyone, who nodded in a reassuring sort of way, and he shrugged and said "I guess so Jess."

"Cool. All right, let's go." Jess said as everyone loaded the supplies onto the truck.

"So why Sam's Club? What makes you think we'll find anything there?" Nick asked Nicholas as he handed them the ammo bag.

"Sam's Club has even more stuff than Wal-Mart, and even if the place was somehow half ransacked we'd have enough stuff there to last us a while. We got weapons, we just need more supplies. And we can get that and more in bulk there" Nicholas explained to Nick.

Everyone hopped in the Monster Truck, squeezing in. Liam had a grin on his face similar to Nick when he found a new Chuck Norris fact as Jess got up in the shotgun seat.

"You're psyched to drive a monster truck, aren't you?" Nicholas laughed .

"Oh hell yeah. This is going to be epic." Liam said as he slammed on the accelerator.

"So what happened to you guys?" Jess asked.

"We were able to hotwire a bus after escaping the Zombies at the game, but we ran into a lot of Zombies. It took an hour to get to Wal-Mart because we had to keep taking detours and stuff. We got a bunch of supplies from Wal-Mart, but we were attacked there too. After that we met up with you." Nicholas explained to Jess, who nodded.

"So, how did you escape Jess?" Joe asked.

"It was…well, it wasn't pretty. A lot of people died back at the school, and most of the band members got turned into Zombies…" Jess began. The group winced and remained silent for a few moments, holding a moment of silence for their fallen friends and student. Jess broke the silence by saying "Several small groups escaped into the forest by the school and were able to get into cars at the game…so basically, we got lucky. I got away with a few other students, but we got separated at a donut shop. Luckily we had weapons at that point, so I fought off the Zombies until I found this awesome truck. The keys were already inside, so I just turned it on and went to crushing Zombies." Jess explained.

"Awesome!" Everyone said.

"Yep. I got separated from the group I was with though. I hope they're OK" Jess said in a softer tone.

"They'll be fine" Nicholas said reassuringly.

"So did you bring us any doughnuts?" Nick asked.

"Yes, but the Zombies had dibs on the crème filled." Jess said.

"How can a Zombie have dibs?" John asked.

"Not sure, but a really, really fat Zombie grabbed the box and ate all of the doughnuts…except for the glaze." Jess explained, pulling out a box. Everyone grabbed a donut, except for Judith who claimed she didn't want one, so Liam ate hers.

"So…Sam's Club? Why are we going there?" Jess asked. Nicholas sighed, but decided to explain again.

"At Sam's we can get a lot of different supplies there that we couldn't find at Wal-Mart, plus they have stuff in bulk. There's literally too much stuff there not to go there" Nicholas explained.

"But we need a credit card to get in." Judith said.

"Zombie Apocalypse." Joe stated.

"Oh, right."

"I want a slingshot as my weapon!" Nick said excitedly.

"An exploding slingshot?" John asked, thinking of the crossbow in Black Ops.

"No. Why would I want an exploding slingshot?" Nick asked as though that was a stupid question.

"Because-you know what, I don't care anymore." John said lying back in the seat with a groan.

"I've got enough points for a shotgun, so that's what I'm rolling with" Nicholas said taking his shotgun out with a grin.

"Points?" Jess asked.

"Don't ask." John said in an annoyed tone.

"What model is that?" Judith asked.

"It's a Stakeout, or an Ithaca M37." Nicholas said.

"Nice one man, can I hold it?" Joe asked.

"Hell no!" Nicholas replied, holding the shotgun close to him.

"Heh, worth a try." Joe shrugged.

The crew continued their way to Sam's Club, hoping to get better weapons and hopefully some more supplies to help them survive whatever was going to happen next. They'd need everything they could to survive…

* * *

><p>1 Hour Later:<p>

Location: Sam's Club

* * *

><p>An explosion rang out into the night, and flames billowed through the air. Meanwhile, a group of teens stood in a parking lot admiring the charred remains of a Sudan left abandoned at the entrance of the store.<p>

"This is the 2nd car you've blown up Joe..." Andrew said in an exasperated tone, shaking his head.

"I didn't think I'd actually hit the gas tank." Joe laughed nervously, putting away his pistol.

"Come on, lets' get inside before the Zombies come, even though this car is basically a giant flare." John said.

"Oh come on man, cut me some slack." Joe said.

"No, I won't." John replied angrily.

"Shut up, the both of you." Nicholas said in an irritated tone, causing the two to look at him. Nicholas was scowling at them and said "I wish for once, you both would stop bickering. Seriously, it gets old"

Joe and John exchanged a look, wondering why their friend was suddenly so angry at them. Normally he found their squabbles humorous to some degree, so why was he so irritated now? They both chalked it up to the stress of the situation and looked over at the truck as Judith jumped down, holding a newly acquired rifle.

"Nice! Was that one of the guns we got from Wal-Mart?" Joe asked, walking over to her. Judith nodded and said "I figured we may as well use some of the weapons we got there. I've always wanted to use a rifle like this one"

"Looks like a Ruger 1103" Joe said as Judith tested it out. She awkwardly managed to fire the gun, shooting a nearby car and said "OK…let me test it out a bit. I'll get it eventually"

"You mean like this?" Joe said as he walked over to the bag, pulled out another rifle, loaded it with ammo and fired a shot at the same car, shooting the mirror off of it.

"Nice…" Joe muttered as Judith looked at him in surprise.

"That was awesome" Judith said with a laugh.

"Not bad" Liam said with a nod, letting Joe have this small victory.

"Looks like a Savage 64F. Not bad…though we don't have a lot of ammo for it" Joe said with a frown as he clipped more ammo from the gun to his belt.

Let's go." Nicholas said as the group made its way towards the store.

There was a Zombie, probably an employee at the store, at the front door devouring a man with his head chewed off. It raised its head with a growl and charged at the, being halted mid-sprinted by several shots fired by Jess and Nick. The Zombie was amazingly still standing after 9 shots, but was riddled with holes and was missing an arm. Nicholas walked up with his Stakeout and blasted it in the face. The Zombie fell to the ground and Nicholas said "I never did like those story greeters…meh"

They walked into the store, and all of them nearly slipped and fell. The floor was slick with blood, and gore covered the entryway of the store John ran outside and threw up while Jess whispered "Oh my god…"

"Maybe we should be quick about this…Everyone split up, look for whatever can be used as a weapon, and any sort of supplies you think we'll need. Let's meet in the electronics section in 15, let's go!" Nicholas said to the group of teens, who nodded and split up.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

5 Minutes Later:

* * *

><p>"Jeez, they have stuff stacked to the ceiling…" Judith said, eyeing the crates upon crates of water bottle stacked on top of each other.<p>

"I told you they have everything here." Nicholas said laying down on a waterbed. Liam was testing out a butcher's knife, testing to see if it was sharp enough for him.

"They've got enough stuff here that we could just bunker down here and be set. There's plenty of food, weapons, and all sorts of other stuff here." Liam said as he flipped the knife in his grasp and slashed forward with it, killing an invisible enemy with a yell.

"We could, but it's best to stay on the move. Zombies can sense where people are, more or less, so we'd be overwhelmed by the end of the week. We should keep moving until we can learn more about what caused this…" Nicholas pointed out as he closed his eyes.

"Good point." Liam said.

" So…Judith, you're going with a sniper rifle?" Nicholas asked as Judith took aim with her Ruger and fired at a nearby shelf, missing her target by a few inches.

"Yeah, I've always wanted to use a sniper rifle." Judith said as she lowered her rifle and strapped it back on her back.

"Ballin. So how much longer should we wait for everyone?" Nicholas asked as he sat up, rolling his shoulders.

"Another 10 minutes" , but there's so much stuff here that it'll take a while for them to look for stuff. Who knows when we'll be able to stop again?" Liam said.

There was groan from the end of the aisle and the three of teens looked to see five Zombies walking towards them. Judith aimed her Ruger 1103 and fired at the lead Zombie, a former Sam's employee turned undead. She missed by a about a foot and the bullet hit a display shelf full of pickles, causing the jars to fall to the ground and shatter.

"Crap!" Judith yelled as the three of them ran towards the other end of the aisle.

Three Zombies suddenly came from nowhere, blocking their escape. Nicholas fired his Stakeout, killing one Zombie while Liam decapitated another Zombie with his knife. The 3rd Zombie swiped at Nicholas, who ducked and rolled to the side.

"Judith!" Nicholas yelled.

"On it!" Judith said taking aim again.

She fired her sniper rifle, and it was a perfect headshot. The Zombie's head exploded in a shower of gore and flesh as it's body crumpled onto the ground. Nicholas ran past the Zombie's corpse and yelled "Come on!"

Liam pulled out his pistol and fired several times at the five Zombies, hitting them in the chest and killing one with a headshot. Liam turned around and ran out of the aisle with Nicholas and Judith, the Zombies hot on their tail.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Andrew grinned as he twirled two newly acquired machetes, which he found on the corpses of a group of survivors found dead at the back of the store. Apparently a shipment of them had come on as a part of some special going on at the store that week.<p>

"I still can't believe they have all this stuff here! I mean they have machetes…in bulk!" Andrew said happily as he hacked and stabbed at an invisible enemy.

"Who would need a crate full of machetes?" Joe asked curiously.

"Me! And they even come with sheaths! Awesome!" Andrew said taking two sheaths and strapped them on his back. He then put the machetes in their holders and said "See; now I can get them easily and still have a free arm to shoot. We should each have a melee weapon, you know, a weapon for not shooting or anything."

"Sounds like a plan. Hand me a machete." Joe said with a grin, walking over to Andrew

"By the way, where did Nick go?" Andrew asked while Joe grabbed a machete and a sheath.

"No clue, probably looking for a slingshot." Joe laughed.

"Yeah, or a Chuck Norris fact book!" Andrew snickered.

"Or maybe he got the hell out of here because there's Zombies!" John yelled firing his pistol repeatedly.

"What?" Joe and Andrew said looking behind them.

There was indeed a group of Zombies behind them, being held at bay by John. Some were missing limbs and some were even missing their heads, and when John reloaded his pistol they surged forward.

"Huh. So there are a bunch of Zombies behind us." Joe said in a casual tone.

"Wait…" Andrew said slowly.

"ZOMBIES!" Joe and Andrew yelled loudly, pulling out their guns.

"YES YOU BRAINDEAD MORONS!" John yelled while pistol-whipping a Zombie's skull in.

"We've got 'em!" Andrew said running up and stabbing a Zombie through the skull, and then slashing downward through its chest. Joe aimed his Savage and fired, killing two Zombies at once with an accurate shot from his rifle.

"HELL TO THE YEAH YOU CORPSE RIDDEN MAGGOTS!" Joe yelled as he took aim again.

"Get as many machetes and sheathes as you can and meet Nicholas and the others in the Electronics area!" John said to the two other teens, who nodded and followed him away from the undead horde chasing them.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Nick continued to walk the aisles, observing the contents of the shelves in a rather bored way. He hadn't found anything of particular interest, and probably wouldn't at this rate.<p>

"…_come…"_

"Hmm. What was that?" Nick said in a low voice, glancing around. He could have sworn he had heard something…

"_Come…and allow your true potential to come forth…"_

"OK, I know I heard something" Nick said in a firm voice as he prowled the aisle, looking for the source of the voice. He eventually found a large box and opened it up, but he frowned at what he saw. Upon seeing it, and voice softly said _"Finally…after all this time"_

"What the heck?" Nick said in soft tone as a pressure filled his head. He stumbled backwards and fell onto the ground, twitching as a sharp pain seared in his head.

"_Yes…so much potential…so little time…"_

"What…what are you?" Nick hissed as he got into a sitting position. Nick yelled out as the pain redoubled and he fell to the ground senseless.

"_Listen and listen well, mortal. I am an artifact, one not of this world but rather one found among many worlds. I have awaited your arrival, invisible to others, for centuries"_

"W-what? Me?" Nick muttered as he tried to set up again but failed. He could faintly hear the sound of shooting and yelling in the distance.

"_I am now bound to you, and even though you don't understand now, you will in time…you will in time" _the voice said to Nick, who gasped in pain and said "What are you talking about!?"

The voice sighed and said _"There is a great evil spreading throughout this world, and if it is left unchecked, will undo everything this world stands for. It is not just coincidence you have found me, but fate. I will help you stop this evil, as much as I can"_

"This is sounding like something out of a bad fanfic" Nick groaned as he head spiked with pain again.

"_OK…Perhaps a different plan is in order. Perhaps if I take on the form of something you know…"_

"Something I know?" Nick asked as the pain began to fade.

"_All memories of me will fade as new ones fill your mind. I will help you and others find your true potential. Limitless power…unparalleled strength…an unstoppable spirit…untapped potential, that I will unlock over time. And not just you, but others"_

"Others?"

"_You're but one piece in a very large puzzle…all will become clear in time"_ the voice said before Nick felt another pressure in his head. Nick shivered for a moment and then-

Nothing.

"Wait…what happened? Why am I here?' Nick muttered, shaking his head. He had walked down the aisle looking for…something"

"_Yo, asshole. Over here"_ a gruff voice said to Nick, who blinked. He walked over to a faintly familiar looking crate and flipped it open. Nick let out a shriek of joy and said "Oh my god…so…awesome…"

It was a large figurine, about three feet long and made of a strange material that Nick couldn't name off the top of his head. The figurine was wearing a cowboy outfit, complete with a hat, and had a rugged beard.

"It's a Chuck Norris figurine! Awesome!" Nick yelled cheerfully as he admired the statue.

"_Like I said, you're only going to something you know"_ a gruff voice said in his mind. Nick shivered and said "W-what was that?"

The statue was glowing white now, and the gruff voice said "_Me, smartass. I'm talking to you"_

"Chuck Norris is talking to me. I am not worthy, oh awesome one" Nick said as he set the statue on the ground and knelt before it.

"_So, Chosen One…are you ready to embrace your destiny of being the one worthy of holding the scared weapon? Are toy ready to unleash your true potential"_ the gruff voice asked.

"The Sacred Weapon? It's a statue of Chuck Norris, how is that a weapon?" Nick asked as he picked the statue up. It was incredibly light, weighing no more than a butter knife.

"_This statue was made and blessed by me, Chuck Norris. Therefore it has powers beyond your imagination. It's the ultimate melee weapon, so use it well. I know of your fight against the Zombies, and I'm going to help you in my own way. By protecting you, and watching over the others. You all have a great destiny before you, and you'll be hard-pressed to survive, Nick." _the statue said to him seriously.

"Really?"

"_Yes. You need to head north and confront the creator of the Zombies, an insane and evil Doctor who's wickedness is tempered by misfortune and hatred" _the figurine replied.

"Wow, so we…wait…so I'm talking to Chuck Norris?" Nick asked in an awed tone.

"_Yes."_ The statue said after a moment, a bit annoyed that Nick had ignored the rest of his speech.

"AWESOME!" Nick yelled excitedly.

"_Indeed. By the way, Zombie's are coming from behind you."_ The statue said coolly.

Nick spun around and saw that there were four Zombies walking towards him, not quite running but not exactly taking their time either. Nick grabbed his pistol and fired it at the lead Zombie's head. The bullet tore through his skull, but he continued to walk. Nick fired until his gun began making a clicking sound when he pulled the trigger. He realized he was completely out of ammo.

"Crap, I forgot to grab more from the supply bag! Now what am I going to do!" Nick panicked as he took a few steps back as the Zombies advanced.

"_Oh, I don't know, maybe use the sacred weapon to kill these undead pieces of filth."_ the statue remarked sarcastically.

"So I just swing you at the Zombies? What happens next?" Nick asked.

"_Something cool. Now go! Attack!"_ the statue commanded Nick, who nodded and ran towards the horde coming at him.

Nick tightened his grip on the statue and swung it at the lead Zombie who was riddled with bullet holes and drenched in blood. The statue connected with the Zombies skull, and Zombie suddenly went limp and collapsed onto the ground with a groan, the blue lights in its eyes fading as the life faded from its undead shell. Nick looked at the statue in wonder, and then killed the rest of the Zombies in a similar manner.

Nick examined the Statue and saw a wicked spike protruding from the statue's shoulder, where the statue had made contact with the last Zombie he killed. The spike shrank back into the statue of Chuck Norris and Nick stared at the statue in amazement.

"_I told you something awesome would happen. So get back to your friends, the Zombies are breaking in, and they could use your help."_ The statue said.

"Sure. Hey, what should I call you? Chuck? Mr. Norris? The Almighty One?" Nick suggested.

"_Call me C.N. Now get going."_ The statue commanded.

"Yes sir!" Nick said.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Jess jumped on top of the lower shelf and grabbed her AK-47 off her back, firing it into the horde of Zombies behind her. Jess yelped as the Zombies began to climb the shelves and ran along the shelf, firing behind her occasionally. Jess saw Andrew, John, and Joe fighting a group of Zombies ahead and aimed her gun at a large sign above a group of Zombies coming towards them. She fired at the chains supporting it and after a few moments the whole sign fell to the ground, crushing the Zombies.<p>

The three guys looked up at their savior, who leaped down from the shelf and said "Run! Run like a pack of monkeys are attacking your heads!"

"What?" all three of them asked at once.

"RUN!" Jess yelled loudly, pointing at the forty or so Zombies walking through the aisle. All four of them began to sprint as fast as they could to the entrance of the store.

"HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF GOD! RUN!" John yelled as he pounded down the aisle.

"WOMEN AND CHILDREN LAST!" Joe yelled as he grabbed a cart and pushed it towards the Zombies, knocking down a few of them.

"LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Andrew yelled, sprinting as hard as he could.

"I LIKE DOUGHNUTS!" Jess yelled happily as she skipped ahead of them.

A Zombie rushed out from another one of the aisles, and Andrew drew a machete and slashed it from hip to shoulder, cutting it in half in one fluid movement. Jess jumped over the Zombie and pulled out her AK-47 and fired a barrage of bullets at a group of Zombies that had burst out of another aisle. Two of them fell immediately and John added shots from his twin pistols to the onslaught, downing the rest of them. Joe ran up and blew apart three Zombies with two shots of his Savage 64F. With the path clear, the group made their way to the electronics section, where they heard gunshots and shouts from the rest of their group.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"ENJOY HELL!" Nicholas yelled firing the Stakeout and killing two Zombies in one shot. He quickly retreated further into the aisle and reloaded as he quickly as he could, fumbling with the shotgun as the sound of undead screaming became louder.<p>

Nicholas jumped forward as a two Zombies lashed out at him from the end of the aisle he was retreating down and he turned around to face them. Nicholas grinned as he killed both of them with his Stakeout, and then ran back to where his friends were, Liam giving him cover with his pistol as he changed position. Liam had grabbed another pistol and was firing both of them into the horde attacking them.

Judith was at the back, reloading her sniper rifle with a snarl on her face. It was obvious the rifle was giving her a bit of trouble, but she was quickly learning and was getting better at shooting, her shots becoming more and more accurate as the fight went on.

Liam growled as he moved to reload his M1911 and a Zombie charged at him, but as it came within five feet of him it's shoulder exploded in a shower of crimson and the Zombie fell backwards, allowing Liam to lunge at it and stab it in the face, killing it. Liam gave Judith a thumbs up before reloading his pistol

"Where are they?!" Nicholas yelled as he slammed the butt of his Stakeout into a Zombie's skull, killing it. He ran towards the front of the area and got ready for the next wave. Judith let out a yell as a Zombie broke through one of their makeshift barricades and stumbled towards her, causing her to run away. She then turned around and took aim before shooting, headshotting the Zombie to her delight.

"Guys! Hold on, we're coming!" a familiar voice yelled.

"Who is that?" Judith asked as he crouched next to Nicholas and Liam, who eyed the stumbling horde coming at them with apprehension.

"Don't know, but we're not gonna last much longer!" Liam muttered as he reloaded, with Nicholas covering him by shooting the lead Zombie in the chest with his Stakeout.

"Hey! Help us!" Nicholas yelled loudly as the Zombies began to run towards them.

"You've got it! C.N, go for it!"

_**"FLAMETHROWER!"**_ the gruff voice yelled loudly, sounding distinctly ethereal.

All of the Zombies suddenly burst into flames and fell to the ground, burning to a crisp as red and white flames incinerated them into nothingness. Liam, Nicholas and Judith shielded their eyes with their hands as the blaze momentarily blinded them.

When they recovered a few moments later, they looked over the burning bodies of the Zombies and saw Nick standing there, grinning widly. He was holding a Chuck Norris statue in his hands, and all three of them were looking at him like he was crazy.

"Nick, where did you get that?" Liam asked Nick, who shrugged.

"I found it in the store. Chuck Norris is inside of this statue, and with him I can kill anything! He also said something about unleashing my true potential, but mainly the killing stuff bit" Nick said cheerfully.

"He's lost it. Permission to kill?" Liam asked Nicholas, taking aim at Nick.

"Permission denied." Nicholas said in a tired tone, though he had a relieved smile on his face as he walked towards Nick with a small sack of supplies hanging over his back.

"Heh, had to try." Liam remarked with a shrug.

"I bet." Nicholas laughed softly.

"What's that C.N.? Jess and the others are coming this way?" Nick asked the statue.

"He's lost it." Liam repeated, shaking his head.

"When did he have it?" Judith asked Liam, who's mouth twitched into a grin.

"Touche. Hey Nick, stop talking to the statue and come on." Nicholas said to the shorter teen.

"Sure." Nick said strapping the statue to his back as he would a shotgun. The other three looked at each other, and then shrugged, accepting the weird development as it was. A moment later Jess burst into the aisle, out of breath and looking cheerful. Joe and Andrew, panted their way into the aisle a few moments later, followed by John who was practically crawling.

"Guys! Are you OK?" Jess said leading the group and holding her AK-47 in front of her, quickly glancing around for any enemies.

"Yeah, Nick made the save. Apparently he can talk to Chuck Norris and he's got an awesome weapon. We need to get whatever we need and go!" Nicholas said to the others

"Alright, I think were good for… what the hell is that thing on Nick's back?" Joe said as he realized what Nicholas had said.

"Chuck Norris." Liam said with a disgusted look on his face.

"No seriously, what the hell is that?" Joe asked again, not believing him.

"Apparently Chuck Norris is inside that statue." Nicholas said to Joe, who frowned and shook his head in silent disbelief.

"Yeah, and Zeus is my homeboy grilling burgers at Steak n Shake." Judith said sarcastically.

Joe then walked over to Nick with an expressionless look before he slapped Nick upside the head, slapped the Chuck Norris statue out of his hand, and shot the thing with the his Savage rifle. The bullet bounced off the statue and hit ten approaching zombies through the head with the rebound.

"_Wow. Even with the rebound I can still own those flesh-monkeys."_ C.N. said mentally to both Nick and Joe.

"What…the hell…was that?" Joe said, clearly startled at the strange voice in his head.

"_You can hear me too, numb nuts."_ C.N. said with a cold laugh.

"Yeah, now you know I'm not crazy!" Nick said with a triumphant yell.

"What the hell is going on here?" Andrew asked, throwing his hands in the air.

"I have no idea." Joe said with an angry expression on his face.

"Yes you do, you can hear C.N. too." Nick protested.

"No I can't. You're crazy man!" Joe yelled.

"_Hmm…denying my presence. That's a new one. Usually people bow before my awesomeness. Well played mortal."_ C.N. said with an impressed tone.

"And you're _not_ one?" Joe yelled at the statue.

"_Nope."_ C.N. said.

"The hell? Joe, stop talking to that statue. We've got bigger problems than Nick's Chuck Norris's statue." Nicholas said.

"_And I thought I'd never hear those words."_ C.N. snickered.

"Enough. We need to get whatever we can and get out of here. Anyone got any plans for where we need to head next?" Nicholas asked.

"Well, we need to get out of here." Judith said, firing a shot with her rifle to get everyone's attenton.

"Why? We're fine for now" Nick said with a frown.

"Because that." Judith said pointing at a massive horde of Zombies coming towards them. Everyone just stood there for a moment and then Joe said "Everyone take a machete, and a sheath too. You'll need them."

As the weapons were given out, Nicholas said "We need to go in pairs and make our way to the front of the store, and get to the truck. Judith and Liam, Jess and Nick, Joe and John, and Me and Andrew. Let's go."

Each of the groups split up and ran towards the exit, killing Zombies as they went. Liam held a pistol in one hand and a machete in another, dismembering Zombie and after Zombie and shooting them point-blank to make sure that they died. Judith aimed her Ruger 1103and fired in Liam's direction, killing a Zombie that had been about to swipe at him. She continued to fire over and over, scoring multiple headshots, meaning multiple deaths. Judith kept the Zombies off of Liam as he killed the Zombies with his machete and pistol, literally coating the floor in undead blood.

"Watch out!" Judith said running up to a Zombie coming from Liam's blind spot and blasting it apart with a spectacular headshot from twenty feet away. Liam smiled proudly and said "Nice shot"

"Oh you know, it's a gift." Judith said with a blush.

"Killing Zombie with sniper rifles? That's your gift?" Liam asked with a laugh.

"Yep."

"Works for me. Now let's keep going." Liam said as he darted down the aisle, his girlfriend close behind.

"You don't need to tell me twice." Judith said with an amused smile as she followed Liam through the store.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"DIE YOU SLIMEY FLESH MONKEYS!" Joe yelled firing his Savage 64F, blasting anything that came into sight with the rifle.<p>

"Jeez Joe, calm down. It's just an Zombie attack where the very fate of the world could hang in the balance. No biggie." John said mockingly as he shot a Zombie in the face and knifed it in the throat, killing it.

John had refused the machete, saying anything that Joe had given him would probably be booby-trapped. The Machete had promptly burst into flames when John threw it on the ground.

_"Why do I even bother, if you expect it before I do it?"_ Joe had complained.

Joe stabbed a Zombie through the head and swung to the side, cutting off a chunk of its face before stabbing it in the throat. John noticed that there were a few bottles and a strange looking machine nearby on a nearby shelf, and went to investigate.

"Joe, come look at this." John said examining the machine.

Joe decapitated a Zombie and blasted through a few more Zombies with the Savage 64F before turning towards John.

"Yeah, what's up Zombie bait?" Joe said as he walked over to his friend.

"Look at this. They really do have everything in this store." John said holding up a bottle.

Joe smiled as he picked up two bottles and said "Oh, this is going to be epic."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Aim for the heads!" Nick said.<p>

"Really? No dip Sherlock!" Jess said with a laugh as she fired repeatedly into the horde, killing dozens of Zombies.

Nick used the statue of Chuck Norris as a battering ram, and every time a Zombie was hit by the statue, it fell to the ground dead…er. Jess and Nick mowed down several waves of Zombies before realizing that they were surrounded. The Zombies stood there, seemingly waiting for them to make the first move.

"Do you have any ideas?" Jess said as he stepped back, frowning at the number of undead around them.

"Yep. C.N., care to do the honors?" Nick asked the statue casually.

"_With pleasure, just place me headfirst on the ground. __**SHOCKWAVE CANNON!**__"_ C.N. yelled as a massive burst of emerald-colored energy shot out from C.N.'s head and hit the Zombies, who snarled for a moment before exploding in a shower of gore.

"Nice one, but you missed a Zombie." Jess said skipping over and stabbing a crawler who was making his way towards Nick.

"Oh come on, that was awesome. Aren't you going to say good job or something?" Nick said indignantly.

"You're right. Thanks C.N., you did a great job." Jess said patting the statue on the head.

"_Thank you" _ C.N. said smugly.

"What?! What about me?" Nick said in an annoyed tone.

"Sorry, but C.N. did all the work. Let's go!" Jess said running forward, Nick trailing behind her with a frown.

Jess saw a large group of Zombies heading in one direction, so she decided to hop on top of a T.V. stand and got onto a lower shelf, running swiftly along it like a ninja. Nick ran through the aisle, close behind her.

Nicholas and Andrew stood back to back, fending off Zombies that came at them from all sides. They had gotten surrounded when Nicholas saw something strange, a weird looking Zombie of some sort. When the two teens went to investigate they were surrounded.

Nicholas fired his Stakeout a final time and then reloaded while Andrew stabbed a Zombie with both machetes and pulled them out and stabbed another Zombie in the chest. Nicholas saw a Zombie coming from the side and yelled "Duck!"

Andrew ducked and slashed three Zombies legs out from underneath them, making three crawlers. Nicholas fired his Stakeout as Andrew moved out of the way, scoring a beautiful headshot on the Zombie woman that was less than a foot away from Andrew.

"Thanks bro, now watch this!" Andrew said stabbing an employee Zombie clear through the chest and tearing him in half while he decapitated another Zombie with his other machete.

"Nice one, watch out!" Nicholas said firing at a Zombie and killing both it, and the Zombie behind it.

"So where would you say we're at in terms of rounds on Black Ops?" Andrew asked.

"Maybe round three or four? Not sure, but since they're going down pretty easily with a blast from my Stakeout it's still pretty early on. Let's discuss this- crap- later!" Nicholas said as he was trying to talk, dodge, and shoot at the same time.

Suddenly there was a large explosion in the back part of the mall, and part of the shelves burst into flames. Nicholas and Andrew, along with all of the Zombies, looked up in surprise. Nicholas and Andrew ran towards the explosion, escaping the momentarily distracted Zombies.

"What do you think that was?" Andrew said to Nicholas as they ran down the walkway.

"No clue! Run faster though!" Nicholas said turning around and aiming carefully.

Nicholas shot at a box that held orange juice jugs. A huge gush of orange juice shot out of the box and spilled onto the floor behind the teen duo. The Zombie stepped on the liquid and fell over in a rather comedic fashion. They groaned and tried to get up, but they kept falling over themselves.

"Nice one man!" Andrew said stabbing a Zombie that came out of the aisles towards them.

"Thanks, now let's see what the hell made that explosion." Nicholas said as he followed Andrew towards the source of the explosion.

"No you idiot, you don't drink it!" came a voice from up ahead.

"Why? It's got alcohol in it." Another voice asked.

"THAT'S WHY IT BLOWS THINGS UP ASSHOLE! YOU CAN'T REALLY DRINK WHAT LITTLE ALCOHOL IS IN IT!" the first voice yelled angrily.

"Is that…?" Andrew began.

"John and Joe, yep." Nicholas said with a nod.

"And they're talking about alcohol?" Andrew asked.

"Apparently. Let's get there before they burn down Sam's Club" Nicholas said as the two teens put on an extra spurt of speed.

John and Joe were bickering next to a Molotov Cocktail Machine. Joe was holding a bottle and John was shaking his and yelling "No, no, no, no, no, no! You are not blowing the whole place up!"

"Actually sounds like a good idea to me." Nicholas said walking up the group with a smile.

"Figures it'd be you two bitching. Why did you throw that Molotov?" Andrew asked.

"John knocked it out of my hands and it went flying. Come on, grab one, it'll come in handy." Joe said while John sighed and called Joe an unprintable word…

OK, he called him an asshole. Happy now?

Nicholas and Andrew grabbed one of the alcoholic bombs each and grinned, and then looked over at the huge horde of Zombies slowly making their way towards the group of teens.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Andrew yelled hurling his Molotov.

"THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!" Nicholas yelled throwing his Molotov into the horde as well.

An enormous explosion rocked the entire store as the Zombies were consumed in an almighty inferno. The four teens were thrown backwards and crashed into a shelf, and then fell to the ground.

"Damn, that hurt." Nicholas said getting to his feet.

"See why I didn't like this plan?" John said in a painfully smug tone.

"Shut up, it worked didn't it?" Joe said with a groan, pointing to the crumpling Zombies that were on fire in front of them.

"OK, let's get out of here. We've got plenty of supplies for now, so grab what you got and get to the truck. GUYS! GET OUTSIDE TO THE TRUCK!" Nicholas shouted across the store to his friends.

"Got it!" Liam and Judith shouted together.

"Roger that!" Jess said loudly.

"All hail Chuck Norris!" Nick called.

"Guys get the stuff, let's go!" Nicholas said reloading his Stakeout.

Joe grabbed a supply pack and grabbed a box of food from the little restaurant in the store and put it in the bag and hoisted it onto his back. The group of four ran to the front of the store, killing Zombies all the while. Suddenly a Zombie's head exploded in front of them, though none of them had killed that particular Zombie. Judith and Liam suddenly appeared out of the nearby aisle with identical grins on their faces.

"Where's Jess and Nick?" Judith asked the group.

"RIGHT HERE!" Jess said cheerfully, jumping off a shelf with a back-flip and landing in a crouch in front of them before sprinting alongside them.

"The hell…since when could you do that?" Andrew said in a questioning tone

"Since like forever, kind of a big deal." Jess said with a grin.

"Where's Nick? Did he die, please tell me he died, he died didn't he!" Liam demanded quickly.

"Nope!" Nick said bursting out of an aisle, panting as he ran alongside his friends.

Liam swore angrily and fired his gun at a Zombie in frustration. Judith aimed her Ruger 1103 and fired an entire clip of her rifle, killing four Zombies at the front of the store from afar. John and Liam pulled out their pistols and fired repeatedly into the horde coming at them from all sides, damaging, but not killing, most of the Zombies of the Zombies.

"Everyone! Reload with fresh clips. We're going to make one last rush for the door!" Nicholas yelled as he reloaded his Stakeout.

Everyone reloaded and aimed at the Zombies ahead. The entrance to the store was about thirty yards ahead, and there were about a hundred Zombies in between the groups of teens, and freedom.

"Ready…" Nicholas said slowly as the Zombie stumbled closer.

"Aim…" Liam said with a grin.

"FIRE!" Everyone yelled as they opened fire.

John and Liam damaged Zombies with their pistols while Judith killed a Zombie with each shot of her Ruger, with Joe doing the same with his Savage 64F. Jess fired while laughing like a maniac, never laying off of the trigger. Nicholas used his Stakeout, killing two or three Zombies at a time with every shot while Andrew hacked and chopped at Zombies with incredible ease. Nick bashed Zombies with the statue of Chuck Norris, dealing death blows left and right. After killing about seventy of them, there was a breach in the Zombies, where the entrance to the outside was visible.

"Run!" Nicholas said dashing towards the exit.

Everyone else ran after the dirty-blond haired teen and into the cold night air. The forty degree Florida autumn air swirled around the teens as they ran towards the truck.

"Get in, I have an idea." John said as he turned around, walking towards the store.

"John, don't be a hero!" Liam yelled angrily as he stopped next to the truck.

"Go John, it's all you buddy!" Joe yelled, giving John a mock salute.

John walked over to the front of the store and pulled out four familiar bottles and lit them with a lighter, chuckling evilly under his breath as the Zombies made their way towards the front of the store.

"OH YOU FILTHY HYPOCRITE!" Joe yelled as John tossed all four Molotovs into the store. As John began to sprint back towards the truck, a massive explosion rocked the entire store, incinerating all of the undead inside and torching the place completely. John laughed manically as he stumbled towards his friends, who were patting him on the back.

"I couldn't let you guys have all the fun." John said fist bumping Nicholas as they quickly got into the truck

Liam slammed on the accelerator and the truck sped away from the store. A lone figure watched the group speed away, admiring the flames spilling out of the store with a small laugh.

_**"I like their spunk. I wish the others had their…what's the word?"**_ the voice asked the figure, who shrugged.

"Cheerfulness? Hope that they'll escape this hellhole?" the figure asked the voice, who fell quiet.

**_"Well…whatever it is, it got them out of that scrap. But they keep getting lucky…luck won't keep them alive forever"_**

"And that's when we step in" the figure said to the voice, who replied _**"No…we have to wait. I don't know yet…we have to wait and see"**_

"If you say so-"

**_"Wait! Someone else is here!"_ **the voice yelled to the figure, who jumped to their feet and pulled out a gleaming Ray Gun and pointed it behind them. The figure sighed, eyeing the empty parking lot behind him with a look of annoyance and said "You're getting jumpy again…"

**_"No…I know what I felt…let's move"_**

"Right" the figure said as it began walking out of the parking lot. While the lone figure continued to talk to the voice only he could hear, a man observed them from afar, grinning widely.

"Well played…but you see so little of the full picture…" the man said with a small laugh before vanishing in a flash of green light.

End of Chapter:

_OK, so you may be wondering, what the hell am I doing putting a Chuck Norris statue in a Zombies story. Well, that was a suggestion I took by the real life Nick, and I went with it. _

_Oh well. At least the rest of plot is decent. Tee hee._

_I did make some edits though because of how insanely stupid it is though._

_Please review and show your support!_

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	4. A Helping Hand

_Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead_

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: A Helping Hand<p>

"_Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them"-_Dalai Lama

* * *

><p>"OK, so what do we do now guys? We're low on ammo from that fight and I'm out of ideas." Nicholas said with a sigh, trying to force Nick as far as he could into the window so he could have a bit more room in the cramped backseat.<p>

"Well, we should at least keep going. We need to get as far away from Sam's Club as possible." Andrew said in reply.

"Hey Jess, you got any snacks on you?" Joe asked the girl in the shotgun seat.

"Nope, sorry. I only have ammo for my AK-47 and the truck" Jess said with a frown.

"Joe, we got food back at Wal-Mart, plus we got food at Sam's." Nicholas reminded him.

"Oh right, duh!" Joe said, face-palming himself.

"Retard." John said with an annoyed shake of his head.

Joe smacked John upside the head rather hard, and in just a few moments they both began to have a slap fight. Judith shook her head while Liam, Nick, and Andrew snickered in the background. Jess was laughing her head off and Nicholas just grinned.

The group continued to drive for another hour, eating some of the food they got from Sam's and Wal-Mart and resting from the excitement that the evening had brought. Liam began to hum something that sounded like "This is Halloween" while Andrew played "I Spy" with Nick. Nick was exceptionally skilled at the game...or so it seemed.

"I spy with my little eye something…umm…red!" Andrew said confidently.

"_Stop sign."_ C.N. said in Nick and Joe's mind.

"Stop sign." Nick said after a few moments of pretending to think about it. Andrew scowled and said "Damn! That's thirty times in a row! How are you doing that?"

"Natural skill." Nick bragged.

"Cheating." Joe said in a bored tone.

"How am I cheating?" Nick asked Joe, raising an eyebrow in response.

Joe remained silent, because if he were to say that the statue of Chuck Norris was helping Nick win, then he would have to admit that he could hear it. Joe simply sighed and muttered "Never mind"

"Hey guys, turn on the radio. Let's see if there's any news." Nicholas said to Liam and Jess.

"You think we'll find any survivors?" Liam asked turning a corner and avoiding a wrecked car.

"You never know. Jess, can you go through the channels and see if you can find something?" Nicholas asked Jess looked back at him.

"Yeah, hold on." Jess said with a nod.

Jess hit some of the buttons, but all they could hear was static as she flipped through each radio station. Jess sighed and said "I don't we'll be getting much help guys. I think the radio in this car is messed up, we'd have to find some other radio to get any info"

Silence met this, and the silence held for several more minutes. Finally Liam said "Guys, I think we need to stop. We've got to get more information on why this happened, and it won't happen by running away."

"I know what's going on" Nick said to the group, who looked at him in surprise.

"C.N. said that an insane doctor is behind the Zombie attack" Nick said to the others.

"Nick, as much as I think that you're insane for talking to a statue…I can't deny that it's been useful so far. Does…" Nicholas sighed heavily and said"…C.N., know anything else about the Zombie outbreak?" Nicholas asked Nick and his statue.

Nick paused and listened to the statue and said "Apparently this doctor is traveling to the North, so if we keep heading that way, then we'll probably run into him. C.N. says that he's dangerous though, and he says that he's even deadlier than George Romero from Black Ops."

"Dang, he must be a tough SOB." Andrew said eagerly, grinning at the thought of more fighting.

"Hey, we need to be prepared before we confront this guy, and we're not really prepared or ready to fight anything else after the crap we've been through tonight. Liam, how are you holding up?" Nicholas asked their driver.

"I'm F-in-in-e" Liam said with a yawn.

"Case and point. Guys, keep a lookout for a gun store or something like that, we'll get more ammo and sleep there tonight." Nicholas said.

"What if we get attacked during the night?" Judith asked.

"Half of us will stay up and have guard duty, everyone else can sleep. After a few hours, the groups can rotate. We have to be alert during the night, as the Zombies shouldn't attack during the day." Nicholas said.

Why wouldn't they?" John asked Nicholas, who shrugged.

"I said shouldn't. I didn't say wouldn't. So, who wants to crash at the next good defendable place?" Nicholas replied, causing John to sigh in annoyance.

"Sound good to me man, I'm tired as hell too" Joe said suppressing a yawn.

After another half hour of driving the group chanced upon a rather large paintball complex. It was deserted, but the group didn't take any chances and scouted the outside for Zombies. The coast was clear, so they went inside. Nicholas aimed his Stakeout inside the doorway and flicked on the lights. The inside of the paintball complex was a small store, complete with a small area with several couches.

"OK guys, let's get some of the supplies in here. We'll stay here until tomorrow night." Nicholas said.

Inside of the club, they found a few vending machines and began to set up their sleeping bags and made the place as comfortable and defendable as possible. Nick managed to find the owner's office, and after Liam broke into it, they find a stash of modified Paintball gear and a few pistols and ammo. Nick took a Glock 17 while Liam found a shiny new AR-15 stashed in the very back of the owner's office closet. To his dismay, the rifle lacked more than a few clips of ammunition. John sighed in annoyance until Jess remembered something and ran out to her truck, coming back with a gun that she revealed was a G11.

"Where the hell did you get this?" John asked as she handed the gun to him.

"How do you think I got my AK-47? Jason's dad turned out to be a illegal gun dealer and we get guns from their. I guess the other's are still with his parents" Jess said with a shrug, handing John a few clips.

"OK, so who wants first watch? We just need three people to keep watch. I'll take first watch, who wants to join?" Nicholas asked.

"I will." Andrew volunteered.

"Yeah, me too." Nick said cheerfully.

"All right, the rest of you guys rest up. We'll get you up in a few hours." Nicholas said walking out with Andrew and Nick.

The trio walked through the shooting range, and as they entered another room Nicholas flipped on the lights. The room, as it turned out led to a large outdoor paintball arena, complete with towers, barriers to hide behind, a series of high walkways and pathways high in the air.

"This place is badass…when this is over, I'm playing the hell out of this place!" Nicholas proclaimed.

"Yeah, it's pretty fun. I kicked Liam off of a tower once and he broke his arm" Andrew said as he admired the massive outdoor maze-like area.

"Sounds like it" Nick said cheerfully.

The first groan came a few hours later, when the two groups had just rotated. Nicholas, Nick and Andrew were roughly shaken awake and tiredly grabbed their weapons.

"Hey guys, where's the Zooooombies?" Nicholas yawned as he stumbled to his feet.

"You all right?" Jess asked in a concerned tone.

"Yeah, just tired. Let's go." Nicholas said walking towards the entrance as the first Zombies broke through the barricades they had set up.

Liam ran up and stabbed a Zombie through the skull, killing it instantly as the blade ripped through it's skull. Liam jumped back as the Zombies tore at the boards blocking the door. Nicholas waited a few moments before yelling "FIRE!"

All of the teens opened fire as Zombies poured through the gaps and tore open their barricade and into the inside of the store. Blood pooled at the entrance, but Zombies continued to come in, climbing over their slain brethren. The teens found themselves moving backwards as more and more Zombies came into the shop.

"Fall back! Go outside!" Nicholas yelled furiously, firing at the Zombies with his Stakeout and downing two in one shot. The group burst through the doors and into the cool night once more. The teen's breath came in white puffs as they ran from the Zombies.

"Guys, we've got to split up. Nick go with Andrew. Judith go with Liam. Jess go with John. Joe, you're with me." Nicholas said reloading his Stakeout.

Everyone nodded and ran in different directions. The Zombies stood there for a few moments, unsure of who to go after, and then they charged in different directions.

Judith and Liam were running as fast as they could, firing behind them as the Zombies chased them. Judith turned around and aimed, and then fired her Ruger 1103 several times. Three Zombies were blasted through the head and fell to the ground while others were drenched in blood, the rest of her shots had missed or merely clipped the Zombies. Liam pulled out his AR-15 and fired it, not lying off of the trigger and causing a of the Zombies chasing them to fall to the ground dead. Liam jumped on top of an oil drum and climbed onto an old watchtower. Liam extended a hand to Judith and helped her get on top of the watchtower as well.

"OK…so now what?" Judith asked aiming her Ruger and firing at the Zombies down below.

"Hmm….good question. I think we should just provide support from up here, as the Zombies are down there, and can't get up here." Liam said with a small smirk as the Zombie swarmed around them, unable to scale the tower for reasons known only to the author editing this at 4 in the morning.

"Hmm….stay up here and kill Zombies…or go down there and be torn apart by Zombies…I like this one better." Judith finally agreed. Liam smirked and glanced around at their surroundings as Judith picked off members of the undead from afar, noticing what looks to be a toolbox and construction tools. A few chains, a blow torch, a wicked looking sickle, and several other supplies and such were lying in a pile. Liam supposed they must be things to fix up the obstacle course or something.

An idea popped into Liam's head.

"Hey Judith, hold them off for a few minutes. I want to try something." Liam said with an evil smile as he cracked his fingers and picked up the blow torch. The black haired girl nodded and fired her rifle at a faraway Zombie, blowing it's arm off.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Jess fired behind her and killed three Zombies in a few short bursts, and then continued to run with John. John jumped over a barrel and fired his double pistols into the approaching horde, killing several Zombies which crumpled to the ground with a growl.<p>

"We need something else!" Jess yelled as more undead came out from a nearby pathway.

"On it!" John yelled pulling out his G11 and aiming.

John took advantage of the G11's scope and fired several quick bursts, killing a dozen Zombies in a few seconds by taking off their heads, which the G11 allowed him to do very easily. Jess laughed and added bullets from her AK-47 to the equation.

After killing this horde Jess and John ran through the obstacle course, which was indeed like a maze, and found themselves utterly lost. Jess jumped on top of a barrel and onto a railing, running along it as John ran on the ground below.

"Oh come on! How can you do stuff like that!" John yelled.

"Because I'm part squirrel!" Jess yelled happily as she leaped from barrier to barrier with the grace of a gazelle.

"That makes no freaking sense!" John yelled back.

"Zombie apocalypse! Doesn't have to make sense!" Jess replied as they encountered another horde of Zombies, which took note of them and charged.

Jess jumped down below and landed on a Zombie, killing it by breaking its neck. John stood back, not taking the run in approach like the others, and simply fired at the undead from afar with his G11, conserving ammo by going for the heads and using short bursts. Jess turned around and saw that a few Zombies were breaking through a nearby window. Jess ran up to the window and pulled out a long knife and jabbed it repeatedly into the hole, killing all of the Zombies.

John fired his G11 with a snarl, blasting a Zombie's skull apart and spraying blood and gore all over the ground before reloading, wincing as he realized he was already running low on ammo. He continued to fire at the Zombies, utilizing the scope on the G11 to deliver headshot after headshot.

John smirked after a few moments and said "This is actually easy."

Suddenly a Zombie burst out from behind a crate and ran at him. John yelped in surprise and jumped to the side, avoiding a swipe by falling to the ground. John rolled on the ground and fired into the Zombies face with his G11, killing it. The other Zombies, now freed of the assault of John's G11, ran towards the two teens, who began running as fast as they could in the other direction.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"FOR POWNAGE!" Andrew yelled stabbing a Zombie through the skull while beheading two at once.<p>

"FOR PUDDING!" Nick yelled firing Glock 17 into the horde, scoring a surprising amount of headshots and kills with the pistol.

The Zombies continued to pore through the doorway, and the two teens were forced to retreat. Nick put away his Glock and pulled out the statue of C.N. Nick grinned and ran up to the nearest Zombie, stabbing it through the chest with the enchanted statue. The Zombie went limp and fell to the ground. Nick swung C.N. like a bat and killed another Zombie with a strike to the head, a spike protruding from C.N. where it made contact with the Zombie. Nick and Andrew killed Zombie after Zombie, but there were just too many.

"We're being overrun! Go to the hill!" Andrew yelled running back to a mound of dirt about 50 yards away, Nick close behind. They got to the mound, the Zombies just behind them and snarling angrily. Andrew and Nick stood back to back, ready for the horde of Zombies running at them.

"Hey C.N., got any ideas?" Nick asked the statue.

"_Of course I do…Aim me like a gun._" C.N. said, and Nick complied.

**"**_**ANNHILATOR GUN!"**_ C.N. said in a deep voice as a red machine minigun tip sprung out of C.N.'s head.

Red bullets shot out of C.N.'s head and into the Zombie horde tearing through the undead flesh like tissue paper. On top of that, as the bullets hit the Zombies, they burst into flames which consumed them. Waves of Zombies fell to the ground and Andrew watched in amazement.

"Why does the Chuck Norris obsessed midget get the best weapon? Seriously man, that's some bull crap." Andrew sighed as he beheaded a Zombie and stabbed another through the chest.

"_BECAUSE I'M CHUCK F*CKING NORRIS!"_ C.N. yelled as he killed Zombie after Zombie.

"This is going to be a long day, I can tell already." Andrew said shaking his head while casually stabbing a Zombie with his machete. He then charged into the fray.

Andrew stabbed and chopped while Nick used the Annihilator Gun to mow down the hordes of Zombies coming at them. After killing about a hundred, the Zombies were all gone and the Annihilator Gun tip vanished, though a bit more of the attack remained stored in the statue. Nick and Andrew waited a moment, and then relaxed for a minute.

"C'mon, let's go Andrew. We've gotta help the others." Nick said as he heard the screams of the others in the distance.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree man. Let's go." Andrew said sheathing his machetes and walking into the next part of the obstacle course.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"DIE YOU MAGGOT ADDICTS!" Nicholas and Joe yelled together, blasting away at the undead with shotgun and rifle and downing several Zombies in a matter of second..<p>

"Joe, behind you!" Nicholas yelled firing his Stakeout and delivering a headshot to a Zombie woman, who fell to the shotgun's blast.

"Thanks!" Joe said with a grin, stabbing a Zombie through the skull with his knife and yanking it free before slamming the undead monster in the head with his rifle.

About forty Zombies were coming towards the duo, and they realized they had to retreat at this point. Nicholas and Joe jumped onto a higher platform and fired from there. Nicholas kicked a Zombie off the platform and shot another Zombie in the face while Joe fired repeatedly into the horde from above.

After a few minutes of fighting, there were only a few Zombies left. Nicholas jumped down and fired into a Zombie's face, blowing it's head clean off and causing Joe to whoop with glee. The Zombie still stood, so Nicholas kicked it over and stabbed it in the chest for good measure. John aimed the Savage 46F and fired repeatedly, killing five Zombies with shots to the head and neck. Finally there were no more Zombies for the moment and Nicholas let out a sigh and sat down on a barrel.

"I wonder how many more are left?" Joe asked tiredly, reloading his Savage.

"Don't know, but I guess we should just try and clear this place of Zombies. We can't keep going forever." Nicholas said in an equally tired tone, shaking his head.

There was a pause as the two rested for a few moments until there was a faint groaning sound. Nicholas reloaded his Stakeout and said "Let's go man."

Nicholas and Joe ran towards the groaning sounds of a new wave of Zombies. With a fresh wave of Zombies came a new environment. There were wooden platforms that rose high into the air, connected by chain-link drawbridges. Nicholas and Joe took one look at the large horde ahead of them before saying at the same time "Get to higher ground."

Both teens ran onto the wooden platforms and immediately began firing into the horde. Joe bashed his Savage against a Zombie's skull and knocked it off of the platform and into the horde below. Nicholas ran up to the bridge and said "Dude, this thing looks so freaking unstable."

"Just get on it! I can't hold them off for much longer!" Joe yelled firing his Savage 64F and killing two Zombies in one shot.

"Fine! But if this bridge breaks I'm suing Home Depot!" Nicholas yelled as he made his way across the rickety bridge. Nicholas was about halfway across when Joe began to swear and ran towards the bridge.

"What happened?" Nicholas yelled as he got to the platform and pulled out his Stakeout.

"Ran out of ammo! All I've got is my pistol and my machete." Joe said as he got to the platform. He strapped the Savage on his back before pulling out a machete from a sheath on his belt.

"Yeah, I'm not doing so well in the ammo department either. I've got about fifteen shots left and I'm done." Nicholas said with a grin.

"Why are you smiling?" Joe asked.

"Because this is awesome!" Nicholas yelled into the night and fired at a Zombie attempting to cross the bridge.

"Joe, make sure none of them climb up the side. I'll make sure none of them cross the bridge." Nicholas said cocking the Stakeout and firing again.

"Because these Zombies are somehow able to climb, where the one's attacking Judith and Liam can't?" Joe asked, glancing at Liam and Judith who were just sitting in their tower, surrounded by Zombies that weren't climbing up to attack them.

"Pretty much" Nicholas replied.

"Got it!" Joe said with a smirk, beheading a Zombie who was climbing the side of the tower. Joe walked around the tower, stabbing a Zombie or two in through the skull as casually as you'd walk down a sidewalk looking for change. Nicholas fired again and again with his Stakeout, and with each shot that rang out into the night it sounded the gong of death for each Zombie. But finally, Nicholas's streak of luck ran out as he heard that familiar click that meant-

"No ammo. We're screwed." Nicholas said grabbing his machete out and putting away his Stakeout.

The two began to stab, cut, and slash at every Zombie they could. After the duo killed about a fifty from the platform, the Zombies began to thin out. Nicholas jammed his machete through a Zombie eye and blood drenched the steel as it went through the monster's skull.

"Joe! Let's try to get back to the others!" Nicholas yelled in an exhausted tone as he beheaded another Zombie with a swing of his machete.

"Good idea, but how're we gonna get to them? There are two of us against a swarm of fifty Zombies. We have the height advantage, that's why were still alive now. But if we go down there, we lose that advantage and we're dead." Joe pointed out as he stabbed a Zombie through the nose and caused it to fall to the ground.

"Not quite. I have a plan." Nicholas said as he cut a rope that connected the tower to the main part of the building, and the whole tower shook violently.

"What are you doing?" Joe said grabbing onto the railing for support.

"Tipping the odds in our favor!" Nicholas yelled cutting another rope and causing the tower to begin to sway, and fall over.

"HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF-"Joe began to scream before the massive crash drowned out his yell.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>There was an incredibly loud crash sound followed by a plume of dust off in the distance that could be seen and heard from a mile away.<p>

"Whoa! What was that?" Judith said looking around.

"Don't know, but my new toy is ready. Let's test it out and head towards the source of the sound." Liam looked out over the railing and saw Nick and Andrew running towards the source of the sound too.

"HEY!" Liam yelled to the two teens at the ground.

Both of them looked up at the couple in the watchtower. Nick and Andrew waited for them to come down, the Zombies surrounding them having been killed by Judith and Liam just a few moments before, and Andrew said "Hey, do you guys know where the others are?"

"No, we've been killing Zombies from the watchtower over there. Let's start looking for them, and the best place to search is where that loud crash was. Let's go." Liam said to the others, who nodded in reply.

The group began to run towards the cloud of smoke coming from the distance when they heard a massive roar. It was a loud and powerful sound that made all of the glass that remained on the windows shatter.

"What the hell was that?!" Nick yelled nervously as Judith grabbed Liam's arm tightly. Liam gave his girlfriend a comforting squeeze on the arm and she let go.

"I don't know, but let's find the others and quick." Andrew said running towards the sound of the roars. The group continued to run towards the roars and smoke clouds, but they eventually John and Jess surrounded by a group of Zombies and backed into a corner.

"Where did these guys come from?!" John yelled angrily.

"Less talking, more killing!" Jess yelled frantically as she held down the trigger of AK-47 and fired a nonstop stream of bullets, which was barely keeping the Zombies away from them.

Suddenly the Zombies all burst into flames and fell to the ground, groaning once or twice before fading away to ash. The two teens looked over and saw Nick, Andrew, Judith, and Liam standing there, and Nick was pointing C.N. at them with a flame at the tip of C.N.'s cowboy hat. Nick had used up the rest of the Annihilator Gun and was panting weakly, as though the attack has used some of his own energy as well.

"Thanks for assist guys." Jess said with a sigh of relief.

"Did you hear that crashing sound?" John said.

"Yeah, we were just heading towards that loud noise over there to see what's going on." Andrew replied, flicking his blood-drenched machete towards the ground.

"Yeah, we were going to check it out too when we were ambushed. I think Joe and Nicholas are in trouble." John said worriedly as he looked towards the dust cloud in the distance.

"Then why are we sitting around here like idiots? Let's go!" Liam said as he sprinted towards the sound of the roar.

And the group ran towards the sound of roaring and of things being destroyed by something massive. Something that was not meant to exist on this planet, or any other realm.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Nicholas looked up in amazement as this new Zombie smashed a tower with no apparent effort. Joe was looking at it with an expression of horror and awe, though more horror than the latter.<p>

The creature stood on four legs and was covered in a wraith of flames. It looked as though it was covered in flaming pieces of wood, and it looked more like an evil wolf than anything else. It had a long snout and teeth that were deathly white, each one big enough to slice a horse in half. It roared again and Nicholas and Joe ran for cover as a massive blast of fire shot from the creature's mouth.

"What is that thing?!" Joe yelled firing his pistol at it.

Nicholas pulled out his pistol and fired at the thing's left eye, but the bullet harmlessly deflected off it, only serving to annoy the creature.

"How the hell would I know!?" Nicholas said in an annoyed way to Joe, who shook his head before yelling "RUN!".

After Nicholas had caused the tower to fall, all of the Zombies had been killed. The duo then heard the sound of something growling at them and turned around to see a huge bolt of green lightning come down from the sky and crash onto the ground in front of them. They had turned away from the brightness of the blast, but when they looked back again, this new creature had appeared where the lightning struck.

Now they were running like hell had come, and indeed it had. Nicholas whirled around and fired his pistol a few more times, aiming at the creature's nose, but he missed all but one shot, which bounced off harmlessly.

"We need something with more power! We can't kill it with pistols!" Joe yelled.

"Tell me something I don't know! We don't have any ammo in our stronger guns Joe" Nicholas yelled back.

"Hey guys, what going on!" a voice yelled from up ahead.

The two teens saw the rest of their group running towards them. Joe and Nicholas ran right past them and yelled "RUN!"

The group just stood there, confused until they heard a massive roar. They turned around and saw the Beast slowly coming towards them. Judith and John aimed their weapons and fired at the monster's face, causing it to roar in pain and snarl at them. Nick, Liam and Jess added their guns to the gunfire, causing the monster to howl loudly in what sounded like a whine of pain. The Beast shot a blast of fire out of its mouth and all of the teens began to run after Nicholas and Joe, barely avoiding the blast of crimson colored flames.

"What're we going to do?!" John yelled.

"Nick! Can't C.N. do something to help?" Liam asked, clearly desperate since he was asking Nick for help.

Nick shook his head and said "He can't, he can only use his Ultimate Attacks three times every 24 hours!"

"That sucks!" Andrew said in an annoyed tone.

"_You suck."_ C.N. replied.

Judith and John turned around and aimed at the Beast's snout, but when they pulled the triggers on their weapons, they heard a click. Jess, Liam, and Nick aimed their guns at the Beast and fired, but all that came out was the sound Judith and John's guns made.

"No one has any ammo! Now what?!" John yelled.

"RUN!" Nicholas yelled as the group began to run through the obstacle course, the Beast still slowly padding towards them.

The team continued to run through the obstacle course as the Beast set fire to several of the towers and destroyed most of the course. Then, the despair began to set in. They were out of ammo. The Beast was on their tail, and they were all tired and had no chance to escaping this place with a monster like the Beast attacking the.

On a rooftop several kilometers away, a figure was watching the scene below with interest. The figure was cloaked in shadow and only its orange eyes were visible.

The figure sighed in a depressed way while a voice in their mind said _**"I thought you said they could do this?"**_

"Hey, everyone needs help now and then…even you do" the figure said in a rather worried tone, wincing at the sound of Jess and Judith screaming into the night as the Hellwolf let loose a fiery blast from its mouth

"**_Fine…I'll help them. Raise your palm"_** the voice said to the figure, who raised their now glowing green palm towards the direction of the teens in the distance.

The group was cornered between a wall and the Beast. Each of the teens pulled out their machete's and knives, ready to go down fighting.

"Guys…I just want to say it's been a pleasure killing Zombies with you. Even you Nick." Nicholas said in a low voice.

"Yeah! I'm included too!" Nick said cheerfully, despite the massive Zombie wolf in front of them about to murder them all.

All of a sudden a chain shot out from behind Nicholas and something on the tip of the chain hooked onto the Beast's snout. The monster roared as the tip of the object sank into it, and the group followed the chain to Liam, who was holding it tight in his hand.

"Sickle and Chain! My newest weapon!" Liam said with a grin before being yanked several yards as the Beast shook its head. Liam pulled back on the chain and held onto a nearby support beam.

"Nice one!" Nicholas laughed as Liam tried to keep the beast from opening its mouth.

"Now what? Liam's not strong enough to hold that behemoth forever." John said with a resigned sigh.

"Slice and dice!" Nicholas said running at the Beast with his machete.

Each one of the teens ran up to the Beast and hit it with their knives, machetes, and Chuck Norris statues. The Beast roared and shook its snout and tried to free itself from the chain and sickle lodged in it's mouth, clearly causing it pain. Liam struggled to keep the Beast from attacking the group. Suddenly the chain became ultra hot and Liam dropped the chain, releasing the Beast's mouth. The sickle fell to the ground and Liam yelped as a giant flaming paw smashed down next to him.

"Liam!" Judith yelled worriedly.

"I'm fine! Watch out!" Liam yelled as the Beast opened its mouth.

Each of the teens scattered as the Beast shot a blast of fire from its mouth, incinerating the surrounding area. It roared loudly and then let out a long howl that echoed through the night. It then stopped howling suddenly, and then turned sharply to the left and growled at something in that direction.

Suddenly there was a flash of green light in front of Nicholas, who shielded his eyes from its brightness. As the light faded slightly, Nicholas lowered his hands and felt his jaw drop from what was in front of him. It was a golden rectangular shaped object with one side that was bigger than the other. And any Black Ops player knew what this thing was.

"No way…the Zombies attacking is crazy enough…but this?" Nicholas whispered as he reached out and touched the floating green object. Suddenly a voice, a deep, dark, sinister girl voice yelled out through the night.

"**_MAX AMMO!"_**

Nick felt about five pounds heavier as his Stakeout was full with bullets, and he had extra rounds all around his belt and in his pack. His pistol ammo was replenished too. Every exchanged amazed looks as their guns reloaded and as they felt extra ammunition appear on their ammo belts and pouches. They even had 4 fragmentation grenades clipped to their belts as well.

"Guys! Reload and fire!" Nicholas said running up to the Beast and firing at its snout with his Stakeout.

Each of them aimed their guns and fired at the Beast. After about a solid minute of all eight teens firing nonstop at it, and the Beast let out long, piteous moan and exploded in a massive burst of flames.

"Thank goodness that's over…" John said with a sigh as he fell onto the ground in relief.

"Yeah, that doggy had some serious bite." Jess sighed as she leaned against the wall.

"Yeah, that was rough." Joe agreed with a laugh.

"That's what she said." Nick piped up.

"Hey Nick, wanna see my newest weapon?" Liam said with a grin.

"Liam, not now…later." Judith said sitting down on a barrel with a sigh.

"Guys…what just happened?" Nicholas asked the group.

"We kicked that thing's giant fiery ass, that's what just happened!" Andrew said enthusiastically.

"No…someone or something is helping us. Something sent us that Max Ammo, and I want to know what." Nicholas said.

Silence met this, but on a distant rooftop the mysterious figure chuckled and said "Alright…now what?"

"_**We're close…so close to letting them know the truth. Let them fend for themselves just a bit longer…then they will know everything"**_ the voice whispered before the figure vanished into the shadows once more.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>So how's it coming along guys? <em>

_Who is helping the group? _

_Why did the Hellwolf come? _

_What will happen next? _

_Review and tell me what you thought!_

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	5. Answers at Last

_Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead_

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: Answers at Last<p>

_"Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away."-_ Elvis Presley

* * *

><p>"Why is it, that we can never…I repeat…<em>NEVER<em> go somewhere without blowing the damn place up!" John yelled as the crew drove away from the destroyed paintball arena, which burned to the ground rather merrily in the distance.

"Because there are only two girls in the group" Jess said from the shotgun seat.

"Hey, what about John?" Joe said with a smartass grin, causing Nicholas to shake his head with a silent chuckle.

John smacked Joe upside the head and before they start another girly slap-fight , Jess turned around and punched Joe.

"Hey, what was that for?" Joe asked indignantly.

"Come on dude, this isn't a Girl Scout camp, so stop fighting like fat people over the last glazed donut in the office." Liam said.

"Hey, I'm not that fat, and that guy was asking for it. Besides, I only punched you because your thoughts are disgusting to me." Jess said crossing her arms.

"How…can you read my mind?" Joe asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Chuck Norris did it." Nick said cheerfully.

"Shut up." Judith said to Nick, who stuck his tongue out at her in reply.

"_Because you humans bore me beyond belief, I'm going to make this interesting. Every few hours, one of you will be able to read the thoughts of others. Let the fun begin. Jessica is first"_ C.N. said with an evil chuckle.

"Well, that explains why I can read Joe's mind." Jess said as she stretched out in her seat.

"Anything good?" John asked eagerly, hoping for material to blackmail him with.

"Apparently he's traumatized over being attacked by monkeys riding on a segway. Also, LIAM, THAT IS SO ADORABLE!" Jess squealed while Liam blushed a faint pink.

"What was he thinking?" Judith asked, leaning towards Liam.

"Something cute" Jess said unhelpfully.

"Anything else?"Judith asked semi-annoyed.

"Nope." Jess said shortly.

"…Really?"

"No, just kidding he was actually thinking about…" Jess paused dramatically "-and that will be announced right after the break." Jess said returning to her seat as though nothing happened.

"Anything else?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah, by the way Nicholas, that's so adorable that you think about her like that." Jess said to Nicholas, who rolled his eyes.

"About who?" Nick said.

"None of your business." Nicholas said getting a pillow and resting comfortably.

"Where did you get that…pillow?" Nick asked.

"We all have pillows numbnuts. Try the supply bag." Nicholas said with a yawn.

"Hehe…numbnuts." Jess giggled.

A few hours passed with nothing more important happening than Jess almost wreaking the truck by grabbing the wheel when Liam drove by a Dunkin Donuts and almost crashing them into a parked car. Actually, the car was not parked, more like on its side and on fire.

"The only reason that happened was because it was my turn." Jess said in her defense.

"What?!" Liam said in anger and confusion.

"'Yeah, you've been driving ever since all of the Zombies killed everyone. My turn!" Jess said grabbing the wheel again and causing the truck to swerve dangerously again.

"You guys have such messed up thoughts" Andrew said as the truck swerved. It was Andrew's turn to be able to read thoughts.

"Why, what are we thinking?" John asked curiously.

"Jess is thinking of killing me with giant snails." Andrew said in a slightly freaked tone.

"Death by snail, that's new." Nicholas commented, clearly amused.

"And I'm not even going to go into what's going on in Nick's mind." Andrew said.

"Why, what's in his mind?" Judith asked.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Inside Nick's Mind:

* * *

><p>A cymbal monkey was banging his symbols over and over and over again. Just then, C.N. walked in and said "I can't believe that this is the Chosen One's mind…Hmm… Let's go see what's in everyone else's mind."<p>

C.N. walked out the door that he walked in and went to Joe's door, or rather the door that represented the entrance to his mind. When he walked in, he couldn't believe what he saw. "What the-"

Joe's mind contained computers and books as far as the eye could see. There were also video games and snacks along with the books. Suddenly, an explosion could be heard in the distance.

"WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ME? Every single time! I've been doing this for the past 5 years and of course, no success!" said a voice in the distance.

When C.N. walked around to the corner, there was a huge metallic door that was marked with explosion blasts.

"What the hell are you doing here?" said the voice who had yelled

C.N turned around and saw who was talking, which turned out to be Joe, wearing bomb squad gear and with soot all over him. He smirked at C.N. and said "You know, I gotta say, you're a lot shorter than I imagined." Joe said with a smirk.

"You know, I gotta say, you're a much bigger asshole than I imagined." C.N. replied.

"Oh shut up. If you're going to be in here, you might as well help." Joe replied as he turned back around and walked back towards the doors.

"What's behind the door?" C.N. said while looking up at it.

"What do you think? Psychic powers, unlimited knowledge, crap like that. Everyone has a door like this in their mind. It's like…unlocking their full potential" Joe said as he was making more explosives appear out of nowhere.

C.N. continued to look at the doors as he thought to himself. _"I hate to admit it, but the others need the help…maybe I can start with this one. He shows promise…maybe all he needs is a nudge in the right direction"_

After he thought this, he reached out slowly and touched the door. As soon as he did, the door emitted a golden shockwave from where he touched it and made a gong-like sound. Joe then turned around with a startled expression said rather quickly "What did you do?"

"What does it look like? I touched the door. Now you'll be able to bring out your full potential" C.N. replied with a smug look on his face.

All of a sudden, the doors started to open inward slowly. As it was opening, nothing but blackness filled the room. When the doors opened all the way, there was a deep echoing sound coming from the inside.

"…Something tells me that something is about to happen." C.N. said in the silence.

Just as he said this, a deep burst of wind came out of the opening. It knocked C.N. back with such a force that it sent him flying back out the door he came in and sent him back into Nick's mind.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<span><br>

* * *

><p>"AHHHHH!" Joe screamed as he woke up. Everyone else in the truck got startled by this, and Liam almost ran a stray dog as he jerked the steering wheel in surprise.<p>

"What the hell man, are you alright?" Nick asked with a confused look.

"Yeah, yeah. Just a nightmare." Joe said still breathing heavily. Everyone calmed down and went back to what they were doing. Joe looked down and saw a spark run between his hands.

"Whoa." He said quietly as a small smile crossed his lips.

"What's up man, you were out for an hour." Andrew asked curiously.

"Yeah, and you were drooling too." Jess pointed out unhelpfully.

"I was NOT drooling." Joe said indignantly.

"Yes you were" John said with a grin.

Joe punched John in the shoulder and two engaged in another girlie slap fight, so the group decided to just let carry on. Eventually Liam began swerving from sheer tiredness and Nicholas had him pull over and go into a nearby Animal shelter. The crew got out of the truck and walked slowly towards the animal shelter, keep an eye out for any signs of the undead. They could hear the sounds of barking, meowing, and other noise associated with animals, meaning there were at least animals in there. Nicholas walked up to the front door and opened it rather carefully.

"Yep, the place hasn't been hit yet. The owners must have fled. Come on guys, let's check this place out." Nicholas said going inside and holding his shotgun out. Jess flicked the lights on a few seconds later, making scoping out the building much much easier.

The group looked all around the building to see if it was safe, and then headed through the front doors to all of their supplies in, leaving the extras in the truck. Unbeknownst to them, a figure cloaked in shadow watched all of this from atop a nearby tree branch. It watched as Judith looked around outside for any signs of Zombies and then closed the door.

The figure laughed under their breath before jumping off of the branch and onto the roof of the building.

* * *

><p>Location: Florida ASPCA Shelter #29:<p>

* * *

><p>"PUPPIES!" Jess yelled happily as she picked up three boxer puppies and hugged them.<p>

"Aw, they're so cute." Judith said picking up a golden retriever puppy and letting it lick her face.

"I found my perfect dog" Nick gushed, petting a large bulldog with a wide grin. "I'm going to call you Chuck-"

"I swear to God, if you name it after that god-mongering wuss, I'm going to kick your face in." Liam said in an annoyed tone, waving his Sickle.

"-Barrington." Nick finished.

"Whew." Liam said in a relieved tone.

"The dog of Chuck Norris." Nick added after a moment.

"GAH! THAT'S IT, I'M GOING OVER HERE!" Liam yelled striding over to a few more cages.

"_Did…did he just call me a god-mongering wuss?"_ C.N. asked after a few moments.

"What should we do Nicholas? We can't just leave them in here." Jess said in a soft tone, looking up at the older teen, who scratched his head tiredly.

"Yeah, I agree with Jess." Andrew said, looking at the dogs sniffing and panting around them and cats watching them with disinterest.

"Did I ask what you think?" Jess said in low voice, glaring at Andrew.

"Jeez, SORRY. Imma go scout the place out. Nick, come on." Andrew said walking away.

"Come Chuck. Let us go!" Nick said following Andrew while the brown dog followed.

"_This mortal annoys me."_ C.N. said in a rather annoyed growl.

"Me too." Joe agreed.

"You what?" Nicholas asked Joe.

"Nevermind." Joe said, shaking his head.

"Hey guys, come here." Andrew called from the other room. The group slowly filled into the room that Andrew had fond and discovered a small meeting room with a few chairs and a loveseat. A broken TV sat to the side of the room, which was a makeshift lounge or something to that effect, and they saw Nick posing in the love chair as they walked in.

""Nice, this'll be a good place to rest up a bit. Let's decide who'll take first watch in a few, but we should Let's get the animals in this place taken care of. We should free everything and feed them with whatever food they have here. They'll be better off free than stuck here…and no, we can't take any of them with us." Joe said to Jess who had raised her hand. She lowered it with a sad expression on her face, taking out the small kitten curled up in her coat pocket and gently setting it on one of the chairs.

"Good idea, everyone grab some food. " Nicholas said to the group.

They spent the next thirty minutes feeding the animals, with various degrees of hilarity involved. After feeding the animals, most of them decided to head off into the streets and nearby woods forest. Fifteen minutes later, the teens heard the sounds of dogs howling in pain and terror.

"What's going on?!" Nicholas said worriedly, as he had a soft spot for dogs.

The sound of laughing broke through the howl of dogs. A cruel, high-pitched laugh of pure mania and delight that filled the air with a rather sinister chill.

"W-who's there?" Jess said nervously as she grabbed her AK-47.

_**"GET THEM MINE PUPPIES!"**_ a voice shouted, followed by laughter.

A thick white mist suddenly filled the entire shelter and the laughter died down, echoing softly in the distance. Nicholas got up off of the couch and grabbed his Stakeout as the others grabbed their weapons and made their way into the main hallway.

"Nicholas, you don't think…?" Joe left the question hanging.

"I hope not man." was all Nicholas said as he remained still.

"Why? What's going on?" Judith asked the two teens, who remained silent.

"When mist fills the Zombie map, it usually signals the arrival of…well, let's say it's not going to be fun." Andrew said with a small grimace, grabbing his machetes with the air of someone doing something gruesome.

"Best plan would be to get ready" Nicholas said making sure his gun was fully loaded. He looked to his friends who seemed nervous, but of course we're tired and running on fumes after a late night battle against the undead. This was probably going to be their last stand…

Then came the first howl.

"What…what the hell was that?" Nick asked in a low voice.

Suddenly the howl became a snarl…

Then more and more snarls joined the first.

"OK guys, two of us need to watch the front, two watch the back, and the other four fend off whatever comes in between." Nicholas said as he walked to the front of the shelter, which was boarded up.

Nicholas and Joe picked the front while Nick and John watched the back door, similarly boarded up. Liam, Andrew, Jess and Judith watched their backs.

A huge bolt of lightning suddenly crashed down thirty feet in front of Nicholas and Joe, who both looked at each other and then back at the creature in front of them before taking a step back In horror

"Hellhounds." Nicholas breathed softly.

It was as big as a German Sheppard, with pale, white razor-sharp teeth and mattered and ravaged fur. It was covered in blood and looked badly burnt. The Hellhound growled menacingly at Nicholas before charging at them, causing the teen to take aim.

"DIE DOGGY!" Nicholas yelled firing his Stakeout.

The shot hit the dog dead-center in the forehead and it fell to the ground dead with a faint whine. Several bolts of lightning struck down outside, and in every bolt, a Hellhound appeared. Some appeared to be covered in flames.

"EVIL PUPPIES!" Jess yelled firing her AK-47 at a flaming Hellhound that was bounding towards her, which exploded violently as the bullets ripped through it..

"They just keep coming!" Liam yelled firing his AR-15 at three advancing Hellhounds, keeping them at bay until Judith managed to pick them off.

"Don't let up!" Nicholas yelled to his friends as more Hllehounds spawned around them.

Joe side-stepped a Hellhound that jumped at him and stabbed it in the face with his machete, savagely digging the blade into the undead dog's skull. The demon-dog snarled and pulled away from Joe and tried to lunge at him, but was shot point-blank with the Savage 64F.

"Take that Fido." Joe said coolly.

"Joe! Pay attention!" Jess yelled as a small Hellhound bounded past Joe and charged at Jess, who spin-kicked it in the snout and stabbed it with a long knife, killing it.

"Oh right, sorry!" Joe apologized as he began firing his Savage at a trio of dogs coming, shooting each one with a calculated aim from afar.

Each of the dogs came at the group of teens fast and hard. Judith aimed her Ruger and fired repeatedly, each time she connected with one of the undead dogs was a kill-shot. John aimed through his G11's scope and tried to pick off the dogs before they burst through the doors, which were now opened and exposed to the outside.

Liam held his AR-15 in one hand and a sickle in the other hand, stabbing and firing to fend off the Zombie dogs coming at them from all angles. Andrew stabbed and cut through Hellhound after Hellhound with his twin machetes, his face now contorted in some sort of mad grin. Nick was swinging at every Hellhound that burst through the door, killing each one with a power he barely understood.

"Looks like they're not doing too bad…they're on their way" C.N. murmured to himself. Nick was about to ask him what he meant when a dog lunged at him and forced him to attack again.

Andrew stabbed a Hellhound through the skull and tore the machete free and slashed at another dog that had come from behind him, killing both dogs at the same time. Liam hooked a dog under the collar with his Sickle and shot the dog point-blank with his AR-15, laughing as the Hellhound fell to the ground lifeless.

"They just keep coming!" John yelled frantically as a Hellhound jumped over him and ran at Judith, who slashed it in the head with her knife as it charged by her before pressing the tip of her Ruger against the side of the Hellhound's head as it turned around. It growled softly at her before she smiled weakly at it and pulled the trigger, killing it instantly.

"Nice one!" Liam yelled at Judith with pride as he stabbed a Hellhound through the side with his sickle, throwing it to the ground.

Judith grinned and fired at another Hellhound, this one exploding as the bullet made contact with its side. John continued to fire repeatedly as the Hellhounds continued to run at the shelter, though a worried expression was evident on his face. Jess yelped as a Hellhound bounded past her, then dashed towards her with its jaws open. Jess screamed and went crashing onto the ground, though the tip of her AK-47 was jammed into the gapping mouth of the Hellhound. Jess yelled out and pulled the trigger, unloading the clip into the mouth of the beast and killing it.

"Hahaha, that was pretty fun." Andrew said with a grin as he twirled his bloody machetes.

"Guys, the Hellhounds are starting to die down." Jess said as two Hellhounds bounded towards John and Nick, only to be killed by them a few moments later. John sighed in relief as Liam looked disinterestedly at his bleeding hand.

Jess managed to kill the last Hellhound by shooting it with a few short bursts of gunfire, and the group took a collective sigh of a relief.

"Looks like we're good…" John said with a shaky grin.

_**"Ah…not quite. Fetch me their souls!"**_ an eerily familiar voice shouted as about fifty lightning bolts crashed down around the shelter at once in a deafening blast of sound.

"WELL LOOK WHO'S WRONG!" Joe shouted quickly reloading as more lightning bolts struck down.

"There's always room for error!" John yelled as the dogs charged towards the shelter once more.

Nicholas and Joe fired as fast as they could, killing fourteen of them with their combined gunfire, with Joe killing them from afar and Nicholas shooting anything Joe had missed. Judith blew apart three Hellhounds with her Ruger 1103 from the other end of the hallway. Nick bashed 9 Hellhounds with C.N., each strike killing a Hellhound.

John was shooting his G11, aiming at the heads of the undead dogs and managing to pick of 7 of them. The teens were forced back into the shelter. Suddenly, the dogs coming at John and Nick suddenly dashed around them and came at Nicholas and Joe, forcing them back further into the shelter. Jess, Liam, and Andrew fended off the Hellhounds that attacked from inside of the building, shooting and slashing where they could.

"Guys, we can't hold out much longer!" Nicholas yelled as he began reloading frantically as Judith covered him with her Ruger 1103.

Suddenly a Hellhound jumped over the group and charged at Judith, who was aiming at another Hellhound and couldn't see the undead monster coming at her. Suddenly, Liam jumped in front of the Hellhound and stabbed at it, but the Hellhound dashed past the attack and tackled Liam to the ground, snarling furiously.

"Liam! No!" Judith screamed, aiming at the Hellhound.

Suddenly Judith was caught from behind by the Hellhound she was previously aiming at and fell to the ground with a scream as the Hellhound pinned her to the ground.

"No!" Nicholas yelled helplessly as he tried to fend off the hordes of devil dogs coming at them.

"_**I think that's enough"**_

Suddenly the Hellhounds on top of Judith and Liam exploded in a shower of green light as they disintegrated. The group looked and saw a black figure holding two guns that were glowing bright green. The figure laughed and began firing green lasers out of both guns at the teens. Everyone hit the floor as the figure shot Hellhound after Hellhound with a horrifyingly precise aim. Instead of reloading when both guns needed to be reloaded, the figure simply pulled off a large gun off of its back and clipped the two guns to its belt.

_**"**__**BYE BYE PUPPIES!"**_ the figure yelled cheerfully as the Hellhounds braced themselves for what was coming.

A massive blast of wind shot out of the cannon-like gun and slammed into the remaining twenty Hellhounds in the hallway, which howled in pain before exploding or falling to the ground dead. The group of teens looked at the pile of dead Hellhounds, and then at the figure who had saved them.

"Who…who are you?" Nicholas asked in a low voice as he slowly got to his feet.

The figure chuckled and said in an ethereal voice _**"I've been watching you all since you fled your school. You've done well to survive this long, and I think you may be the ones to stop him…"**_

"_That voice…it's so familiar."_ Nicholas thought with a frown.

"Nicholas, look at that thing's guns! Those are _Ray Guns_! And that's the _Thundergun_ in its hands!" Liam said in amazement.

"No way…those don't exist." Nick said in shock, blinking in amazement.

"_**Oh? Then what about the Hellhounds I just saved you from? Did those exist?"**_ the figure asked with a laugh. Nick shrugged, and the figure said "I thought so. They've always been real, its just you didn't know of their existence before today

"What's your name, friend?" Jess said with a smile as she hopped to her feet.

The figure seemed taken aback and said in a surprised tone _**"F-friend?"**_

"Yeah, you saved our lives, and you seem all right." Jess chirped.

"_**Friends…hmm…very well...You all are children still, as I was, and are still innocent and pure…plus he seems to think you can be trusted"**_ The figure said softly as it lowered its Thundergun and put it on its back.

"So, what do we call you?" John asked politely.

The figure stepped out from the shadows in a rather slow and dramatic fashion. It was wearing a full length black trench coat with a black hood on, covering its face. The figure stood at about six feet with glowing orange eyes.

"_**My name…is Samantha."**_ The figure said, its voice changing slightly, to adopt a less frightening tone. It seemed more ethereal and odd than frightening.

"Samantha…Samantha Maxis." Nicholas said in amazement as the figure chuckled under its breath.

"What's wrong?" Judith asked Nicholas, who shook his head.

"She's a ghost in Black Ops Zombies. She's the one who controls the Zombies that try to attack you. She's also," Nicholas realized "the one who sent us the Max Ammo when we were fighting that big hellhound thing at the paintball complex? Am I right?"

"_**You're not wrong."**_ Samantha replied coolly.

"How…how are you real? Why is all of this happening? Why now?" Joe asked their savior.

"_**It's a long story, but one I think we have time for. First, I'd like to introduce another friend of yours…I believe he is from your school."**_ Samantha said to the group.

The glowing orange eyes flickered and closed for a moment before the figure shook its head and threw back the hood. A dark skinned young man with short black hair smiled back and them and said in a deep voice "Hey guys, what's up?"

Everyone's jaw dropped at once in surprise.

"Jax!" everyone said at once, clearly relieved to see him.

Jax was a friend of theirs back at Bradburn High School who played trombone. He was rather quiet, but was well liked by everyone in the band for just being a friendly guy.

"Jax, what happened to you at the football game?" Jess asked.

"I was able to escape into the woods, but the Zombies were right behind me. Samantha saved me from the Zombies by gaining control of them...Then, well…" Jax paused for a moment and said "We talked for a bit, and I let her posses me so she could help me fight off the Zombies and stay alove. She told me what happened, why all of the Zombies are attacking. We're going to need your guy's help on this." Jax explained to the teens.

"Why? What's going on?" Liam asked Jax, who shook his head.

"That's for Sam to explain." Jax said, glancing at to his side.

Samantha appeared in her ghost form as a black haired young girl. She had dark black eyes and a rather large nose, and had the look of infinite sadness and exhaustion on her face.

"_**It's a long story, you all may as well get comfortable…."**_ Samantha said quietly, her voice losing most of its harshness. She actually sounded like a little girl, though it still had a strange ethereal quality to it. The group closed and locked the front and back doors, barricaded the entrances and boarded the windows again, and walked upstairs to the lounge. After getting some snacks and sodas open, the group looked expectantly at the young ghost.

"OK, first of all. How are you real?" Nicholas asked popping open a Dr. Pepper and taking a sip.

"It's a long story…but like I said, there's a lot to this" Samantha said in reply. She paused for a moment before continuing.

"_**I've been watching over the events of the world over the past few decades, keeping an eye out for things...signs of what was to come…The first thing that you must know is during the 1960's, during the Cold War, the biggest cover-up in the history of Earth occurred, and only a select few that are alive today know about what I'm about to tell you." Samantha said to the teens, who exchanged looks.**_

"And that is?" Andrew asked after a few moments.

"I am aware that many are familiar with the events that happened regarding Group 935. I also know that these events were revealed to you and the world through the lens of a video game. Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops…"

"What you didn't know is what the entire world doesn't know. Or rather…it will now" Samantha said in a soft voice.

"You see…it was all real" Samantha whispered to the teens, who looked at her with disbelief.

"That's insane." Joe said quietly in shock.

"_**It's true, at least everything concerning group 935 and the Zombies…you see, after Richtofen betrayed my daddy, I was sent to the moon, and I became what you see now…daddy told me before he died…to make them pay!" **_Samantha said angrily and her eyes flashed orange.

"But what exactly happened?" Nicholas said to Samantha, who calmed slightly.

"_**Richtofen planned to take control of my Zombies, so he could rule the world. So, he traveled to the Moon, where I was at the time, in order to subdue me and take away my control over the powers the M.P.D. had given me . He was able to trick the three other Zombie fighters, Tank Dempsey,, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki into helping him switch places with me so he could control the Zombies."**_

"_**They didn't know what they were doing at the time, so I do not blame them for what happened... My daddy knew what Richtofen was going to do though, and he had us fire rockets at the Earth, killing all of the Zombies back on Earth. However…" **_Sam said with a sigh.

"OK, so Richtofen switched places with you, and then the four of you bombed the Earth. Then what happened?" Nicholas asked Samantha, who looked away.

* * *

><p>Flashback:<p>

Time Period: Unknown

Location: Moon

* * *

><p>"Hahahahaha!" Dr Maxis, Samantha's father laughed as the fiery bursts appeared on the planet, wiping out all of the Zombies across the Earth.<p>

"Uh…that's it? Seriously? All that work and all we did was blow up the Earth? What the f*ck?" Tank said in amazement as he watched the massive explosion.

"I promised to destroy every last remnant of 935. I WILL destroy them all!" Takeo said passionately as he gripped his gun tightly.

"But, I want my body back! I'll destroy that evil Richtofen for taking Daddy away!"Samantha said angrily, the face of Richtofen turning into a snarl.

"Peace child, you shall have your revenge." Takeo said reloading his AUG.

"Yes, and I shall have some vodka." Nikolai said with a grin as he reach for his flask, but the grin vanished when he realized with his suit on, and he couldn't drink anything.

_**"You fools! I vill destroy all of you!"**_ Richtofen's voice shouted through the entire base.

"I'm going to kill that psychopath!" Tank said reloading his Galil with a growl, stomping towards the nearest door.

"No. I have a plan. Daddy had another plan to stop him. He hid it in the base here. We must find it." Samantha said to the three warriors.

"Hold on a sec, little girl. You've made our lives hell all this time, why should we trust you?' Tank said with a skeptical look at Samantha, their newest and unexpected ally.

"Daddy is gone, so all I have left is to kill Richtofen…" Richtofen's became rather sorrowful and she said " I'm sorry for harming you…all of you… I just want to make Richtofen pay" Samantha said in a soft tone.

"We can trust her." Takeo said nodding at Samantha, who looked relieved.

"Fine, only because I REALLY hate that son of bitch right now." Tank said with a nod.

"Hey, kept it PG Dempsey. Teenagers read this crappy fanfiction." Nikolai said to the marine, who looked confused.

"What is this that you speak of? Such dishonor." Takeo said shaking his head.

"I'm serious, stop cussing now. Nikolai commands it!" Nikolai said with a frown, trying to figure out how to get the vodka into him without taking his helmet off and killing himself.

"Fine, you retarded drunk. Hey, little girl, where do we go first?" Tank asked Richtofen/Samantha.

"Follow me." Samantha said briskly, reloading the Ray-Gun and walking towards the nearest doorway.

The group walked through the space station; following Richtofen's possessed body as it stumbled through the complex in an awkward manner. It seemed Samantha was still getting used to using a body herself, but was quickly learning how to walk again after being a spirit for so long. Finally they re-entered the room that they would come out of when they teleported out of Area 51, and starting room of the Griffin Station.

"Why are we back here?" Dempsey asked under his breath.

"This is where the device is. Daddy told me it could stop Richtofen." Samantha replied softly.

"What is it?" Dempsey asked Samantha, who looked at him.

_"__Another device. Like the one Richtofen used on me. The Vril Generator… except this one is different. It can reverse what that man has done to me."_ Samantha explained to the marine, who nodded in understanding.

Samantha walked up to a wall and placed a hand on a seemingly random part of the wall. It shimmered and disappeared, apparently being not a wall at all. A white safe with intricate designs inscribed on it was revealed in a small alcove in the wall.

"What is in that safe?" Takeo asked Samantha.

"What can put that evil man back in his body, and stop all of this." Samantha said with a smile.

Samantha placed her hand on the safe and muttered something inaudible, and the door to the safe flew open. A black rod-like object was revealed inside of the safe, decorated with strange runes. Samantha picked it up and said "I will watch him suffer…"

"OK, come on little girl, let's go. We've got to get back to that lunatic before he can figure out a way to get the Zombies back on earth." Dempsey said to Samantha, who nodded.

"Too true. Hey Dempsey, look, a crawler!" Nikolai said pointing at a Zombie with its legs blown off, courtesy of Dempsey. It snarled and tried to swipe at Nikolai, who jumped two feet in the air in surprise and aimed his AK74fu2 at it and said "DIE FILTHY BEAST!"

"Leave it be, we must focus on our mission." Takeo said to the Russian, who scowled at Takeo.

"Killjoy." Nicolai muttered as they turned around left the room, leaving the crawler behind.

Samantha led the way into the room that resembled a crypt. The strange-looking pyramid in the center of the room, also known as the M.P.D. stood in the middle of the room was ,still open. Samantha's ghost looked at them and cackled in a evil manner as the approached.

"So, you think you can stop mine glorious plan? You haff already lost child, accept defeat." Richtofen said ethereally as his body walked towards him, his own face glaring at him.

_"__NEVER!"_ Samantha bellowed at the Doctor.

_**"Oh really now?"**_ Richtofen asked as he snapped his fingers.

Suddenly the end round music came on and Dempsey swore under his breath and said "What happened?"

"He must have killed the crawler. What a dishonorable trick!" Takeo said angrily.

_**"All's fair in love and WAR!"**_ Richtofen sang as Zombies began to pour in from all sides.

Sam began firing the Ray Gun nonstop at the hordes of Zombies, and the other three Zombie fighters did the same. The keep the horde of the undead at bay, but Richtofen just laughed.

_**"They vill never stop coming! I shall destroy all of you!"**_ Richtofen laughed as the Zombies continued to stream in from all sides.

"Their tearing us to pieces!" Dempsey yelled as he blasted through three Zombies with his Galil, ripping out his empty clip and jamming in a fresh one.

Samantha finally broke free of the horde and ran over to the stone where the Vril Generator was. She blasted it several times with her Ray gun to dislodge the device. Richtofen noticed what she was doing and said _**"Do you really think removing zhee device will harm me? It is too late, mine Samantha"**_

"No, BUT THIS WILL!"Samantha yelled as she put the black Vril Generator in the slot.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The entire space station shook violently as Richtofen shouted in agony as lights filled the room. Samantha clutched her head and screamed as she fell to her knees. All of the Zombies groaned as one and fell to the ground, dead. Meanwhile, the others just watched the development in suprise

"What now?!" Tank yelled.

"RUN! I'll hold him off as long as I can, but you must run! There is a teleporter in one of my daddy's laboratories… Farewell." Samantha said as her eyes begin to change from orange to blue.

Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo looked at each other. Nikolai and Dempsey started running towards the nearest hallway, Takeo close behind. Takeo looked back and saw both Richtofen and Samantha's souls go back into their original places.

"NO! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! YOU VITTLE BRAT!" Richtofen roared as he was switched back into his old body.

Samantha began to shake her head, trying to clear it. She grinned at the doctor and said _**"YOU'RE MINE NOW UNCLE EDWARD!"**_

"What! NIEN! Don't do zhis!" Richtofen screamed.

"_**GET HIM! MAKE HIM SUFFER FOR WHAT HE DID TO DADDY!" **_Samantha screamed in delight as newly spawning Zombies began to surround Richtofen.

Richtofen began shooting the Zombies with the Ray Gun clutched tightly in his hands, but there were just too many for him to fight alone. Richtofen yelled out in fear as the Zombies drew closer.

"NOOO! STOP!" Richtofen screamed, his voice echoing unusually loudly.

The Zombies stopped in their tracks-None of them moved, and their eyes suddenly flashed bright blue.

Richtofen looked around in amazement, as did Samantha. Samantha felt something like a shiver ripple through her as she felt a wave of weakness wash over her. The Zombie's eye colored began to flicker back and forth between orange and blue before finally settling on a light blue glow.

"Samantha…guess vhat?" Richtofen said in a singsong voice.

"_**No…"**_ Samantha whispered as horror gripped her.

"You're power is mine!" Richtofen shouted as a green aura rippled into existence around Richtofen, who began to cackle madly as Samantha screamed.

"_**Nooo!"**_ Samantha yelled as Richtofen ran through the nearest hallway, the Zombies running alongside him as he went after his former comrades.

"_**What have I done…daddy, I'm so sorry."**_ Samantha whispered as she floated towards the ground, somehow incredibly weak and able to leave the M.P.D.

"What the heck?" Dempsey said as Takeo started the teleporter up. The sound of Zombies coming could be heard all throughout the base, including the sound of Samantha's screams.

"Samantha's plan must have failed. Richtofen still controls the Zombies. We must go…quickly!" Takeo said in a low voice as his fingers flew across the keyboards.

"Not even vodka can save me now." Nikolai said as he reloaded his Raid, the pack-a-punched Stakeout.

Suddenly a white figure floated through the wall and said _**"There's not much time! He's coming this way! Run!"**_

"Making the final adjustments…it is done!" Takeo said with a grin as he and Nicolai ran to the teleporter. Dempsey made a move to go to the teleporter, but looked back at Samantha, who sighed deeply.

"What are you going to do, Samantha?" Tank asked the girl, who shook her head and said _**"I don't know...Richtofen is in his body, and he took most of my powers to control the undead ones…I failed…I messed up…we're doomed"**_

"Come with us. Maybe you can help us set this right." Nikolai said seriously, causing all three to look at him.

"Hey, this is serious. If I died, then I couldn't drink any vodka." Nicolai shrugged casually.

"_**Very well."**_ Samantha said as she floated over to the teleporter, which was set to teleport them to Earth.

The teleporter started up and the four disappeared in a flash of blue lightning. Richtofen walked around the corner and chuckled as he watched the light fade from the machine. He slowly walked over to the console and said "Just as planned…that little brat…she played right into mine hands…"

He began to type in a series of numbers until a coordinate popped up on the screen. Richtofen stepped onto the teleporter with a smirk before vanishing in a flash of lightning.

"They vill all fall…_**all of them"**_

* * *

><p>End Flashback:<p>

* * *

><p>Samantha remained silent and hung her head in shame. She had failed…Richtofen would have remained on the moon if it wasn't for her. Now he had a body, and the power to control Zombies, while she was weakened and was still a spirit.<p>

"Well, if all that is true, then where did Richtofen go?" Andrew asked Samantha.

Samantha shook her head and said _**"I don't know. He disappeared, and I spent many years looking for him. Eventually I settled down here, where I had gotten a familiar feeling once…So I waited for a sign of him, lingering in this realm and not speaking to anyone or anything. By some stroke of luck, I was nearby when he unleashed the Zombies on your town."**_

"You mean…?" Jess began in a soft voice.

"_**Yes, Edward Richtofen is the one behind this outbreak. He's begun his plan to control everything, just like he tried to all those years ago. He will destroy everything that you all hold dear, and will create his own world in its place" **_Samantha said to the teens.

"Unless we can stop him." Jax said in a confident tone.

Samantha nodded and said _**"Yes, unless you stop him...As it stands now, you wouldn't even be a threat, much less a challenge. You will need to train, to experience what the others experienced…Yes, you will be tested, and if you pass my test, then you will fight Richtofen." **_

"OK, what's the test?" Nick asked Samantha, who sighed in annoyance.

"_**Liam, slap him."**_ Samantha said to the black haired teen sitting next to Nick.

"Your wish is my command." Liam said, giving Samantha a saulte.

BAM!

"Owww…what was that for?" Nick whined, rubbing his cheek.

"_**I just said what the test was you fool. You will fight against hordes of the undead in a special area I've set up. You all will be pushed to the limit, and if you succeed, then you will be stronger than you were before."**_ Samantha said to Nick, who nodded.

"All right, let's move gooooo" Nicholas said suppressing a yawn.

Samantha laughed softly and said _**"You all have been fighting nonstop for hours, I'm sure you would all appreciate rest. The sun is up, and Richtofen thinks the Hellhounds have killed you all, so he has no reason to send anything this way. I'll keep watch, sleep through the day and you can depart at sundown." **_

"Sounds like a plan. Come on Judith, let's get some of the supplies from the truck." Jess said with a grin as she grabbed Judith's hand and pulled her outside quick as a flash. Liam shook his head and went outside to help them.

"_**That girl's quick."**_ Samantha noticed with a note of amusement in her voice.

"Yeah, she's a hyper one all right." Jax laughed.

"_**Jax, you should rest too. You've fought well today, and you need your rest." **_Sam said to the teen.

"Sure, sounds good to me." Jax said with a laugh.

"Hey Samantha, how come no one ever found out about the Zombies?" John asked Samantha curiously.

"_**It was the biggest cover-up in history. Everyone who knew of the Zombies was taken in by the government and sworn to secrecy, and there were many measures put into place to suppress the truth of Group 935 and what they did…Only the president and a few survivors remember the horror I caused."**_ Samantha replied.

A few minutes later the front door slammed shut, and then the back door. Jess, Liam, and Judith came into the room with sleeping bags and blankets in their arms. As everyone got comfortable, Sam looked at them each and said _**"Rest well…for this could be the last chance you'll get to sleep and live."**_

"Thanks for the pep talk. Now I'll be able to sleep just fine" Joe said sarcastically.

"Hey Andrew, could you tell me a story?" Nick said from across the room. Andrew smirked and said "Once upon a time, there was an idiot named Nick. He had a small dick. The end"

Judith and Liam laughed loudly while the others imply shook their heads with smiles. Even Nick laughed and said "Yeah, well, you can go to hell. Goodnight guys!"

"You all are very strange…I hope you all survive, just so I can see what you all do next" Samantha said with an odd smile on her face.

"Good night Sam." Jax said with a smile, used to the ghost's warnings of doom.

Samantha flew over to a bookcase and sat on it, looking at each of the teens as they snuggled in for the night. Nicholas sighed tiredly and said "Night guys."

"Goodnight!" everyone said at once.

Nicholas huddled deeper into his blanket, thankful for some comfort on this bloody night. He wondered if his family was safe…

If they had escaped the hordes of the undead? Were they OK? He prayed silently that he would see them, that they would somehow get out alright.

He wondered how the other survivors were faring, and whether or not they could continue to survive. The last thing Nicholas saw before closing his eyes was Samantha, floating solemnly nearby, looking through the window in deep thought.

"_Can things get any more crazy?"_ Nicholas thought with a small smile as he succumbed to the warm embrace of sleep.

But the craziness, and bloodshed, had only just begun.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>So yeah, that's the main storyline. Black Ops is real, and Richtofen is on the loose. <em>

_Can the teenage Zombie-slayers survive Samantha's test? _

_Find out next time, until then please review and show your support!_

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	6. Samantha's Test

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead Chapter Six: Samantha's Test**

**OK, so this is officially the longest chapter I've ever done. Thank you to all of my readers, you guys rock and those of you who review rock harder. Anyway, I'll stop ranting and let the chapter begin!**

**The Next Day: 6:27 P.M.**

The group got up the next morning refreshed and ready to go. The group got some more supplies from the Shelter and got ready to move out. Jax and Samantha stood nearby, but as the group got into the truck, Jax didn't follow.

"Aren't you coming?" Nicholas asked.

"No, we've got our own leads to look into. But while we do this, you can train." Jax said reloading both of his Ray Guns.

"_**Jax is correct. You must prove yourselves to me, then we can strike against Richtofen."**_ Samantha said.

"OK, what do we have to do?" Joe asked.

"_**Go to the large football stadium three miles north of here. Go inside and survive against the undead ones that will attack you. Survive for 20 Rounds, and that will be proof enough of your skills."**_ Samantha said.

"Wait, is this like, REAL Zombies? Like in the game?" John asked.

"As real as everything else you've encountered." Jax said with a grin.

"All right, sun's going down, so we better get going. Good to see you again Jax, stay safe bro." Nicholas said shaking Jax's hand.

"You too. Fight well." Jax smiled.

"_**Come Jax, we must depart."**_ Samantha said possessing Jax again.

Jax flung his arms out and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as the specter possessed him once more. Jax's eyes turned red again and he looked back at the group and smiled.

"_**Farewell."**_ Samantha and Jax said together said together before walking into the nearby woods and vanishing into the shadows.

"Good to know he's safe, and that Sam's watching his back." Liam said.

"Yeah, I hope he'll be all right." Judith said.

"He'll be fine. Let's roll, we've got to get to this stadium." Nicholas said.

**Ten Minutes Later:**

Jess pulled the truck into the stadium and only kocked down a fire hydrant, sending a fountain of water shooting into the air.

"Why did you let her drive!" Nick asked.

"She wouldn't stop bugging me about it." Liam said with a sigh as he got out of the truck.

The group got out of the truck and looked at the stadium before them. It was large, white and looked brand-new with wicked statues of famous athletes from all kinds of sports. The only things that showed that something was wrong was the fact that the guards in front of the stadium were dead ,and their guts were splattered all across the doors and their heads were mounted on the flagpoles.

"Damn, no kill quite like overkill" Joe said with a shaky laugh.

"Yep. Let's go, Sam said that if we can survive the Stadium, then we should be able to go against Richtofen. Let's go." Nicholas said opening the doors and stepping inside. A strange bluish and white electrical field separated the rest of the group from the inside of the building. Joe walked through next, followed by Jess. The rest of the group followed.

**Inside the Stadium:**

Nicholas was standing there, looking confused. His Stakeout and machete were gone and he was holding a small knife and a pistol in his hand. The others were looking at themselves in amazement, as they had only the same things on them.

"This is how it goes in Zombies. We start out with a knife and an M1911. Crap, I hope we can get our weapons back or at least keep the ones we get in here." Nicholas said with a sigh.

"C.N! WHERE ARE YOU!" Nick yelled, his voice echoing in the stadium.

"Guys, it looks like power to the whole stadium is out. Looks like we'll have to turn on the power and go from there." Liam said.

Suddenly a ghostly voice whispered in everyone's ears.

"_**All of your weapons are gone…will you survive like the others did…hmm….find the four power buttons to activate the Stadium's power, and to activate the teleporter. These buttons are scattered throughout the concession stands area of the stadium at certain positions in the Stadium layout… they're red and black, you can't miss them…get to the Pack-a-Punch machine…and then we'll see what you're really made of…hehehehe…have fun…" **_Sam's voice faded.

"I have a feeling she's just messing with us." Judith said.

"_**Fine, I'll occasionally help you guys with a perk or two. By the way, everything that you all know from what you call "Black Ops"…those apply to here now…"**_ Sam whispered.

"You mean the perk-a-cola's and all that?" Joe asked.

"Wait, can we get kill streaks?" Nick asked.

BAM!

"Owww…." Nick said rubbing head, after Liam pistol-whipped him in the skull.

"What is this, Nuketown?" Judith asked while Joe, John, and Andrew snickered in the background.

"So how many kills for an air strike?" Nick asked.

"_**If I had a physical presence, I'd strangle him."**_ Sam muttered.

"So anyway, can we buy perk-a-cola's?" Joe asked again.

"_**Yes, and so much more. HAVE FUN!"**_ Sam yelled as the sounds of Zombies were heard coming towards them.

Suddenly in the corner of everyone's eye a 500 appeared in various colors. They were 8 five hundreds in total, one for each of them.

"Guys, get ready. Round 1 is easy, but it can still get the unprepared." Nicholas said.

The first Zombies broke in through the glass windows in the front part of the Stadium. Judith ran up and knifed a Zombie, killing it instantly.

"Wow, this crap is so easy." Judith said as she stabbed another Zombie through the skull.

"It's only Round 1, what do you expect?" Joe said with a smirk.

Liam, about to stab a Zombie, whirled around and pistol-whipped Joe in the head, sending him crashing onto the floor.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR YOU JERK!" Joe yelled as he shot at a Zombie from the ground.

"You know very well." Liam said as Judith smiled at him.

"Less flirting, more killing!" Jess said jabbing a Zombie in the neck and killing it.

Jessica was firing her pistol was Zombies coming in through the barrier, while Nick ran up and killed them with his knife. Suddenly the Zombies stopped and a weird music played.

"Round two…get ready guys." Nicholas said.

Liam noticed a chalk outline on the wall that resembled a shotgun. He walked over to it as the Zombies were breaking in and a double-barreled shotgun appeared out of nowhere on the wall. Liam grinned and ripped it free from the wall aiming it at a Zombie that was coming at Judith.

Judith didn't have time to duck, and the Zombie was nearly upon her, when all of a sudden its shoulder exploded and the Zombie feel to the ground. Judith looked up and saw Liam grinning at her, holding a shotgun.

"You found an Olympia? How'd you get it?" Nicholas asked.

"That chalk outline on the wall. I just walked up to it and a weapon appeared." Liam explained.

"This is just like in Black Ops. Guys, look for another chalk outline, quick!" Nicholas yelled, shooting a Zombie repeatedly in the chest before knifing it.

In the end, Judith found the second chalk outline. She walked up to it and a long-brown and grey gun appeared through the wall. Judith walked up to the gun and tried to grab it off the wall, but it wouldn't budge.

"This gun won't come off!" Judith yelled as she shot at a Zombie three or four times and then ripped his throat through with her knife.

"That's what she said." Nick said firing at a Zombie's head.

"You need more points, check your score!" Nicholas yelled while knifing a Zombie twice before turning around and shooting at another Zombie that was giving Nick trouble.

Judith saw out of the corner of her eye the scoreboard, and saw she had 940 points.

"How many do I need to get?" Judith asked.

"For the first two guns, it's usually 500. Not sure why it's a thousand now. Try killing another Zombie, then get it." Liam suggested blasting through two Zombies at once.

Judith ducked under a swipe from Zombie coming from behind and fire at him repeatedly and then stabbed him in the chest. The Zombie fell to the ground with a groan. Judith ran up to the gun and this time it came off of the wall. Judith grinned and turned around to use it when she realized the Zombies were all gone, the round was over.

"Crap, I just wasted all of those points." Judith said angrily.

"Then you can be at the front when we open the doors, you never know what's going to be coming." Nicholas said.

"Open the doors? What do you mean?" Liam asked.

"Look to the side over there." Nicholas said pointing to the left and right of the hallway.

There was a pile of debris blocking both passageways to get through the stadium. Nicholas walked up to the pile and looked at it carefully, and said "OK, we'll clear the debris using out points when we get some more."

The creepy music that indicated a new round began to play and the teens prepared themselves for another barrage of Zombies. With two people watching a barrier, the group made quick work of the Zombies.

"Crap, out of ammo." John said.

"Me, too" Nick said.

"Crap." Nicholas said pressing the trigger of his pistol and getting a click.

"All right guys, just knife from here on in. When Round 4 starts we'll open the "doors" and get more guns." Nicholas said stabbing a Zombie through the skull and ripping it out in a spray of blood.

The group of teens continued to fight of the Zombies, but found they were getting harder to kill. Andrew stabbed a Zombie through the skull and it swiped at him and sent him flying a few feet.

"You OK?" Nick asked getting the Zombie from behind and stabbing it through the neck, killing it.

"Yeah, caught me surprise." Andrew said.

"Liam, don't kill that Zombie!" Nicholas yelled as Liam lowered his knife on a Zombie that had multiple stab wounds in the chest.

"Let's open the doors now, while we have a crawler." Nicholas said walking over to the pile of debris on the left.

"Guys, we're going to have to split up. Joe, you, Liam, Nick, and Judith head that way. Activate the power if you find it. We'll head the other way and see what we can do. If the power turns on, find those two switches to activate the teleporter. Be careful. John, Jess, and Andrew, you guys are with me. Let's roll." Nicholas said placing a hand on the top of the debris.

A bolt of lightning consumed the debris and it all flew up and went through the ceiling.

"Joe, take this." Nicholas said tossing him a walkie-talkie.

"Cool, I'll let you know if anything comes up." Joe said.

"OK, we're Team Alpha. You Guys are Team Beta."

"That's so freaking nerdy bro." Andrew said shaking his head.

"Whatever. Later guys." Nicholas said as he broke into a run with the rest of the group.

"Come on, let's go." Joe said placing a hand on the debris in front of him, and achieving a similar effect as Nicholas did.

Team Beta continued on their way. They came across an area with souvenir and snack stands. Instead of snacks however, there was blood on the counters a chalk outline of a gun on a nearby wall. Joe looked around and said "OK, let's stay here for a little while, rest up for a few minutes."

Judith walked over to the wall and said "One of us should get the gun. Nick, I think you should try it."

"Sure, give me a sec" the short teen said walking over to the wall.

An Uzi appeared through the wall, though Joe realized it was an MPL and Nick grabbed it off of the wall and said "Awesome!" Nick's points decreased by a thousand.

"OK, so the only one who needs a better weapon is me. Let's keep looking around." Joe said with a smirk.

The grouped fanned out and looked for anymore weapons. After a minute of searching, they came across a yellow soda machine that was playing a faint jingle.

"Hey Joe, what is this thing?" Judith asked.

"It's a Perk-a-Cola Machine. Basically you use your points like money and buy a bottle of whatever the perk is. This particular one is Double Tap." Joe explained.

"So what does Double Tap do?' Judith asked.

"It increases the rate of fire that your guns shoot. It can be really helpful and combined with another Perk-a-Cola, Speed Cola; it can be a deadly combo. Unfortunately you can run out of ammo really quickly with Double Tap, so I'd maybe get the more important perks before getting this one." Joe said.

"Hey, what's that?" Liam asked walking over to another chalk outline none of them noticed before.

Another chalk outline was on the wall, a wicked looking hook meant to be used as a melee weapon. Joe walked up to it and said "This thing costs 3000 points…I'll risk it." Joe said, knowing full well he was using 3000 of his 3120 points.

A wicked Sickle appeared on the wall and Joe pulled it off with a grin on his face. He swung it around for a moment and said "All right, now things are getting fun."

"Hey, check with Nicholas; see if he found anything yet." Liam said.

"Yeah, that crawler went their way too. I wonder if they've killed it yet?" Judith asked.

"No, we would've heard the end of round music. Hey Nicholas, you there?" Joe asked.

**Team Alpha:**

"OK guys, let's see what we've got to work with here." Nicholas said walking around.

They were near a few souvenir stands, selling hats that were drenched in blood and gore. Nicholas noticed a green vending machine and smiled upon their good fortune.

"Speed Cola. That'll help a bunch when we get power." Nicholas said.

"Speed Cola? What's that?" Jess asked walking up to chalk outline on the wall, a strange square-like thing.

"Jess! Those are grenades, get some of them." Nicholas said.

"YEAH! Boom boom!" Jess laughed happily as she strapped six grenades to her belt.

John, Andrew and Nicholas all walked up and bought some grenades as well. There was a faint growling sound coming from behind them, as a Zombie with its legs cut off made its way towards them very slowly. Andrew grinned and walked up to it and kicked it in the face, causing it to snarl at him.

"Hey, this is fun." Andrew said with a grin.

"Just don't kill it. We need to wait for the others to call in." John said.

"So what's Speed Cola?" Jess asked again.

"It speeds up how fast you reload your gun. It's a really good perk, but you've got to turn on the power first." Nicholas explained.

"Guys, we've got Double Tap, an MPL, and a Sickle over here. What do you guys got?" Joe asked over the radio.

"Grenades and Speed Cola. Hey, do you guys want a Sickle or an MPL?" Nicholas asked the group, who shook their heads.

"We're good, but if want to, come and get some grenades, they'll help make more crawlers." Nicholas said.

"Sure." Joe said.

Team Beta ran over and quickly got some grenades. They told Team Alpha good luck and as Joe passed by, he stabbed the Zombie crawler through the back with his sickle.

"OH COME ON! I've been messing with that Zombie for three minutes, why did you kill him?" Andrew complained.

(Round 4)

"I've got no points, I need that kill." Joe replied as he walked away, twirling his sickle.

"Jerk." Andrew muttered.

The end of round music came on and Nicholas said "Get ready."

Zombies not only broke though the front doors, but through a side door behind John. Andrew pistol whipped a Zombie trying to get him and shot it twice before killing by ripping out its throat. Jess kicked a Zombie in the chest and shot it in the head before kill it with a well-placed stab to the chest. John slashed and stabbed Zombie while Nicholas aimed for their chests, before slashing at their throats for the kill.

A group of fifteen Zombies began to run towards the group, and Jess and John looked at each other and grinned before hurling two grenades each at the Zombies, blowing them to Kingdom Come. When the Zombies were all dead and the end of round music came on, Jess said "Hey, we should open the next door."

(Round 5)

A garage door gate was blocking them from going any further. John walked up, as he had the most points and placed his hand on the door. It flew open and he walked in, followed by the rest of the group.

John noticed it first, the power button on the wall, hidden just out of sight. John walked over and flipped open a box protecting the switch and pressed it on. The lights flickered, but then shut off. The start round music began to play.

"Nice work John, now let's see what in this room." Nicholas said with a grin as they walked through the room.

Jess walked over to a chalk outline and grabbed a familiar black machine gun. Nicholas ran up and grabbed the gun with a grin.

"Guys, get this gun, it's really good." Nicholas said with a laugh as he began to shoot at a few Zombies heading their way.

John and Andrew both bought the gun and began firing at Zombies. Jess ducked under a swing from a Zombie woman and slammed the gun in her face before slashing her throat with her knife. Andrew and John were aiming at the heads of the Zombies, killing anything they saw rather quickly. Nicholas crouched down and was aiming at the Zombies chests, killing them after five or six shots each. As this wave of Zombies ended, John asked "Hey, what's this gun called anyway?"

"This is the MP40. Wunderbar!" Nicholas said in a mock-German accent.

Nicholas looked behind him and noticed that a Zombie was going for John. He aimed the MP40 and shot it three times in the skull, killing it. John did a mock-salute to Nicholas and tossed a grenade at a trio of Zombies.

**Team Beta:**

Joe ran up to a Zombie and rammed the sickle through her chest, and yanked it out in a spray of crimson. Joe grinned and continued to slash and stab Zombies with the deadly hook. Nick was making quick work of a group of security guard Zombies with the MPL. Liam fired through three Zombies at once with his Olympia, blowing a bloody hole through each one. Judith was carefully aiming at each one of the Zombies heads with the M14, shooting each one carefully and killing ten in this method.

"Nick, open the next door!" Judith said as Liam tossed a grenade at a fan with one arm and three salesman.

"You've got it!" Nick grinned running up and placing a hand on the pile of junk, which flew upwards in a flash of lightning.

(Round Six)

The round ended again and the group walked through to the next room. It was a room with a fancy fountain in the middle of it, with clear sparkling water shooting out of an angel's wings. Liam walked over and flipped a penny into the fountain.

"What did you wish for?" Judith asked.

"For things to get back to normal. I always thought I'd enjoy this stuff, and while it's fun, its nerve-wracking knowing you may not survive." Liam said.

"Well, Chuck Norris would survive this." Nick said with a grin.

"Not now." Joe said with a sigh.

"You're right, it's fun, but we've gotta figure out a way to get things back to normal." Joe said.

"Guys, let's look around. We've gotta see what we've got to work with." Judith said.

"Right." The three guys said as they searched the room.

Other than an empty shop with a dead family in it, their guts splattered all over the walls, this area seemed clear. Zombies began to break through the windows, and Liam reloaded his Olympia, cursing how slow and tedious it was. Joe ran up to the window and rammed the sickle through a Zombie, killing it before it touched the window. Nick ran up to a window and fired in it, killing the Zombies at a distance.

Judith however, found what the guys had missed. A chalk outline on the far corner of the room, and a power switch was next to it. But it was covered in a bulletproof glass case. Judith ran up to the wall and grabbed the new gun, yelling out in triumph. The guys looked back and saw her with an AK74u. Liam and Nick ran up to the wall and grabbed an AK74u each, putting their other weapons on their backs in another holder.

Joe noticed the switch on the wall and ran up to it while the others fought off the Zombies. The switch could only be opened with a ten digit security code. Joe smirked and said "OK Chuck, let's see how good this ability is."

Joe pressed ten numbers and the box flew open, revealing the switch.

"Authorization Code required. Please input five-digit Authorization code." A computerized voice said.

"No prob." Joe said breaking the code effortlessly.

Joe pressed the button and lights flickered for a moment, and then died. The others looked at him and Nick yelled "Nice one Joe, how'd you do that?"

Joe grinned and yelled "CHUCK NORRIS DID IT!"

Nick laughed and yelled "HUZZAH!"

**Team Alpha:**

"Guys, are you ready to go to the next room?" Jess asked walking over to a closed gate.

"How about it?" Nicholas asked Andrew and John, who nodded.

"Woo!" Jess yelled with a grin as she opened the gate and ran past it.

Nicholas kicked the crawler in face as he passed it, and it snarled in anger at him. John laughed and shot it three times with his M1911. The Zombie fell forward, ending the round.

(Round 7)

"Nice. Great job John." Andrew said sarcastically.

"Hey…shut up." John said with an annoyed look.

"Guys, come look at this!" Jess yelled.

The three teens ran into the next room and saw Jess sitting on top of a red soda machine and Nicholas yelled "HELL YEAH!"

Jess jumped off and said "So, what does this one do?"

"This is an essential for Zombie-slaying, especially in Black Ops. This is Juggernog. It makes you stronger, so it allows you to take more hits from Zombies. It's the most popular and arguably the best of the Perk-a-Colas." Nicholas explained.

"Sweet, but why doesn't it work?" Andrew asked pointing to the powered-off soda machine.

"The power's off smart one." Jess replied jumping off of the machine.

"Oh yeah."

The group continued to spread out to see if there were anymore items to find. Jess ended up finding an MPK5, to her delight. She fired at Andrew, who yelped in surprise and fell to the ground, clutching his arm.

"Umm…whoops." Jess said with a small smile

"The hell-there's friendly fire?" John said.

"Guys, help!" Andrew yelled from the ground.

"Huh, that's weird. I guess Andrew is down now. How can we heal him?" Nicholas asked.

"_**Check your back pocket."**_ Samantha answered.

"Help me, you idiots!" Andrew said again.

Nicholas reached into his back pocket and pulled out a box. Nicholas opened the box and saw it was full of syringes with a clear fluid in them.

"Huh, that's pretty cool." John said.

"Oh come on, that'll never work." Jess said.

"Help me, come on already!" Andrew yelled.

"Are you trying to distract me from healing Andrew?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah, I think she is." John smirked.

"No! I am OFFENDED that you would ever accuse me of such a thing! HMPH!" Jess said looking away with a grin.

"I'm still lying here…why won't anyone help me?" Andrew asked himself.

"Hmm…I think she's trying to stall us." Nicholas decided finally.

"Really? You don't say!" Andrew asked gritting his teeth in pain as Nicholas observed the syringes.

"These must be the syringes used to revive people in Zombies. Cool. Hold on Andrew, this'll take just a sec." Nicholas said taking one and putting it in Andrew's shoulder. Andrew hissed in pain, but got up on his feet, his bullet wound gone. Andrew glared at Jess who began whistling.

"Here come the Zombies!" John said firing his MP40 and killing three with four shots in the chest and three in the throat. Andrew shot a few Zombies in the chest with the MP40, but then ended up stabbing them with his knife with a grin. Jess ducked to avoid a Zombie swipe and kicked it in the head, and then pressed the MPK5 to the Zombie's stomach and fired into his chest, creating a hole right through it, hitting three other Zombies behind him. Nicholas expertly aimed the MP40 and killed seven Zombies by firing through their strangely fortified skulls.

"Come to think of it, why DOES it take so many headshots to kill a Zombie?"Nicholas asked no one in particular.

"Less asking, more fighting!" Jess yelled slashing Zombie woman's hand off and shooting her in the face.

The group continued to fight off the horde, effectively ending the round with a few grenades.

(Round 8)

**Team Beta:**

Zombies began to break through the windows again and Joe got a scratch on the chin from where a security guard came from behind and swiped at him. Judith, Nick, and Liam held down the triggers of their guns and showed no mercy to the hordes of the undead.

"Guys, let's move on. I need to get a gun, preferably one that's new." Joe said.

"Sure, I'll open this one." Liam said pulling out the Olympia and firing twice, killing three Zombies.

Liam walked over to a nearby garage door, reloading while he walked, and pressed his hand on the door, which flew open at the cost of 1250 points. Nick and Judith killed the few Zombies that were left and ran after the two other teens that had gone head. This room contained a large food court area, with several dead spectators on the ground, caught in the waves of the undead before they got to finish their snacks.

Nick walked over and immediately began raiding the pizza stand. Judith and Liam looked at each other and face-palmed at the same time. Joe let out a yell of suprise and yelled "GUYS, GET OVER HERE!"

Liam and Judith ran over to Joe while Nick staggered under the weight of four pizza boxes. Joe was standing next to a long wooden box propped up on a few cinder blocks. There were two glowing white question marks on the box and a pillar of blue light surrounded the box.

"The Mystery Box." Joe said with a note of glee.

"What does this do?" Judith asked.

"Basically, you can gamble your points for a chance to get a good gun. You can get anything from a spare pistol to the all-powerful Thundergun. You use 950 points per "roll", but it's usually worth it. Some guns are better than others, especially when it comes to Zombies. Let me show you." Joe said pressing his hand on the box, and his point total dropped by 950. Judith and Liam both grabbed a slice of pizza from Nick and chowed down.

The box opened up and gold light shot out of a box that was empty except for some hay in it. A gun floated up, a Commando and suddenly switched to a different gun, and then another gun, and then another. It switched between guns quickly while a creepy music played. After a few seconds, the guns stop changing and two black pistols were revealed.

"Huh, double C275's? That'll work." Joe said with a grin as he grabbed the guns and the box closed again.

"My turn!" Judith said with a grin as she pressed a hand on the box, and as Joe grabbed two slices of pizza and devoured them.

The box flew open and the guns began to change, finally landing on a black and orange gun. Judith grabbed it and said "Cool."

"Yeah, that's the FN-FAL. It's pretty good for your first roll." Joe said.

Liam walked forward and rolled, and the box finally ended up giving him an AUG, a silver gun with a scope lens. Liam grinned and said "Oh yeah, that'll work."

"Yay! My turn!" Nick said placing his hand on the box, which began to glow and a eventually revealed a single pistol.

"AWWW MAN!" Nick yelled angrily trading his empty M1911 for the better pistol, the C275.

"Why don't you roll again?" Judith suggested as she aimed her FN-FAL and shot the heads off five Zombie spectators.

"Yeah, I want a redo." Nick said placing his hand on the box, which opened and displayed a changing weapon. Suddenly a teddy bear appeared, followed by Samantha's laughter.

"Hey! What was that for!" Nick yelled.

"_**Sorry, them's the rules."**_ Samantha laughed at the short teen's misery.

"Ugh." Nick said firing his pistol at the Zombies.

Despite its appearance, the C275 made quick work of a few Zombie security guards. Judith blasted the heads off several referees and yelled "Yeah! Now this is more like it!"

Liam mowed down a wave of ten Zombies like it was nothing, utilizing the AUG's lens-sight, and grinned in delight as a Zombie tried to attack him, and promptly got it's head blown off by a hailstorm of bullets. Joe fired from his Dual-C275's, killing anything that tried to come near him or the others.

"Guys, look for the switch!" Judith yelled.

While the group fended off the hordes of Zombies while looking for the switch, and in the end Nick spotted it next to a stairway leading to a storage room. Nick ducked under a Zombie, firing three times into it's face for good measure, and ran up to the power box and flipped it open, slamming the power switch with his hand. The light flickered for a moment before sputtering to nothing again as the shot Zombie collapsed to the ground and the round ended.

(Round Nine)

"Nice work man, now let's show these scum-sucking marrow junkies who's boss." Liam said with a grin as he reloaded his AUG.

The others reloaded and prepared themselves for another swarm of Zombies.

**Team Alpha:**

"There's too many!" Andrew yelled jumping back and firing into a sale's clerk's face.

The new round was proving to be challenging, as the room didn't give them a whole lot of room to maneuver and the Zombies poured in from every direction.

"At least we'll go down swinging!" John yelled ducking under a Zombie security guard and slicing his throat out and killing him.

Nicholas growled as a Zombie caught his sleeve with a swipe and fired into it's skull. Jess was firing wildly into the horde, damaging Zombies rather than killing, but making it was making it easier for the others to combat the horde.

The was a sudden a flash of green and a familiar noise that only meant one thing. Nicholas looked to his left and saw a nuke, not even five feet away.

"I'm going for it!" Nicholas yelled running at the Nuke.

The Zombies converged on Nicholas, but before they could even groan at him, an explosion noise echoed through the stadium, and every Zombie inside the building burst into flames and fell onto the ground.

"_**KABOOM!"**_ Samantha said with a note of glee.

"You like to make everything blow up, don't you?" Jess asked as the end of round music came on.

"_**Kind of."**_ Samantha chuckled.

"Come on; let's go to the next room." Nicholas said walking over and putting his hands on the garage door. It flew open and Nicholas's points dropped to 4490.

(Round 10)

The group observed their new surroundings as Zombies began to break in through the windows in the previous rooms. For some reason, the windows resealed themselves every round. When Nicholas asked Sam about it, all she would say is that it was in her best interests to keep us alive, not worrying about fixing barriers for 10 points per board.

This made sense to the teens, because they accepted the help and continued to look around. Andrew spotted a Deadshot Daiquiri Machine nearby, which looked like a very battered soda machine.

"We'll worry about that once we get the power back on." Nicholas said once Andrew had pointed it out to the others.

"What does it do?" John asked.

"It helps you aim for the head when you aim, eliminates recoil from guns, and helps keep your aim steady when using guns with a long-range scope," Nicholas explained.

The room itself was the largest one they had spotted so far. It was another main entranceway to the stadium, and there were two escalators that led to the higher up floors. The group looked around, spotting a box with question marks on it and a column of blue light enveloping it.

"Mystery Box. Now we're talking." Nicholas said with a grin.

Nicholas walked up to it and said "All right, let's go!"

Nicholas placed his hand on the box and it flew open with a creepy song while guns changed in the box, eventually landing on a small old-fashioned looking pistol.

"A Python. Wow, that's pretty epic." Nicholas said taking the gun that he personally was fond of in Zombies.

"OK, my turn." John said pressing his hand on the box, causing it to rotate until it final landed on a strange looking gun, it look like a Ray Gun except of a small area of it that glowed bright blue. John grabbed it and was surprised to find that the part that was blue was freezing to touch.

"Dude, that's the Winter's Howl!" Andrew said excitedly.

"So I can freeze stuff with this thing? That's pretty…cool." John said laughing a little at his own pun.

"My turn!" Jess yelled happily pushing John onto the floor and pressing her hand on the box.

"Ow! That hurt!" John yelled picking himself up as Zombies burst through the window and walked towards them.

"Come on come on come on come on come on STOP!" Jess yelled as the Mystery Box stopped and landed on a large black and orange gun.

"Oooh, I like this. What is it?" Jess asked grabbing it and testing the weight of it.

"That's the RPK, pretty good gun with a good amount of ammo, but I tend to run out of ammo rather quickly when I get this gun in Zombies." Nicholas mused as the box closed again.

"Come on Andrew, you're up." John said as he fired at the incoming Zombies with the MP40.

"I'm good." Andrew said walking over to the wall.

"What?" Nicholas said in amazement.

Andrew turned around holding up a wickedly sharp butchers knife that was about a foot long with an grey grip on it. The Bowie Knife. Andrew swung it experimentally and said "I like it."

"All right, good call. You're better with melee weapons than the rest of us, but be careful, Zombies get harder to kill as the rounds increase." Nicholas warned.

"Gotcha." Andrew said pulling out his MP40 and shooting several Zombies in the skull.

Nicholas slashed at a Zombie with his knife, doing little damage and blew a hole through its head with the Python, and then killed several Zombies in a similar fashion before reloading, which took several seconds. Jess stepped in front of Nicholas and killed the rest of the Zombies by firing her RPK at the Zombie's heads, which quickly killed them. The round ended then and everyone turned around as a garage door flew open, revealing Joe, Nick, Liam and Judith standing there looking slightly winded.

(Round 11)

"That was nuts." Liam said with a sigh as he walked over to Nicholas and high-fived him.

"So how have you guys been holding up?" Judith asked Jess.

"I got to shoot Andrew." Jess said happily.

"I KNEW YOU DID IT ON PURPOSE!" Andrew yelled.

"Yeah…it was fun." Jess smiled as Andrew grunted in annoyance.

"Hey, where's that last power switch?" Joe asked

"Should be in here." John said.

"Yeah there it is, look, see it? Underneath the escalator." Andrew said.

Jess walked over to the power box and flipped it open, and pressed the button. All of the lights flickered for a moment, and then all of the lights turned on, momentarily blinding all of the teens. The Deadshot Daiquiri Machine came on and a jingle started to play.

_To err is human, to forgive is divine. Well I'm not forgiving and the error ain't mine!_

_They ain't quite human; least they're not to my eyes. One sip of this and I'll give them the shock of their lives!_

_Yeah, we got the guns and we got the bombs! In deadshot heaven, we pop skulls for fun!_

_Zero in baby, zero on that spot. The hot spot baby, give it all you got!_

_So quit complaining, about your bad aiming! Just try, try again for me!_

_With the headshot power of Deadshot Daiquiri!_

Jess and Nick were humming along to the Jingle as Zombies began to break in from every single barrier. Judith giggled at her friend's craziness and aimed her FN-FAL and opened fire on a few Zombies. Nicholas and Joe joined in and fended off the Zombies coming one way while Liam, Andrew, and John fended off the Zombies coming from the other direction. Jess and Nick killed whatever Zombies came in through the room's windows. The group made quick work of the Zombies, and the end of round music came on.

(Round 12)

"Guys, let's go up the escalator. I think we can get into the field area from there." Nicholas said walking towards the escalator, which was running again.

"Nicholas, WAIT!" Joe yelled.

"What?" Nicholas asked.

"Let's get some of the perks first, before the Zombies burst through." Joe said.

"Yeah, good idea. Everyone needs to get Juggernog, whatever else you get is up to you." Nicholas said walking towards the nearest gateway.

Judith walked over to the Deadshot Daiquiri machine and pressed her hand on it, causing a glass bottle to pop out of a slot. Judith popped open the cap and sniffed it.

"Smells like strawberries." Judith said with a smile before chugging the whole bottle.

"So?" Nick asked after Judith tossed the bottle away.

"Not bad. It's really sweet, and tastes like strawberries." Judith said with a grin as her eyesight sharpened and the details in the room became clearer and sharper.

"All right, let's fight off whatever we see and get to the Perk-A-Cola Machines." Nicholas said firing the Python and blowing a chunk through a sales clerk's throat.

The group ran through the building, circling around. Every stopped by Juggernog and chugged down a bottle of the red soda.

Liam coughed and said "Sour as hell. Jeez, what's in this crap anyway?"

"Steroids and crack cocaine!" Nick said eagerly.

Everyone looked at him until John said "Really?"

"No you idiot, what are you, high?" Nick laughed.

John sighed and yelled into the stadium "Ravenous hordes of the undead, KILL ME NOW!"

"John, magical soda drinks first, then plunging into hordes of the undead." Nicholas said.

"Oh right, sorry about that."

"No problem."

Andrew stopped by the first room, and noticed a Quick Revive machine next to a hot dog stand that everyone had missed. Andrew walked over to the machine and got a bottle of the drink, guzzling it down, and then almost threwing it up.

"It tastes like liquid fish!" Andrew gagged.

"Yeah, that's what I hear." Joe snickered.

"Jerks…" Andrew said walking over to a drink stand and washing his mouth out with a bottle of grape soda.

The group ran around the corner, and Joe stopped by to get a bottle of Speed Cola, and coughed a little.

"What does it taste like?" Jess asked

"Imagine drinking warm, but spicy, milk. I can't really describe this one." Joe shrugged.

"I wanna try!" Jess said running over to the machine and getting a bottle of the magical soda.

"Hmm…tastes like speed! And…cola!" Jess said bouncing up and down.

"Speed Cola, speed up your life!" Nick sang.

"Jess, it quickens reload time, it doesn't make you more hyper." John said as he and everyone except Andrew bought a bottle.

"Aw, you're no fun." Jess pouted.

The group continued to run through the complex, but was held up when Andrew made a short stop by the MPL room and grabbed the Sickle off of the wall. He held up the Bowie Knife in his right hand and the Sickle in his left and grinned.

"That's a first, but it's a good idea." Nicholas said.

"Oh yeah, I'm going to have fun with this." Andrew said with a laugh as the group continued to run. Joe walked over to the Double-Tap Root Beer machine and bought a bottle.

No one used anymore of their points and the group returned to the escalator. Nicholas went first, followed by Judith, Liam, Andrew, John, Nick, Joe, and then Jess. At the top of the escalator, there was a pile of junk blocking the entryway to the inner stadium. Nicholas put his hand on top of the junk pile and it flew into the air in a flash of lightning. The group walked through the entryway, and each of their jaws dropped.

Hundreds of patrons lay dead in the stands, the victims of the undead hordes. A few of the players were laid out on the field with the referees, cheerleaders, refs, and worst of all, the marching band.

"Guys, we should have a customary moment of silence for our fallen Band Geeks. Bow your heads." Nicholas said.

The group had a ten second moment of silence before turning around and unleashing hell upon the huge hoard of Zombies trying to get up the escalator. After a full minute of nonstop firing, Joe spotted a Max Ammo hidden within the horde.

"Cover me! I'm going in!" Joe yelled.

Joe rushed into the fray, firing as he dodged the Zombies. He made almost made it to the Max Ammo when he was overwhelmed and knocked off the escalator.

"Joe!" Nicholas yelled as Joe tumbled out of sight.

"Stand back!" John said firing the Winter's Howl at the Zombies while the others fired, killing the Zombies that were slowed down.

"Andrew, get Joe!" Nicholas said.

"Yeah, I'm on it." Andrew said jumping onto the escalator railing and decapitating a Zombie with the Bowie Knife. Andrew jumped down and landed next to Joe, who was lying facedown on the ground, but still breathing.

"Come on Quick Revive, do your stuff!" Andrew muttered pulling out a syringe that had blue serum in it and he injected it into Joe's wrist.

Joe pushed himself up and stand up shakily, and looked at Andrew.

"Thanks, but how did I survive that?" Joe asked.

"_**Be grateful I need you alive, otherwise you'd be dead."**_ Samantha said to the group.

"Joe, watch out!" Andrew said running up and stabbing a Zombie through the chest with his sickle, and then beheading it with a horizontal slash from his Bowie Knife.

Andrew grabbed a grenade from his belt and threw it at a cluster of reporters and made three crawlers.

Joe walked by the Max Ammo that was flickering and said "Everyone, reload all of your guns."

Joe quickly reloaded his double-pistols to the amazement of everyone, and Nick said "Hey, your Speed Cola is still working."

"Really? Sweet! I guess we don't lose perks when we get knocked down." Joe said with a grin.

Everyone finished reloading and Joe grabbed the perk, and Samantha shouted _**"MAX AMMO!"**_

"Thanks Sam, we know what it is." John said.

"_**Joe, hit him."**_

"Yes Ma'am." Joe replied before kicking John in the shin, causing him to yelp in pain and hop on one foot, and then to fall over the railing of the escalator and landing down below, facedown and unconscious.

"Uhh…Andrew, could you-?" Judith began to ask.

"On it." Andrew said walking down the up-escalator and reviving John.

"OK, while Andrew plays medic, let's look around." Liam said.

"Good idea." Nicholas said as the group turned around and walked into the inner-stadium. Each of the entrances except the one that they came through was blocked by a pile of debris. Nicholas spotted a Stamin-up on the field, next to the water kegs.

"Hey Nicholas, what's that vending machine?" Jess asked.

"The orange one over there is Stamin-Up, it-"

"No, not that one. THAT one!" Jess said pointing over to another Soda Machine in the stands.

It was a completely new Perk-a-Cola, one not even in Black Ops. It was black, white, and had a dark strip of green across it, with a picture of a Ninja on the front, with the words "Invizi-Fizz" glowing in neon-green.

"Not sure, but we're going to have to fight our way to it." Nicholas said.

"Hey, should I kill the crawlers now?" John asked.

"Yeah."

John fired his MP40 at the three crawlers, killing them and ending the round.

(Round 13)

Zombies began to break in from smaller entryways in the stadium, and teens were forced to separate and fend off the Zombies individually. Andrew tore through Zombie after Zombie with his two instruments of destruction, dismembering dozens of Zombies with his Knife and Sickle combo. Jess jumped from one row of seats to the next and fired at a row of Zombies, blasting through them with a fierce grin on her face.

Judith blasted through Zombie after Zombies, blasting their heads off with her FN-FAL. Judith jumped back to reload, and Liam got in front of her and mowed down a group of Zombies with his AUG laughing like a maniac. Joe ducked under a reporter's swipe and fired at his head with his left C275 while killing a salesman with the other C275.

Nick fired a few shots into a Zombie's skull and slashed it in the face, killing it. Nick ducked underneath a swipe from a Zombie referee as John fired the Winter's Howl and froze it solid. Nick fired a few shots to shatter it and he laughed before firing into the wave of Zombies coming from the escalators. Nicholas was using the MP40 to kill the Zombies, and as he mowed down a wave of ten Zombies coming from the escalators, he switched to the Python and fired six shots to end the round.

(Round 14)

Nicholas began to put more bullets into his Python as Joe walked over to a pile of debris and said "OK, let's see what this "Invizi-Fizz" thing's all about."

Joe opened the passageway and walked over to the machine, it began to play a slow jazzy song.

_Sneaking's really fun, _

_and since you've got a gun, _

_it's a damn awesome to time go killing someone._

_They'll never see you coming, you'll be as silent as a mouse._

_You'll blast their $$ to Kingdom Come, _

_and then steal the stuff in their house._

_Who's the silent boss, the invisible master of death?_

_You know who that is(It's you ya dope)_

_So drink sooooome Invizi-Fizz!"_

"Not as catchy as the other jingles." Joe commented.

"Well, it's FlygonN.'s first time making his own jingle, I'm sure the next one won't suck as much." John said.

Nicholas walked over to John and judo kicked him in the chest.

"What was that for?" John cried.

"For breaking the fourth wall." Nicholas said.

"Joe did it too!" John simpered.

"No, he just mentioned that this jingle isn't as good as the others." Nicholas said.

"Oooh! I wanna try!" Jess said running over to the soda machine and pressing the button on it. Jess's points fell to 1250 and a white bottle popped out of the bottom of them machine.

Jess popped open the cap with her teeth and chugged the soda down. After a moment, she grinned and said "Tastes like apples!"

"Really? Hmm…I'll try it." Liam said walking over to the machine and getting a bottle.

"Huh, it's really, really bubbly. And tastes like apples!" Liam said.

"I wonder what this one does." Nick said.

Jess raised an eyebrow and suddenly flashed dark green and became completely invisible.

"OK…that was pretty cool." Joe said.

Suddenly Nick cried out in pain and held his balls while sobbing on the ground. Jess became visible again and said "Sweeeeet."

"OK, so what are the abilities of this perk?" Liam said.

"Other than becoming invisible, I'm not sure, anyone got any ideas?" Nicholas asked.

"Uhh, let's figure this out when there's not a ravenous horde of Zombies trying to kill us." Judith said pointing a group of Zombies coming through the stands. She then began firing a few shots at the Zombies with her FN-FAL, scoring multiple headshots.

"Huh, oh right, Zombie-killing. I forgot." Nicholas said pulling out his Python and firing it twice to kill a sports commentator.

The group tried to fend off the Zombies, but started to get overwhelmed. Liam got a nasty gash on his head after a Zombie swiped at him. Suddenly, Jess screamed "What the heck are those things?"

The group turned to see a creature crawling into the stands. It looked at the group and snarled before charging at the group. It was disfigured and had grotesque elongated claws. A greenish gas seemed to follow it as it moved around. It opened its mouth, revealing a row of razor sharp teeth that opened widely, like an angular fish.

"Crawler Zombies." Joe muttered as he ran up to one and stabbed it with his sickle.

Jess fired at one at point blank and it exploded into a cloud of smelly gas. Jess staggered around and her vision blurred. Andrew walked through the cloud and immediately felt dizzy as well and fell to his knees, coughing violently.

"W-what's going on?" Jess mumbled as she fumbled with her gun.

"The gas from the Zombies weakens you! It's Nova Gas! Don't breathe it in!" Nicholas yelled as he crouched and blasted several crawlers in the face, and they exploded a good twenty feet away.

These Zombies crawled alongside the railings and came at all sides, and the group was hard pressed to keep them at bay. Liam spotted a Double Points and ran towards it.

"_**Double Points!"**_ Samantha yelled.

As soon as Samantha said this, Judith spotted an Insta-Kill nearby. She blasted her way through to it and grabbed it.

"_**Insta-Kill!"**_ Samantha yelled.

"Guys! Knife!" Nicholas said slashing a Zombie and killing it instantly, and earning 130 points.

The group began knifing a slashing Zombies, and getting an incredible amount of points in the process. Andrew was able to kill a large number of Zombies with his Sickle and Knife combo, and ended killing about twenty Zombies, and this increased his point total by 5200. Andrew hooked a crawler in the face and lifted it up into the air and beheaded it with the Bowie Knife, ending the round as the two perks faded.

(Round 15)

"Hey Andrew, unlock the gate over there so we can get to Stamin-Up!" Joe called.

"Gotcha!" Andrew yelled back as he opened the gate with 1250 points.

The field itself was mostly Astroturf, bright green fake stuff, but the field was slick with blood in some places. A team in white uniforms lay dead on the field, but the other football team was nowhere to be seen, but then again, they could've fled, so then teens weren't really concerned.

The Stamin-Up machine was playing a slow, jazzy song. Nicholas, Andrew, John, Nick and Jess each bought a bottle of the drink and raised their bottles before guzzling the bottle down.

"Mmm…not bad, though really, really sour." Nicholas said, and the others agreed.

"Hey, look up into the commentator's booth!" Jess yelled, pointing up.

The commentator's both was glowing bright blue, but everyone in the group saw what was inside.

The Pack-A-Punch machine.

"Guys, we've got to get into that room." Liam said.

"Really? You THINK SO?" Joe asked, his voice oozing sarcasm.

Liam looked at him and sighed, becoming completely invisible. Joe then fell to the ground holding his crushed family jewels.

"That was fun." Liam said with a chuckle.

"You're so awesome." Judith laughed, and Liam gave her an invisible hug.

"Yep. So how do you guys think we get up there?" Nicholas asked.

"With science!" John proclaimed.

Everyone looked at him and said "OK, see that teleporter over there? Well, we can only activate it destroying the lock. And there's only one way to do that."

"Chuck Norris?" Nick asked.

"Yes, Chuck-NO YOU BRAIN-DEAD NINCOMPOOP! I MEAN-" John yelled.

"Zombies!" Jess yelled pulling out a frag-grenade and hurling it into the stands, creating several crawlers.

"Guys, we've got to find C.N." Nick said.

"I agree, but where is he?" Joe said.

"I thinks he's in the mystery box. I've got to get to him." Nick said.

"OK, Judith, you go with Nick to the Mystery Box. Joe, toss Judith the radio and let us know if you need help." Nicholas said, and the others nodded. Joe tossed Judith the walkie-talkie and she gave the group a thumbs up before sprinting up the stands and darting down a hallway, Nick close behind.

"Judith, do you hear me?" Nicholas asked.

"Yep. Heading to the Mystery Box now." Judith said.

"Nicholas, there's another Perk-a-Cola machine!" Jess said pointing into the stands, in the nosebleeds, where Mule-Kick was.

"C'mon! Let's get to it." Liam said mowing down a row of Zombies with his AUG and dashing towards the soda machine.

Jess dashed ahead of Liam and opened fire with her RPK, killing five Zombies before John fired his Winter's Howl and froze a group of Zombies with three shots.

"Getting harder to freeze." John muttered as he reloaded.

Nicholas walked up to the frozen Zombies and blasted each one with a shot from his Python. "They get stronger every round. We'll wait until everyone has enough to Pack-A-Punch, and then make a break for the machine."

"Guys! Watch out!" Jess said firing a round of bullets at a row of Zombies that were clambering over the seats.

Jess ripped out the clip she had in her RPK and reloaded rather quickly thanks to Speed-Cola. Nicholas, Joe, and John walked up to Mule Kick and grabbed a bottle each, and raised their bottles in a toast before chugging them down.

"Wow, this tastes like regular coke. Weird." Joe said.

"Ugh, it tastes like beer to me!" Nicholas said with a shudder.

"Not bad." John commented with a smirk.

"Huh, guess it's an acquired taste or something." Liam said.

"Hey, shouldn't we check on Judith and Nick?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah, I agree. Judith, what's the situation on your end?" Nicholas said.

Joe snickered and Nicholas said "Oh shut the _ _ _ _ up, you perverted moron!"

Liam walked over to Joe and Spartan-kicked him in chest, sending him sprawling down the stairs and landing on his back with a groan.

"I'm fine here. Nick's rolled a few times and…wait…wait…that's it! Get him Nick!" Judith said excitedly.

Joe suddenly felt a presence in his mind and heard C.N. said _"What…the…hell?"_

"You back? Aww, and I thought we finally got rid of you." Joe said with a smirk.

"_Suck it, I can still destroy you, even if I'm just a figurine."_ C.N. snapped.

"Good point, it doesn't do well to mess with Chuck Norris." Joe agreed.

"_Did you just admit that I exist?" _C.N. asked.

"Oh yeah, now that I'm a bada$$ tech master, I figure, why not?" Joe said.

"Joe, why are you talking to yourself?" Jess asked.

"_I'm talking to C.N." _Joe replied.

"Ha, I've always been able to hear him." Jess said.

"Wait…HOW?" Joe asked.

"Does anything else I do in this story make sense? Besides, I'm a ninja, I can do whatever I want." Jess said jumping into the air, doing a triple front flip, and then becoming invisible.

Joe just sighed and sat down, asking himself why he put up with this crap.

**Judith and Nick:**

"So what now, you want us to head back?" Judith said as Nick swung C.N. a few times to test his weight.

"Yeah, kill whatever Zombies are near you and end the round" Nicholas said.

"Got it." Judith said aiming her FN-FAL and blasting a few Zombies in the skull with perfect aim.

(Round 16)

Nick and Judith saw something as the last Zombie fell. It was a golden price tag that glowed bright green.

"Hey Nicholas, this bright green price tag thing. What is it?" Judith asked.

"What! Guys, get back into the hallways and find a mystery box spawn point! Now!" Nicholas yelled.

"But what is it?" Judith asked.

"It's a Fire Sale. Basically, every Mystery Box spawn point spawns a mystery box and you can roll for only 10 points. Get it when I say go." Nicholas said panting as he pounded down the hallways to get to a Mystery Box spawn point, blasting Zombie in the throat with his Python as he did.

"Guys! Ready?" Nicholas yelled.

"Yep!" Jess yelled.

"Go for it!" Andrew said.

"Yes!" Liam yelled.

"All hail Chuck Norris!" Nick yelled.

"I'm ready." Judith said.

"Let's get this started." Joe said.

"I lost the game!" John yelled.

"DAMN IT JOHN!" Everyone yelled at once.

John began laughing and said "Sorry, it was too perfect not to do that."

"OK, get it Judith." Nicholas said.

Suddenly Samantha yelled _**"FIRE SALE!"**_

Mystery Boxes suddenly appeared out of nowhere, while a weird, yet very cheesy, music played through the speakers. Everyone began rolling, exchanging guns and often exclaiming in delight. They turned around every now and then to fend off the hoards of the undead. As the fire sale ended and the last rolls were made, the round ended with everyone having more than 7000 points each.

"What did you guys get?" Nicholas said joining up with Liam and Judith.

Liam held up a belt with Monkey Bombs attached to it and grinned before strapping it on. Judith brandished a L96A1 before putting it on her back, her FN-FAL on a second holster on her back. Joe walked over with a SPAS-12, once again, and a Commando on his back, with his two C275's strapped to both of his legs.

"Good haul guys. Now let's see what the others got." Nicholas said.

"What's that gun you've got Nicholas?" Judith asked.

"I got the Galil." Nicholas said holding up a black machine gun. His Python was strapped to his thigh and his MP40 was on his back.

Nick turned up with no new guns, which everyone just simultaneously face-palmed and then just let the matter never be spoken of. Jess walked over with Monkey Bombs on her belt, but she had a big grin on her face. Andrew walked over with a Famas strapped onto his back. John walked over with the prize though, as he held the Winter's Howl in one hand, and the fabled Ray Gun in his other hand.

"Why does HE have to get the Ray Gun!" Joe complained.

BAM!

Joe fell to the ground, dazed as he recovered from the green laser blast John had shot him with.

"Not cool." Joe groaned as Andrew revived him…again.

"That's for what happened at Band Camp." John said angrily, blasting few Zombies in the skull, killing them instantly and ending the round.

(Round 17)

"Come on; let's get to the Pack-A-Punch Machine." Nicholas said.

The group fought their way back to the inner stadium and Nick was able to break the lock off of the Gate that protected the teleporter. Nicholas then spotted a gun that he missed by the benches next to the water jugs, a Stakeout. Nicholas grabbed the shotgun and put the Galil on his back.

"Everyone ready?" Nicholas said he ran back over to the teleporter.

Everyone nodded and Nicholas said "OK…so how the hell does this thing work?"

"YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW?" John yelled.

"Hell no. Who do you think I am, Richtofen?" Nicholas chuckled.

"Hold on, I've got this." Joe said messing around with the teleporter controls.

Suddenly the teleporter engulfed the group of teens in a ball of blue lightning and they felt the wonderful sensation of having their flesh ripped open, replaced with Jell-o, and then put back to normal in less than a second as they reappeared in the Commentator's Booth.

"Dude…I am TRIPPING right now." Joe said.

"Far out man." John laughed.

"Peace braaaaaaaah." Jess said with a goofy grin as she disappeared into the darkness.

"Wait, what crap just happened?"John asked shaking his head.

"Invisibility!" Jess shouted in John ear, causing his to scream like a little girl and jump three feet into the air.

"Hey C.N., what's with the "Invizi-Fizz" perk?" Nick asked.

INSIDE NICK'S MIND:

"Hold on, let me consult the strategy guide." Chuck Norris said as flipping through a strategy guide labeled "Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead Chapter Six".

"It says here that Invizi-Fizz makes you completely invisible for up to fifteen seconds, and also makes the drinker to become completely silent and undetectable." C.N. said.

Nick relayed the information to the others, who began to complain that there's no way there could be a strategy guide to this situation.

"Guys, let's focus and hurry up. God knows when that crawler's going to die." Nicholas said walking over to the Pack-A-Punch machine and putting in the Stakeout. After a few moments, the Raid coming out of the machine, covering in strange runes and symbols. Nicholas then put in the Python and got the Cobra, but there was a slight…surprise when he got his weapons back.

"TWO! I get two Cobra's! That's pretty awesome!" Nicholas said with a grin.

Judith walked up to the machine and out in her L96A1 and got the L115 Isolator. She then put in her FN-FAL to get the EPC-WIN, which everyone made a joke about. Liam then put in his AUG and got the AUG-5OM3. He then put in the AK74u and got the AK74fu2.

"Hey, it's a shotgun too!" Liam said switching over to the shotgun mode on the AUG-5OM3.

Jess put in her RPK and got the R115 Resonator, which she held up and said "OOOhhh, pretty!"

Joe put in his SPAS-12 and got the SPAZ-24, which he held up with glee. He also put in the Double-C275's and got the Calamity and Jane. John put his Ray gun in the Pack-A-Punch and got the Porters X2 Ray Gun, which he held like a newborn child. He then put in the Winter's Howl and got the Winter's Fury. Nick put in his single C275 and got the Calamity.

"Hahaha, your gun's so small." Liam snickered.

Nick growled and him and didn't reply.

Andrew walked up and was about to put the Famas in when he stopped and grinned. He pull out his Sickle and put it in the Pack-A-Punch Machine.

"Dude, that's not going to work-"Joe began to say when a brand-new weapon popped out.

It was a scythe, black as death, with intricate symbols all around it. The blade of the scythe gleamed pure white and when Andrew grabbed it and said "Fear da Reaper."

"Oh shut up and move." Jess said walking over to the door and opening the door.

The group got out of the fifth floor of the stadium and saw another Perk-A-Cola, P.H.D. Flopper.

"Oohh, what does that soda do?" Jess asked.

"You can run and jump, and when you land, you create an awesome explosion. You're also protected from damage that you can inflict on yourself from grenades and rocket launchers." Joe explained.

"Basically, a suicide bombers best friend." Liam said with a laugh.

Liam, Andrew, and Nick all bought a bottle of the drink and chugged it down, and then the group stood on their guard as Zombies and Crawler Zombies made their way up the ramps to attack. With the powered up weapons, the teens held off the Zombie hoards and the round ended when Andrew beheaded three Zombies at once with his scythe, which was named Reaper.

(Round 18)

"Guys, let's get back downstairs, where we can maneuver better and be able to run." Nicholas said.

The group headed back into the inner stadium as the Zombies began to break in again. The group began to fight off the hordes that came in from all directions. Jess yelled in delight as the R115 Resonator fired laser-like bullets that did much more damage than the RPK. Andrew was like a demon with the Reaper, killing Zombies at an insane pace despite not using a gun. Nicholas and Joe had identical grins on their faces as the unloaded on the undead hordes with their shotguns. Nick happily killed about thirty Zombies with C.N., each swing that connected with a Zombie being a one hit kill.

Liam was using the shotgun mode on the AUG-5OM3 and was firing away, mowing down wave after wave of Zombies and when he ran out of ammo for that, he switched over to the gun's regular mode and blasted a group of Zombies with a mad grin.

John was holding the Winter's Fury in one hand and the Porters X2 Ray Gun in the other, freezing and blasting about 35 Zombies with a happy grin. Judith hung back and was sniping Zombies with perfect accuracy. Her wisdom in choosing the Deadshot Daiquiri perk was paying off, as each Zombie she shot fell to the ground dead.

(Round 19)

The round ended and Samantha said _**"Not bad, I'm sending some hellhounds to see if you can fight them off, without my help."**_

"Bring it!" Joe shouted.

"_**As you wish!"**_ Samantha laughed.

Mist filled the arena and Samantha shouted _**"FETCH ME THEIR SOULS!"**_

Lightning bolts struck down all around the stadium as the Hellhounds approached with glowing red eyes. The first wave struck down in the field and the demon dogs sped towards the teens. Judith switched to the EPC-WIN and killed anything that came near her. John fired both of his guns whenever a dog appeared, both killing the dogs and freezing the dogs that went for his teammates. The group made quick work of the Hellhounds and a Max Ammo appeared as Joe killed the last dog.

"Reload all of your weapons." Nicholas said as he quickly reloaded his Raid.

"_**MAX AMMO!"**_ Samantha yelled.

"So, have we proven we're good enough to kill Richtofen?" Nicholas asked.

"_**I'm impressed, not many could have fought the way you all have. I'd say we're just about-" **_Samantha's voice suddenly cut off.

Suddenly a voice could be heard over the loudspeakers saying "It's time for the final quarter of zhee game."

"Samantha?" Joe called.

"I think it is time for you to feel mine powers children. Come mine friends, and DESTROY THEM!" the voice yelled.

The entire stadium shook violently and all of the lights flickered for a few seconds. A faint groaning sound could be heard coming from the opposite tunnel.

"What was that?" Joe asked grabbing his SPAZ-24.

"I think we're about to find out." Nicholas muttered switching his Raid for his Galil.

Suddenly eight pairs of bright blues eyes gleamed in the darkness as the eight figures stepped out of the tunnel.

"This is not good." Liam said nervously.

Eight football players stepped out of the tunnel, dressed in a blue and white uniform with blue helmets on. Each walked like a regular person and approached the group slowly, their electric blue eyes glowing underneath their helmets. Each uniform was smeared in blood and each one was covered in bloody scratches and wounds.

"You've got to be kidding me…we've got to fight the defensive line of the New York Giants?" Andrew asked.

"I repeat…not…good." Liam said raising his AUG-5OM3 and aiming.

"You like them? I call them mine Juggernauts. I think zhee name fits." the voice laughed.

"Guys, there's eight of them…and eight of us." Nicholas said slowly.

One of the players then spoke.

"Prepare for the end!" the player roared as he led the charge against the group of teens, who turned around and sprinted in different directions.

"What are these things?" Nick yelled as he sprinted down a hallway with Andrew.

"No clue man!" Andrew yelled as he jumped over the barricade and turned around and fired at the Juggernaut behind him with his Famas. The bullets bounced off of the player's chest and he picked up a metal trash can like it was nothing and hurled it at Andrew, who ducked under it and fired at the player's head, but the bullets just bounced off of his helmet.

"Nice try, but you'll have to be a bit more creative to beat me!" the Juggernaut roared as he picked up a concession stand and hurled it towards the teen.

Nick sprinted down the hallway as the Juggernaut smashed apart the concession stands. Nick couldn't get close enough to hit him with C.N. and was only able to fire the small, but deadly, Calamity at the Juggernaut, who just roared as the bullets hit him.

"C.N., can you do any of your special attacks?" Nick asked.

"_Yes. Point my head at him and I'll get him."_ C.N. said.

Nick aimed C.N. like a gun and C.N. shouted _"ANNIHILATOR GUN!"_

A red machine gun sprung out of the Chuck Norris model and red flaming bullets shot out at the Juggernaut, who roared in pain and burn marks appeared all over his uniform. The player fell to one knee and Nick grinned as the player fell to all fours.

And then bullets stopped.

"C.N.? Why did you stop?" Nick asked.

"_The attack is done. That's it."_ C.N. said.

"Oh…"

"_If I were you I'd run…fast."_ C.N. said.

Nick pulled out the Calamity and opened fire, but the Juggernaut was already getting back to his feet.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" the football player Zombie roared as he charged at Nick.

Liam ducked as the Juggernaut swung a punch at him and took a few steps back, firing his AUG-5OM3 nonstop and quickly reloading as the Juggernaut charged at him again. Liam was outmaneuvering the Juggernaut, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the Zombie got him.

"Come on corpse breath, let's play!" Liam yelled opening fire again into the Zombies chest.

Liam ducked again and fired five shots at the Juggernaut's chest, and the Juggernaut stumbled for a moment before Liam hurled a grenade at him and sent him to one knee.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" the Juggernaut yelled getting to his feet and charging at Liam, who opened fire.

Judith stayed still, not moving an inch as the Juggernaut walked by slowly. She slowly aimed her 115 Oscillator as the Juggernaut lumbered almost out of sight and fired five times. The first four shots embedded themselves into the helmet and the fifth blew the helmet right off. The Juggernaut turned around and Judith got the first glimpse at his face. His entire face was disfigured horribly, so whatever player it was Judith had no idea. His teeth were still white, but his face was in a snarl as he charged right at Judith.

"Dang! What does it take to put this guy down!" Judith said pulling out a grenade, holding it for a few seconds and hurling it at the Juggernog, when it exploded at him feet, knocking him down for a moment. Judith fired five more times and then reloaded quickly and put more distance between the Juggernaut and her by sprinting back and hiding behind a trash can.

John fired the Winter's Fury three times and fired the Porters X2 Ray gun at the Juggernaut. It seemed it be doing damage, but by the time John was able to get more than three shots from both guns in, the Juggernaut was within striking distance and he had to back up and fire again.

"How tough are these guys!" John muttered as he reloaded both guns as the Juggernaut picked up a hot-dog stand and hurled it at John, clipping him on the arm and sending him back a few feet. John hissed in pain and fired five shots of both guns at the Juggernaut, who roared in pain and staggered for a moment, giving John a chance to run.

"Touchdown!" Joe shouted firing the Commando at the Juggernaut's chest, but it didn't seem to be doing much damage.

Joe pulled out the SPAZ-24 and opened fired, scoring ten shots on the Juggernaut, who was slowly making his way towards him.

"I'LL SPIKE YOUR HEAD INTO NEXT WEEK!" the Juggernaut roared charging at Joe and swinging a fist at him.

The fist missed Joe, but knocked the SPAZ-24 out his hands and it landed next to a water fountain. Joe pulled out Calamity and Jane and opened fire, hoping the extra mobility would prevent him from taking another hit.

"You're really tough, but not so bright." Jess said ducking as the Juggernaut threw his sixth trash can at her, which she promptly rolled to dodge. Jess then fired her R115 Resonator at the Juggernaut's chest, unloading about fifty bullets into him.

"Shut up!" the juggernaut roared.

"OK, OK, you're not tough." Jess said calmingly.

"That's better…" the juggernaut said calming down.

There was a pause.

"_Give him a minute."_ Jess thought.

"HEY!" the Juggernaut said angrily picking up a trash can with both hands.

Jess pulled out a grenade and pulled the clip out and said "Wait for it…"

The Juggernaut moved his arms back to get ready to throw, and Jess hurled the grenade right at the Zombie's head, where it exploded violently and both trash cans fell on top of him.

Jess quickly threw every grenade she had left at the downed Zombie, and the Zombie was engulfed in smoke.

"I think I got him" Jess said with a sigh.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" a voice yelled through the smoke.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!" Jess said running up the stairs to the second floor, opening a gate with a 1000 points.

"We've got this far, you're not getting me without a fight!" Nicholas yelled firing his Dual-Cobra's at the Juggernaut, leaving bloody gashes in his chest.

The juggernaut laughed and said "The Doctor will destroy everything. He shall not be stopped by some pathetic kids."

"Pathetic eh?" Nicholas said pulling out his Raid.

"Yeah! PATHETIC!" the Juggernaut roared.

"THEN TAKE THIS!" Nicholas yelled tossing a grenade at the Juggernaut and firing his Pack-A-Punched shotgun repeatedly.

The Juggernaut charged at him, taking each direct hit like it was a bee sting and threw a punch at the teen who jumped to the side to dodge it. Nicholas rolled to his feet and fired three more times and quickly reloaded and then dodged another punch.

"Stay still and die!" the Juggernaut roared.

Nicholas put the Raid on his back and pulled out his Galil and fearlessly opened fire as the Juggernaut charged again.

"Can't take much more of this." Andrew panted as he fired another burst from his Famas at the Juggernaut and heard a click.

"DAMN!" Andrew yelled putting the gun away and pulling out his scythe, Reaper.

Andrew knew that a one-on-one melee fight with a 400 pound Zombie giant was not the best idea, but hey, it was his only chance. Andrew ducked under the Juggernaut's punch and slashed him with the Reaper, causing the Juggernaut to growl in pain. Andrew rolled to the side and avoided another swipe from the Juggernaut, but the Juggernaut's other hand held a metal trash can, which he hurled at Andrew.

Andrew rolled to the side, but the trash can clipped him on the shoulder, causing Andrew to yell in pain.

"I have you now, pathetic human." The Juggernaut said as he slowly made his way to the downed teen.

Andrew glared at the Juggernaut and held Reaper tightly. He flipped it so the blade was pointing away from the Juggernaut, and Andrew's hand closed, unknowingly, around two small black buttons. Suddenly the scythe shuddered for a moment.

"What the-?" Andrew began to say until something shot out of the end of the scythe.

It was a long hook-shot; a silver chain with a wicked spear at the tip, and it went straight through the Juggernaut's chest and embedded itself in the wall thirty feet away. The Juggernaut looked at Andrew with a look of loathing and fell to his knees, and remained still.

"No way…" Andrew said in disbelief.

The hook-shot retracted and went back into the scythe and Andrew slowly got to his feet. Andrew held his shoulder, which was thankfully only bruised and made his way to the sound of fighting.

Nick turned around and unloaded another entire clip of bullets into the Juggernaut's head. He jumped over a trash can and ducked as the Juggernaut hurled a concession stand at him.

"C.N! Help me!" Nick said.

"_Well, we could always try the Plasma Cannon, but it's risky."_ C.N. said.

"Why?" Nick said quietly, hiding from the prowling Juggernaut.

"_It takes a lot of energy, and I'll have to take some from you for this attack."_ C.N. said.

"Just do it!" Nick yelled, pointing C.N. at the Juggernaut, who was less than two feet from him.

_"PLASMA CANNON!"_ C.N. yelled.

A huge burst of pulsating red energy shot out of C.N.'s head and shot towards the Juggernaut and hit him right in the chest, creating wide whole in his chest. The beam continued and blew a huge hole through the stadium, allowing the night sky to be seen. The Juggernaut was blown back thirty feet and landed in a heap.

Nick fell to his knees, breathing heavily. Nick slowly got to his feet and said "Is it over?"

"_Don't know. Toss a grenade at him." _C.N. said.

Nick pulled out a grenade and tossed it at the Zombie, which blew into pieces as the grenade exploded. Nick sat down tiredly on the ground and said "I wonder how the others are doing?"

Liam hid behind a trash can as the Juggernaut prowled nearby, looking for him.

"Can't keep this up much longer." Liam muttered he switched the empty AUG-5OM3 for his AK74fu2.

"Come out…come out and play." The juggernaut laughed.

"ALL RIGHT THEN BIATCH, LET'S PL AY!" Liam yelled as he opened fire.

"RAH!" the Juggernaut roared in pain and hurled another trash can at him.

Liam suddenly went invisible and the Juggernaut looked around looking for him and was suddenly hit by a grenade from nowhere. Liam suddenly reappeared and cursed angrily as the Juggernaut charged at him.

"This won't work forever, I need a plan." Liam thought as he ducked under a punch from the juggernaut.

Liam ducked around the corner and spotted it. A 100-ton statue was suspended sixty feet above him, held up by chains.

"Oh yeah, that'll work." Liam said with a grin.

Liam backed up a few steps and calculated where it would fall if it were to fall. Liam aimed carefully, and then fired his AK74fu2. The chains snapped and the entire statue plummeted down to the ground and crushed the Juggernaut, who screamed like a little girl before being crushed.

"Thank God that's over." Liam sighed.

Judith kept hiding, and then firing her 115 Oscillator at the Juggernaut, who would roar in pain before trying to attack.

"Just a few more headshots." Judith muttered, as she fired eight times at the Juggernaut's head.

The Juggernaut's face was riddled with bullets and his face was even more disfigured. Judith was dismayed that she still couldn't put this thing down for the count.

"Let's see how he likes this!" Judith muttered puling out her EPC-WIN and firing at the Zombies throat.

"You…will…die!" the Juggernaut choked out through a mouthful of blood.

"Not if I kill you first!" Judith smirked as she pulled out a grenade and hurled it as the Zombie picked up a hot dog cart. The Zombie let go of the cart and it fell onto of him, crushing his exposed skull.

Judith walked over and chucked a few more grenades at the Juggernaut, who was stirring. As they all exploded and smoke covered the room, Judith aimed her EPC-WIN and began firing into the smoke. The Juggernaut's corpse lay there, covered in mustard, ketchup, and blood.

"Guess what you jerk? I LOST THE GAME!" John yelled as he continued firing his Porters X2 Ray Gun, and held his Winter's Fury as his side, trying to conserve the last three shots he had.

"That's it!" John said angrily firing at the Zombies skull ten times, cracking the helmet and eventually causing it to crack open.

"Ugh, I liked it better when you had the helmet back on." John smirked as he fired the Winter's Howl once, slowing the Zombie down as he unloaded twenty shoots of the Ray Gun at the Zombies head. The Juggernaut began to stagger around.

"Boom Boom time!" John laughed taking out his MP40 with one hand and chucking every grenade he had at the Juggernaut.

"Huh, that was kinda fun. No wonder Jess says stuff like that all the time." John said firing the MP40 at the Juggernaut's exposed skull, which showed his rotting brain, causing him to finally collapse onto the ground, dead.

"Woo…glad that crap's over." John said walking to the concession stands and sitting down and starting to eat a cheeseburger. Killing Zombies worked up one heck of an appetite.

"HELL TO THE YEAH!" Joe yelled snatching up his SPAZ-24 and unloading ten rounds into the Juggernaut's chest.

"RAGH, I'll kill you!" the Juggernaut yelled as Joe kicked a water jug on the ground. Water spilled everywhere and the Juggernaut slipped and crashed onto the ground and roared in anger.

"Fat chance." Joe smirked leading the Zombie into the concession stands.

Joe quickly grabbed a propane tank and put it in between him and the Juggernaut and backed up thirty feet.

"Hey, big dumb and ugly, how should you be cooked?" Joe asked with a laugh.

"I'LL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL!" the Juggernaut roared charging at him.

Joe waited until he was about to pass the tank and said "You just got Joe-"

Joe's finger slipped and he accidently fired the SPAZ-24 at the tank, causing the tank to explode and engulf the Juggernaut in flames.

"Crap, messed up the one-liner" Joe grumbled as the Juggernaut's corpse fell to the ground and was incinerated by the flames.

"La la la la la la la la la la." Jess sang happily as she skipped along the corridor, the Juggernaut slowly walking behind her.

"I hate Stamin-up…" the Juggernaut groaned.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot you were there." Jess apologized, taking out her R115 Resonator and firing at the Juggernaut's chest.

The Juggernaut swung a fist at Jess but she jumped over it and bashed him in the throat with her 115 Resonator, sending him stumbling backwards. He picked up a trash and lifted it high into the air, but Jess just grinned as she became completely invisible. The Juggernaut hurled the trash can where he thought he heard a snicker and for a moment, he thought he got her.

"You're aiming sucks horribly. You should buy some of that Deadshot Daiquiri stuff downstairs. Not only will that solve your bad aiming problem, but it tastes like strawberries!" Jess said cheerfully.

"I'LL KILL YOU LITTLE GIRL!" Juggernaut yelled, charging at her as she became visible again.

"I'm not a little girl! My name is JESS!" Jess yelled reaching down and pulling out a Monkey Bomb and hurling it at the Juggernaut's feet.

"What the-?" the Juggernaut said watching the Monkey Bomb as it clanged its cymbals.

Jess found a container of Symtex Grenades (Or Sticky Grenades for those of you who don't know what that is) and bought them. Jess hurled her other two Monkey Bomb's at the Juggernaut and hurled all of her Symtex grenades.

"RAAAAAGGGHHH!" the Juggernaut groaned as explosions hit him from all sides.

"Oh, this is going to be fun." Jess grinned putting her R115 Resonator and pulling her MPK5 so she could shoot and bought another batch of grenades. Jess fired her gun and continued to bombard the Juggernaut with bullets and grenades, and the more she attacked, the weaker the floor got. The floor continued to get weaker and weaker until it gave out, causing the Juggernaut to go plummeting down a floor and crashing into a twelve foot deep fountain just below.

The juggernaut sank straight to the bottom and didn't rise back to the top, as a metal rod from the building had embedded itself through him and into the bottom of the pool of water.

Jess reloaded her gun and bought some more grenades. She looked back down at the Zombie and said "That was fun," before walking briskly downstairs.

"DIE!" the Juggernaut roared hurling two trash cans at Nicholas, who hid behind a restroom wall to the avoid the attack.

Nicholas quickly reloaded and opened fired with the Galil, unloading a full 35 bullets iinto the Juggernaut's chest. Nicholas reloaded again and ran from his hiding spot and said "It's no wonder you can't hit me. If you can't make a throw on the field, what makes you think you can hit me now?"

And that's when the Juggernaut got REALLY mad.

"YOU WILL KNOW ANNHILATION!" the Juggernaut roared in anger as he barreled towards the teen, who smirked at him and unloaded another full clip into his head and threw a grenade at the Juggernaut's feet as he ran by. As the grenade exploded, which knocked the Juggernaut off-balance and made him crash into a hat stand and head-first into a stone wall, knocking his helmet off and disorienting him.

"Good, that gives me a second to think." Nicholas sighed with relief as he looked over at the Deadshot Daquiri machine and the gleaming Bowie Knife nearby.

"Why not?" Nicholas smirked running over to the knife and grabbing it off of the wall, admiring how it glinted in the light.

"I'LL DESTROY ALL OF YOU!" the Juggernaut bellowed.

"Why are you here? What happened to you?" Nicholas said raising his Galil again, ready to fight.

"The Doctor has sent us to destroy you. Other than that, nothing matters except for his grand plan." the Juggernaut growled.

"Good to know, thanks for the info." Nicholas said.

"YOU LITTLE-" the Juggernaut roared.

Nicholas unloaded another full clip of bullets into the Juggernaut's skull, but it didn't seem to do much to him. Nicholas hurled another grenade to knock him off balance.

Nicholas noticed a hole in the ceiling, and a huge pile of rubble barely being held back by a few pipes.

"That may just work." Nicholas said firing a few shots at the pile, trying to knock it loose.

Unfortunately, he heard the all too familiar click of not having anymore ammo in the Galil, so he switched to the Dual-Cobra's.

"Good thing I took Physics, otherwise I'd be screwed." Nicholas said with a smirk he readied himself for another round with the Juggernaut, who was on his feet.

The Juggernaut charged and swung a fist at Nicholas, who jumped to the aside and fired seven times from both of his guns and left deep holes in the Juggernaut's chest, but he was far from done. The Juggernaut swung his arm out wide and knocked Nicholas back thirty feet into a wall, knocking a Cobra out of his hand.

Nicholas aimed his remaining Cobra and fired three times at the Juggernaut's left kneecap, sending him to the ground yet again. Nicholas got to his feet and aimed skyward, firing three bullets at a loose rock, causing about thirty tons of rubble to crash down on the zombified football player.

"OK, now let's finish this!" Nicholas said running up to the Juggernaut.

"You all will drown in a sea of your own blood!" the Juggernaut roared as he struggled to get out of the rubble.

Nicholas gripped his Bowie Knife and plunged it right into the Juggernaut's skull. The Juggernaut groaned one last time and then went limp, unable to escape the pile of rubble. Nicholas wiped the blood off of the knife on the Juggernaut's Uniform and grunted in pain. He probably had at least a bruised rib from the hit. Nicholas limped over to the entrance, where the others were talking about how they narrowly escaped.

"Nicholas!" Judith yelled running over and hugging him.

"Watch the ribs, I got hit pretty hard." Nicholas said as Judith let go.

"You all right?" Liam asked.

"I'll live. How about you guys?" Nicholas asked.

Everyone each explained what had happened and how they had defeated the Juggernauts, and just as Nicholas finished explaining what happened to him, a flash of blue lightning appeared in the stadium. As the bolt passed by them, it split into eight and engulfed each of the teens, teleporting them away.

A figure watched from a Balcony above. He chuckled to himself and said "They are impressive. But still not a threat."

And with that the mysterious figure disappeared in a flash of green light.

**End of Chapter:**

Wow, that took a long time. Did I mention this is officially the longest chapter I've EVER done? Awesomeness. Also, some may be wondering why grenades were essential in that fight with the Juggernauts? Well, after the first few rounds of Zombies, grenades aren't really helpful, so I'd figured they should have a moment of glory for once. Anyway, please review, I love hearing your thoughts on the story! It means a lot to me, it really does. Please stay tuned, as the Zombie-slayers adventures continue, and the dangers are far from over. Who was the figure watching the Zombie slayers? (No, it's not Richtofen) Find out soon! Till next time guys, FlygonN. out!


	7. Hell's Jester

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead Chapter 7: Hell's Jester**

The group reappeared the Stadium's parking lot in a flash of blue lightning. Jax was sitting on a bench looking over at them, Samantha was floating nearby. The fire from the explosion Joe caused was beginning to spread, as smoke was streaming out of the Stadium windows.

"Glad you guys made it out OK." Jax said with a sigh of relief.

"What the hell was that? One minute we were fighting hellhounds, we beat them, and then you attack us with super-powered football player Zombies that think and talk?" Joe said angrily to Samantha.

Sam looked at Joe with glowing red eyes and yelled _**"THAT WASN'T ME!"**_

The force of her anger sent Joe staggering backward a few feet and Jax said "We felt another presence interfere with Sam's powers, and that allowed the presence to take control of the football player Zombies and power them up, making them way stronger than regular Zombies, and way tougher. Sam didn't send them after you, but I think we know who did."

"Sorry Samantha, I-"Joe began to say.

"_**It's fine. I'm just a little…"**_ Samantha trailed off.

"On edge?" Judith suggested.

"_**Yes. That shouldn't have happened. You were never in any real danger. If you blacked out from being hurt by a Zombie, I would have transported you here, out of harm's way. It's unsettling that my powers were disrupted like that."**_

"Well, at least we were able to kill them. That we can survive for twenty rounds is a pretty good sign." Liam said.

"_**You did well."**_ Samantha said with a nod.

"So why did the building blow up?" Jax asked.

"That's good question. It seems to happen no matter where we go" Liam said with a chuckle.

"Because Joe's a moron" John said.

"Hey! Don't start" Joe said waving his sickle at John threateningly.

Jess looked at Judith and said "I've got this"

Jess spun around and roundhouse-kicked John in the face and elbowed Joe in the balls. As they both howled in agony, and wind picked up and everyone's hair blew in their face.

"_**By the way, you all may need this."**_ Samantha said creating a Max Ammo next to Andrew.

"Everyone reload." Andrew said.

Everyone reloaded their guns and Andrew walked through the Max Ammo power up.

"_**MAX AMMO!"**_ Samantha screamed into the night.

"You like doing that, don't you?" Jess asked.

"_**Yes. Yes I do."**_

"So what's next?" Nicholas asked putting up his Raid.

"_**I say we advance towards the capital. Richtofen is making his way there and I have a plan to destroy him."**_ Sam said.

"What's the plan?" Andrew asked.

"_**I-"**_was all Sam said before being cut off by a loud cackle that any who had played Zombies would know.

"You fools…you cannot escape mine eyes. I thought mine Juggernauts destroyed you, but it zheems as though you are made of stronger stuff, ja?" the doctor's voice said with a note of glee in his voice.

"We'll destroy you and your Zombies you psychotic Nazi!" Liam yelled.

"You can try, but it vouldn't vork out vell for you in the end. Now vould it?" Richtofen said in a singsong voice.

"Where are you!" Nicholas demanded.

"Tallahassee. But you von't survive to see me. GET THEM!" Richtofen roared.

"_**Everyone! RUN!"**_ Sam yelled.

"Where! The truck is gone!" Jess yelled, pointing at the empty parking lot.

"_**JUST RUN!"**_ Samantha bellowed.

"Guys, split up! We'll meet up later! GO!" Nicholas yelled running after Samantha, who ran towards the west.

The teens pounded through the parking lot, splitting up. Nicholas was with Samantha, Liam, Jess, and Joe while Nick, Andrew, Jax, John and Judith ran the other direction.

The groups ran from the hordes of Zombies that were stumbling through the woods.

"Why are we always split up when it comes to these things!" Jess yelled

"I don't know, easier character scenes and dialogue sequences?" Nicholas suggested.

"What?" Joe asked.

"Umm…I mean coincidence!" Nicholas said.

"_**You came dangerously close to breaking the fourth wall there."**_ Samantha noted.

"And I'm the only girl!" Jess yelled as she jumped over a tree.

"_**Then what the hell am I?"**_ Samantha said to Jess, who shrugged.

"Crap! Where are the Zombies!" Andrew yelled as he stumbled over rock.

"Don't know, run faster!" John yelled jumping over a small mound of dirt.

"Where's Liam and the rest of the group?" Judith asked.

"He's with Nicholas and the others!" Nick yelled.

"_Run faster, the Zombies are nearly upon you."_ C.N. said.

"They're here!" Judith yelled turning around and avoiding a swipe from a Zombie and blasting it with her EPC WIN.

Andrew grabbed Reaper and beheaded a woman with a swing of the scythe, and then spun around and fired his Famas, killing three Zombies. John fired the Winter's Fury and froze a group of Zombies with two shots, and then let Nick kill them with C.N. The group then began to run again, firing behind them and firing to fend of the hordes coming from behind the trees. Jax was firing from his dual-Ray Guns, sending green lasers flying through the trees and killing Zombies effortlessly.

"Where are we going!" Judith said.

"Away from them! Run!" Nick yelled pulling out his Calamity and firing at the Zombies behind them.

Judith pulled out the 115 Oscillator and fired seven times, killing seven Zombies with perfect headshots.

"The Perk-A-Cola's are still in effect. Awesome!" Andrew said.

"Guys, head towards the road!" Jax said pulling out a machete and hacking through a Zombie woman and blasting three Zombies with a Ray Gun in his other hand.

Suddenly a clump of Zombies came bursting through the bushes, about fifty in total. They ran right towards the group, who readied their weapons. Jax pulled out a small disc and hurled it at the swarm of Zombies. A mini-black hole appeared and sucked them all into it.

"What was that!" Judith yelled as the black hole closed.

"I'll explain later, let's move!" Jax said firing from his dual-Ray Guns.

The group pounded down the street, firing shots as they went. Andrew turned around and aimed the shaft of Reaper and fired his hookshot, a wicked spike that impaled three Zombies through the throat and head. The hookshot retracted back into Reaper and Andrew yelled "HELL YEAH! THREE POINTS!"

A large group of Zombies emerged from the clump of trees next to them and group was suddenly fending off the group of over forty Zombies.

Judith aimed carefully and fired EPC-WIN in a few short bursts, killing seven Zombies and damaging another three. Andrew beheaded several Zombies and used his hookshot to kill another three Zombies. John fired the Porters X2 Ray Gun as Jax reloaded and fired his dual-Ray Guns at the huge horde attacking them from the trees, thirty feet away. Nick aimed his Calamity and finished off the remainder of the horde.

"That sucked!" John panted.

"It gets worse. Look." Jax said pointing next to a burning building off in the distance, about 400 meters away.

"I wonder what caused it?" Andrew wondered.

"Hold on. Let me check." Judith said looking through the scope of her 115 Oscillator.

"Looks like Hellhounds. Flaming ones too. Wait…who's that?" Judith asked.

"What is it?" John asked.

"It's a man. He's laughing at the building. He's glowing green. You think it's Richtofen?" Judith asked Jax.

"No, he's heading up north, so he can spread his influence to the rest of the United States. Let's lay low, at least until I can find Sam. Maybe she can help some." Jax said.

"Oh, I doubt that very, very much." The man said cheerfully from behind them.

The teens suddenly turned around to see the man standing before them, in a very weird outfit.

He wore black armor, complete with black spiked gauntlets and a chest-plate with a Nazi swastika on it. He work black pants with a glowing green design running down them, and on his feet were pointy jester shoes and a jester's hat. The man had glowing green eyes and light brown hair, and his mouth was twisted into a grin.

"Who are you?" Jax asked raising his Ray Gun and pointing it at the figures head.

"Come now, you wouldn't hurt a defenseless man, would you? Besides, I come bearing information about my Master. Doctor Edward Richtofen." The man said with a grin.

"And that information would be?" John asked.

"He is in a special lab in to the north, a few minutes away from Tallahassee. He is fine tuning a device that will increase the effects of the 115 gas so it spreads to more corpses, meaning more Zombies for his army. Tell that pitiful ghost that is with you to remember this phrase. 'Darkness lies within the river, but only if you have the demon guide.' Follow her to the lab, and then to Richtofen, and maybe you have a chance of stopping him."

"What does that mean?" Andrew asked.

"She'll know." The man laughed as he turned to walk away.

"Wait! What's your name?" Andrew asked.

"I have many names, but you, my young friend, may call me Illuzio. I'll be leaving now, best of luck to you all. Ciao!" the man said snapping his fingers and disappearing in a flash of green light.

The group looked at each other for a moment before Nick said "Did anyone else get lost, or is it just me?"

"You're not alone man. What the hell is going on here?" Andrew asked.

"Not sure, but he's with Richtofen, and that's a fact. We've got to find the others, quickly." Judith said, and Jax nodded.

"SHOTGUN!" Nicholas yelled firing the Raid in a Zombie's face, killing it instantly.

"TAKE THAT MOFO!" Joe said firing his SPAZ-24

"DIE MAGGOT BREATH!" Liam yelled.

" I LIKE PANCAKES!" Jess yelled unleashing a flurry of bullets on the Zombies.

Sam floated nearby, watching the Zombie slayers when she felt a disturbance. She looked towards the north and felt a dark presence. Samantha snarled and said _**"Illuzio!"**_

"Illu-what?" Joe asked firing Calamity at a nearby Zombie.

"_**Someone I thought was long dead. He will make things difficult for us."**_ Samantha muttered.

The group finished off the horde and Nicholas asked "Who's Illuzio?"

"_**I demented jester that I thought died in a explosion. He was a researcher in group 935, but he bailed when Richtofen and the others turned against my daddy. He may not have been all aboard with Richtofen's plan, but he was loyal to him, not my daddy. He's insane, and completely unpredictable. He was a side-experiment Richtofen preformed, the effects of 115 on living beings. Illuzio…he's a monster. Always has been, always will be."**_ Samantha said with a scowl.

"Wait, he's a jester, and a scientist?" Liam asked.

"_**Yes. He was a jester before he joined group 935. Not sure where or why. All this means is that he's intelligent and crazy. We have to be cautious if he's mixed up in all of this."**_ Samantha said.

"All right, let's find everyone, and then get to the bottom of this mess." Nicholas.

**Meanwhile:**

A group of three people stood next to a Mobil gas station, holding their weapons frightfully. They were covered in blood from killing Zombies and had the look of seniors in high school.

"For the last time James, your intense fear of fire will not hinder your skills as a leader." The teen with a goatee said.

"OK, if you say so." James said.

Suddenly a car next to James exploded violently and sent all three teens to the ground. James took one look at the flames shooting from the car and released his bowels and his bladder at the same time. (If you don't get it, then ask a friend.)

"AAAAHHHH! RUN!" James yelled while running away from the flames, leaving a brown and yellow trial behind him.

"I hate my life" the teen with a mustache said running after James.

"I hate your life too." The teen with the goatee replied following him.

"Dude, did we really have to screw with the guy with the fire phobia like that? I mean, he did just pee and crap himself." Andrew asked chuckling. (There, I gave it to you anyway. Just because I'm a nice guy.)

"Yep." Judith said with a grin as she put down her 115 Oscillator, the gun that made the car explode.

"Come on, where are they?" Jax muttered uneasily.

"There they are." Nick said pointing at the group far in the distance, who had just walked out of the forest.

"Hey guys!" John yelled.

"Oh hey, there they are." Liam said.

The two groups merged and began to relay what had transpired. After hearing what Illuzio said about her, Samantha let out a yell of rage and said _**"I LOATHE that damn jester. I'll never forgive him!"**_

"Why, what did he do?" Nick asked.

"_**He..he…GAH!"**_ Samantha yelled.

"Samantha, calm down. What's wrong?" Jax asked.

Samantha looked at Jax and then sighed and said _**"Fine. You guys aren't the first group of people I had to help me fight Richtofen. About three or four years ago, I had formed a group of adults to help me kill Richtofen. They were amazing, just incredible Zombie killers. They could've given Nicolai, Tank, and Takeo a run for their money. We were just outside of Tennessee when it happened. They had just cleared out a small development that had Zombies in a very rural town. Zombie attacks have been popping up every now and then, but the authorities can't report it because the Zombies disappear faster than they appear in the first place, leaving behind nothing but blood and bodies. About an eighth of missing people and cold cases are due to Zombie attacks. They had just killed the last Zombie when Illuzio came. He appeared in a flash of light and laughed at us, said that they were wasting their time helping a spirit that should have called it quits fifty years ago. And then…he KILLED THEM!"**_ Samantha roared.

"What!" everyone yelled.

"_**He slaughtered them with his own hands. He…I don't know what he is, but if he's still around then we have to be very…very, careful." **_Samantha said.

"OK, I say we look for the truck and keep heading towards Tallahassee. Sam can tell us her plan on the way there." Nicholas said.

"_**The plan is useless now. With Richtofen and Illuzio working against us, we'll have to come up with a new game plan."**_ Samantha said sadly.

"OK, we'll work that out on the road. We need to start moving. Soon." Joe said.

"I agree." John said.

"No one cares what you think!" John replied.

"…my Mommy does." John muttered.

"What was that?" Liam asked.

"Nothing."

"Oh wait! I know how to find the car!" Jess said suddenly.

"How?" Judith asked.

"I press the lock button on my car keys and follow the sound to the car!" Jess said excitedly.  
>"Best plan I've heard all night." John said.<p>

"Shut it numbnuts." Joe said.

"Hehe…numbnuts." Jess giggled before pressing the button on the keys.

A honking noise could be heard a few hundred yards away, and the group began to walk over to an abandoned Diary Queen.

"Oooh! I want a McFlurry!" Jess yelled.

"Wrong place Jess." Andrew said.

"Oh, umm…a Whopper?" Jess said.

"Nope." Nick said.

"Large Pizza and a Coke all for six dollars?" Jess said.

"Is she always like this?" Samantha asked.

"Yeah, you get used to it after a while" Joe said, not noticing that Jess was glaring at him and had just turned invisible.

Suddenly Joe tripped and fell face-first onto the pavement. Jess suddenly appeared and said "No you don't."

"…point taken." Joe muttered as he got up with a wince.

The group quickly went inside of the Diary Queen and emerged with cheeseburgers and milkshakes. Jess unlocked the truck in the parking lot and everyone hopped in. Samantha possessed Jax again and his eyes turned dark red again.

Liam then argued with Jess for five minutes about who would drive and finally gave in when she said that she had a stash of grenades she kept under the driver's seat and she was more than willing to blow up the truck.

"All right guys, I say we head up to that secret lab. That's a good place to start as any. What was that phrase Illuzio said?" Nicholas asked.

"Darkness lies within the river, but only if you have the demon guide." Nick recited.

"_**Hmm…I think I know what he means. I left a teddy bear by a lakeside cave where I felt Richtofen's presence. It can lead us deeper into the cave, but I wonder what lies inside now. I went there a few years back, but it only had a few rusty machines inside"**_ Samantha said through Jax.

"Is it one of those demonic teddy bears like in Zombies?" Joe asked.

"_**I thought they were cute." **_Samantha said in a slightly hurt tone.

"About as cute as a Chuck Norris fact." Liam said.

"_Suck it!"_ C.N. said.

"Yeah! What he said!" Nick yelled.

"Like who said?" Liam asked.

"C.N"

"Oh right, the figment of your imagination that proves what an idiot you are." Liam said with a smirk.

"…why do I put up with you all?" C.N. asked himself.

"Welcome to my world." Joe muttered.

"_**Anyway, the lab is about an hour's drive from here."**_ Samantha said.

"All right then, buckle up folks, it'll be a bumpy ride!" Jess yelled slamming on accelerator and heading toward the insane doctor's lab.

**Riverbank Cave Entrance:**

"_**Yes, this is it."**_ Samantha said leaving Jax's body and observing the cave's entrance.

"Wait. Do you guys hear that?" Judith asked.

Everyone went quiet and could hear the unmistakable sound of an organ playing. The sound sent a chill down each of the teen's spine and Nicholas said "OK, so how do we get in? The water looks pretty deep and there's bound to be alligators in that cave."

Samantha pointed to a teddy bear sitting in a tree above them, its eyes glowing red. Jax reached up and grabbed it and said "OK, now what?"

"_**Throw it into the water."**_ Samantha said.

Jax tossed the batter teddy bear into the water and for a moment, nothing happened.

"Wow…that was…pretty awesome." Joe smirked.

Suddenly the water exploded in a flash of wicked red light and an awesome, but evil-looking, boat appeared from underwater. It had a Grim Reaper on the prow and had no sails. There was enough space to fit the whole group, but there seemed to be no oars.

"_**Get in."**_ Samantha said, and the group obeyed.

As the last person sat down the boat suddenly lurched forward, gliding across the river silently. The group remained silent as they went into the pitch black dark cave, They were plunged into darkness.

"Wow…it's pretty dark in here." Joe said.

"Hey, who's hand is that?" Nick said.

BAM!

"My balls!" Nick cried.

"That was my hand biatch" Liam laughed.

"Ew, you touched his balls." Jess said.

"EH! Gross!" Liam said wiping his hand repeatedly on the boat.

"_**SHUT UP!" **_Samantha yelled.

Suddenly the cave was lit up as torches on the side of the cave walls flared up. Bright blue flames illuminated the cave, and everyone could see now. The group got out of the boat and stepped onto a small metal platform as the water splashed underneath them.

"Place hasn't changed a bit." Samantha muttered.

"Where do we go now?" John asked.

"_**Deeper."**_ Samantha said.

"That's what she said." Joe snickered.

"Ugh…" John groaned in disgust.

The group headed deeper into the cave and after about three minutes of walking they finally came across old Richtofen's Lab.

"Wow." Nick John and Liam said at once.

Inside of the lab there wear desks full of different colored liquids, and several power generators were up and running, wicked bolts of blue lightning were sparking from the tips of it. Several schematics and blueprints were lying on top of a table. Several pods stood to the side with various tubes running through them, and one at least twenty meters around was in the middle of the lab. Strange figures were inside of the tubes and the teens didn't want to see want lay inside. Illuzio was there too, playing the organ at the far side of the room. He didn't notice them at first, as he was too intent on playing his organ, but finally he stopped and looked over at the teens with a smile.

"Greetings! How can Illuzio help you?" Illuzio said getting up and bowing.

"_**Silence you evil jester! Where is Richtofen! Tell me!"**_ Samantha said.

"Rudeness and demands will only get you so far, dear Samantha. Hmm….how to deal with you all…this is a tough one. I can't just let you walk out of here, but I don't want to make the show BORING, as I am an entertainer and I have to put on a good show."

"That's it. I'm done." Nicholas said aiming the Raid and firing it at Illuzio's skull.

Quick as a flash, Illuzio ducked under the shot and jumped thirty feet into the air and landed lightly on top of the largest pod and laughed.

"Well then, I guess I'll go for a spectacular show that ends with a bang! Awaken! Almighty Leviathan!" Illuzio yelled.

Suddenly the pod shuddered open and a huge burst of steam shot out of the doorway. About a hundred gallons of blue liquid streamed out of the pod, but the group was too focused on the beast that lay inside of the pod.

"What…what is that thing?" Judith asked holding Liam tightly in fear.

The monster looked part scorpion, as it had a thirty foot long barbed tail with a wickedly sharp point at the end. But it had the torso and body of a man, just horribly disfigured and covered in an powerful-looking exoskeleton. It's face was scared and bloody, and roared at them as it's eyes turned bright blue. All in all it was a twenty foot scary as hell Zombie with a scorpion tail and it looked more than ready to slaughter them.

"Richtofen's newest creation. Part scorpion, part human, part Zombie. ALL DESTRUCTION! Muahahahahaha!" Illuzio laughed maniacally.

"How the hell do we fight _this_ thing?" Nicholas muttered anxiously.

"The way we handle everything in America. With a lot of guns and a crapload of luck." Joe said reloading the SPAZ-24.

"Oh, and let's not forget the surprise twist on for tonight's show!" Illuzio said cheerfully.

"What now?" Jess asked angrily.

"Look up my dear." Illuzio said.

As one the group looked up and saw fifty detonators attached to the caves ceiling, counting down from ten minutes.

"Oh crap." Liam said.

"Yep. Not looking good." Joe said.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" the Leviathan roared as it took a step towards the group, who raised their guns as one.

"Well, I'll be waiting for you all in Tallahassee. Ciao!" Illuzio said snapping his fingers and disappearing in a burst of green light.

"Any ideas guys?" Jax said.

"I was hoping you had one man." Nicholas said.

"Not now, give me a minute." Jax said grabbing his Thundergun.

"Guys, on three, we fire at once." Nicholas said.

"One…" Judith said.

"Two…" Andrew said.

"THREE!" everyone yelled firing all of their weapons at once.

The Leviathan roared as the bullets bounced off of the it's armor and he whirled around and hit Andrew with its tail sending him crashing into a machine.

"Andrew!" Joe yelled.

"I'm all right!" Andrew said getting back up with a wince and holding his shoulder.

The group tried running over to where the boat was docked, but realized by the time they could get in the Leviathan would catch up. So they stood there ground by the docking area of the lab. The Leviathan lumbered over to where Jess and Judith were and raised it's arm to strike at them when a huge blast of air shot out of nowhere and blasted the beast into the water.

"And that's why the Thundergun is awesome." Jax said with a grin.

"Thanks for the save Jax." Judith said.

"Way to go!" Jess said with a grin.

"Hey, it's what I do." Jax grinned.

Suddenly the water exploded and the Leviathan reappeared, looking pissed as it got back onto the platform. It grabbed an oil drum and hurled it at Jax, who blasted it out of the air with the Thundergun. Nicholas pulled out his Dual-Python's and began firing repeatedly. Jess pulled out the R115 Resonator and Judith pulled out her EPC-WIN and began firing at the Leviathan's head, which caused it to roar in pain.

"Judith! Watch out!" Liam yelled pushing Judith out of the way as the Leviathan spun around and swung it's tail at where Judith was a second before. Liam was picked up off the ground and sent flying off of the dock and sent crashing into the water.

"Liam!" Judith yelled.

"Judith! Stay focused! He's fine, let's take this thing out!" Joe yelled firing his SPAZ-24 repeatedly.

John looked up at the timer which was now down to 8:12, and said "Guys, lead him to the water! I've got an idea!"

"Don't lead him there! Liam's in there!" Judith yelled at John.

"I'm fine!" Liam called from the shored as he held his head, which was covered in blood.

Liam pulled out the AUG-5OM3 and aimed at a red spot on the creature's tail. He fired carefully and hit the spot dead-on, and the Leviathan let out a scream of pain.

"GET THE TAIL!" Liam yelled firing again.

"C.N.! Can you do a power attack?" Nick asked.

"_Yeah. Go for it!"_ C.N. said.

Nick ducked under the Leviathan's arm and bashed it in the face with C.N. The creature stumbled and Nick aimed C.N. at the creature's tail.

"_Pulsation CANNON!"_ C.N. yelled as a wicked white and blue pulsating beam shot out of the Chuck Norris figurine's hat.

The Leviathan, however, moved at the last second and the attack grazed its tail, causing it to howl in pain. The beam tore through the creature's arm and left it a bloody stump.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" the Leviathan roared turning around and glaring at Nick.

Nick pulled at the Calamity and fired at the Leviathan, who brought up his fist and was looking to destroy the small teen. Suddenly Jess jumped onto the creature's head and stuck a symtex grenade onto its skull and jumped off right before the grenade exploded violently. The Leviathan looked at Jess who yelled "Come get me Big Guy!"

"RAAAAAAAAAH!" the Leviathan roared as Jess went invisible.

BAM!

Judith fired a perfect headshot on the beast, sending it staggering away. Andrew aimed Reaper and fired the hookshot into the creature's chest, tearing through its left lung. The Leviathan roared and grabbed hold of the chain and pulled Andrew towards him. Andrew was thrown forward and the Leviathan ripped the chain out of its chest and hurled Andrew into the water. Liam stopped trying to aim for the tail and dove into the water to grab Andrew, who looked dazed and was holding his arm.

"John, what's your plan?" Joe asked.

"Lead it into the water. I've got the Winter's Fury. When it's submerged, I can freeze him even more than I usually could. We'll have to trick him to go pretty deep though, and we've only got three minutes before this cave goes down." John said pulling out the Porter's X2 Ray Gun and the Winter's Fury.

"All right. Hey big, dumb, and ugly! Over here!" Nicholas yelled firing his Raid as the Leviathan's arm came down where Jess had been milliseconds before. The monster turned round and struck out with its tail, but Nicholas dodged and shot the Leviathan in the face with the Raid.

"Guys! Follow my lead!" Nicholas yelled taking a few steps back.

"John, fire a few times into the water to make a path for Nicholas." Joe said.

"What?" John replied.

"If the Leviathan follow Nicholas into the water, it won't go deep enough. But if it were to go on top of a path frozen on top of the water, which we can break, then-" Joe said.

"We can make it go deeper and freeze it, and we'll have it beat!" Judith said excitedly.

"Liam! Where is the water deepest?" Judith asked.

"About thirty feet behind Nicholas and to the left about three feet!" Liam yelled looking down into the water.

"How the hell did he know that?" John asked.

"Liam can tell how deep water is just by looking at it." Judith said proudly.

"Huh. That's pretty badass." Joe said.

"Yeah, he is." Judith said with a grin.

"YO NUMBNUTS! A LITTLE HELP HERE!" Nicholas yelled as the Leviathan swung a fist at him and missed by inches.

John aimed carefully and fired five times into the water creating a long path of ice that led to the deep area Liam had directed them to. Nicholas continued to fire at the Leviathan, who was roaring angrily at him.

"Guys! Get out of here! The cave's going in two minutes! Hurry!" Nicholas yelled.

followed.

Joe turned around to leave but noticed a few sketches on a table that looked familiar to him. He ran over to them and skimmed over them and said "Oh yeah, we'll be needing this." He rolled the papers up and put them up his shirt sleeve and began to head towards the boat.

"Get in the boat!" Jax yelled as he jumped in the boat and everyone but Nicholas and John got in.

"John, fire from the boat! Get out of here!" Nicholas yelled.

"Not happening!" John said firing at the lake two more times to finish the path. Nicholas kept leading the Leviathan over to the deeper waters as Andrew and Liam hopped inside of the boat as it began to move.

"All right, we're good. Jax, get the Thundergun and fire when I jump off" Nicholas said.

"Gotcha!" Jax said pulling out the Wonder Weapon and reloading it.

The Leviathan then roared and its tail shot to where Nicholas was and clipped him on the shoulder. Nicholas yelled in pain and fell off of the ice path.

"_**Jax!"**_ Samantha yelled.

"On it." Jax said before firing the Thundergun at the block of ice barely supporting the Leviathan.

The ice block cracked and then shattered, causing the Leviathan to plummet into the water. It's head emerged out of the water and it's blue eyes narrowed in anger and it began to swim towards the boat.

Nicholas burst through the water and gasped "JOHN!"

"Ready!" John said.

"FIRE!"

John fired ten times at the Leviathan, which began roaring even louder, until the creature become totally encased in ice. It's eyes closed and the Leviathan passed into the next life…wherever the hell that is for Zombies. John looked up and saw the timer was at thirty seconds. Nicholas was holding his shoulder and was barely staying afloat. John ran along what was left of the ice path and fired a new path over to Nicholas and pulled him out of the water.

"I'm sorry for all of the times I messed with you." Nicholas said with a grin as John began making an ice path to shore with the Winter's Fury.

3…2…1…BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The cave's roof exploded violently and the entire thing began to cave in completely. The ice path shattered as boulders rained down from above. The demon-boat sat there on the shore of the river while the group began telling each other how lucky they were to be alive.

"John, for once in your life you make me proud to fight alongside you." Joe said clapping Joe on the back.

John smiled and said "Yep."

John the kicked Joe in the balls and shot him in the chest with the Winter's Fury. As Joe became a human popsicle, Nick said "So, now what?"

"We find somewhere with medical supplies. Liam and Andrew got hurt pretty bad, and my shoulder hurts like hell." Nicholas said holding onto his bleeding shoulder.

"Hey look, there's a hospital over there!" Judith said looking through the scope of her 115 Oscillator.

"Alright, let's head out guys." Nicholas said as Joe began to break out of ice and called John a word that rhymed with "Ducking Sass Mole"

**Meanwhile…**

"Illuzio, you haff disappointed me once again." A voice said with a hint of fury.

"Master Richtofen. Please, forgive me. I did not think they would survive the Leviathan, they are mere children. I will not underestimate them again." Illuzio begged.

"Illuzio, zhee 115 gas amplifier is nearing completion! I cannot haff interference now, when I am soooo close! Take as many of mine experiments as you need and destroy those children, and if you can manage it, that meddling little girl as well. She has been a thorn in mine side for too long now." Richtofen said.

"Of course sir. Thank you."Illuzio said as Richtofen turned around and walked into his private study.

Illuzio stood up and said "Thank you sir, for being sooooo gullible! Now that I've been given control over his beloved experiments, I can begin my plan! Ooooh! I love this part of the performance!"

The Jester chuckled to himself and warped on the spot, eager to put into action a plan to usurp the power that should have been rightfully his.

**End of Chapter:**

Oh yeah, I did most of this chapter while on a cruise. What now? Anyway, what is the story behind the mysterious Illuzio? What will the Zombie dream-team do now to combat Richtofen? What were the plans that Joe found? All of this will be answered soon my friends, so until next time, please review and leave me your thoughts and suggestions. Also, I may do a poll on what should be the next Zombie Map the group should be tested on, like the Stadium. It could be something like a power plant, or a golf course, or even a nation's monument. Please, leave suggestions in the form of review, message me, or vote in the poll. (If I do it. Not sure yet.) Anyway guys, till next time! FlygonN. OUT!


	8. Zombies to the Emergency Room, STAT

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead Chapter 8: Zombies to the Emergency Room, STAT**

**Hey folks, I started writing another fanfiction. It's for Jak and Daxter and I'd love for anyone who's played the games to check it out. It's called "Jak IIII: The Avenging Angels." Also, I have the poll up on my profile page like I said for last chapter, please check it out and vote, and I will be taking recommendations into account when I decide what to do with the result. It only takes a minute to vote, so please do. Thanks a ton and enjoy.**

**Location two miles from the Riverside Cave:**

Illuzio stood next to a group of twenty Nazi Zombies, the ones that survived from fifty years ago and watched from afar as the group walked away from the cave, bumped and bruised, but still very much alive. Illuzio sighed, as he didn't want to kill them…yet. But he had orders, and he had to play his part, for now.

"Commander. Aim the rifle." Illuzio commanded a Zombie, who obeyed and aimed a long glowing sniper rifle into the group.

"Hmm…who should I kill?" Illuzio pondered.

"Nicholas is the leader, and he does show an incredible amount of skill. He also seems to have more of Samantha's trust than the others. He's a prime target"

"Jax seems to be Samantha's vessel, and is a threat as well. He also gains superhuman powers when Samantha is possessing him."

"Joe has shown that he is incredibly skill in hacking and has much skill in technology, and he is incredibly skilled as well. Hmm…" Illuzio said.

"Judith is the sniper of the group, and has shown herself to have great aim. Plus, her death would cause Liam to be distraught and unable to fight."

"Liam is an incredibly able fighter, and not afraid to get has hands dirty and get right into a fight, as shown with his fight against the Juggernaut. Also, his death would cause Judith to be distraught."

"Nick has that figurine that has incredible powers, and he seems to be skilled with it. Also, he is able to kill many Zombies with very little, as shown with his skill with the Calamity.

"John showed incredibly quick thinking in defeating the Leviathan. I hadn't anticipated that one of them would figure out a way to defeat it so easily. So he is a threat."

"Andrew has shown incredible skill with melee weapons, and is much like Liam in the aspect that he's not afraid to get his hands dirty and fight."

"Jess is skilled as well, performing seemingly impossible things quite easily, and seems to be the most capable of the fighters, and that's without a weapon."

"So many possibilities. So hard to choose." Illuzio said.

"Send a few of the new Zombies to distract them." Illuzio said to the Zombie commander, who groaned to a few nearby Zombies.

"Commander, fire at the one who's in front on my mark." Illuzio instructed a few minutes later.

**Ten minutes of walking away from Riverside Cave:**

The group decided against going in the truck, as Jess complained there was too much blood on the guys in the group, and walked over to the hospital. Judith was letting Liam lean on her shoulder while Andrew was supported by Jax. Nicholas was holding his shoulder which has stopped bleeding for now, but caused him constant pain.

"How much longer?" Nick whined for the 8th time in ten minutes.

"One minute less than the last time you asked!" Liam said.

"Why couldn't the Leviathan hit him instead?" Joe asked.

"Not sure." John said reloading the Winter's Fury, which was down to its last three shots.

"Sorry guys, but I'm not getting bloodstains in my new truck." Jess said skipping happily.

"Sure, I may die before we get to the hospital from a concussion, but heaven forbid I get a blood stain on the LEATHER SEATS OF A TRUCK THAT YOU STOLE!" Liam yelled.

Jess did an about-face and stuck her tongue out at him, and then turned back around. She then raised an eyebrow and said "Guys, I think we may want to duck."

"Why?" Nick asked.

"Because that." Jess said pointing to a truck barreling towards them with both headlights shattered.

"GET THE HELL OUTTA THE WAY!" the driver yelled.

Everyone jumped to the side to avoid the truck as it spun out of control and slowed to a stop ten feet from the group. The driver got out and said "And this is why you shouldn't let a sniper drive! Why the hell did I let them use MapQuest? Just follow the signs!"

"_**Why did she say to duck when the truck was speeding towards you all? That wouldn't have done anything."**_ Samantha asked no one in particular.

"Hey! What the hell was that?" Nicholas yelled.

"Sorry guys, I was outrunning some Zombies when I high-jacked this truck. I lost my friends in the process, and they said they'd meet me around here. I was lost control of the truck and well, here we are" the teen said as he stepped into the moonlight.

"O…M…G." Jess said with a blush.

He was tall, about 6 feet tall and had jet black hair with ice blue eyes. He had slightly tanned skin and had a few cuts a dings on him from the Zombies, but he carried a flamethrower on his back and two old fashioned pistols as his sidearms. He looked about sixteen, maybe seventeen years old.

"He's…hot!" Jess whispered in Judith's ear, who looked at Jess and giggled.

"By the way, my name's Marcus. Marcus Kross." The teen said, and everyone in the group introduced themselves to the new arrival.

"Gah…" Jess said with her mouth hanging open.

"Uhh…what's with the cute girl with brown hair drooling?" Marcus asked.

Jess started and blushed dark red and said "Uh, I wasn't drooling! I was…just…um…"

Jess then spun around and kicked John in the face. John fell to the ground sobbing and Marcus said "OK, what the hell is going on around here?"

"I'd like to know that too. Hey, come with us. You can tell us what happened to you and your group while we go to the hospital." Andrew said.

"Yeah, you guys do look a little…hurt." Marcus said with a goofy grin.

"What gave it away, the bleeding?" Liam asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, kinda."

"Just making sure." Liam replied with a grunt of pain.

"OK, we should probably get going. My shoulder is bleeding again when I had to jump out of the way to avoid the truck." Nicholas said as bleed began to stain more of his shirt.

"Come on, let's roll. Hospital is just up the street." Marcus said walking towards the road.

Jess ran up to him and immediately began talking to him in a rapid rush, and everyone else looked at each other and grinned.

"She's so crushing on him." Joe said.

"Should we mess with her about it?" John asked.

"Do I say a really annoying amount of Chuck Norris references?" Nick asked.

"Yes." Judith stated.

"Then there's your answer." Nicholas said with a grin as he saw his friend jabber away excitedly.

As the duo emerged onto the road, they froze and pulled out their weapons. The rest of the group walked onto the road and saw the hospital in the distance, about three blocks away.

"Come on, let's go." Andrew said.

"Hold on bro, there's something up." Marcus said nervously.

"_**He's right, something is not right."**_ Samantha said to Jax, who relayed that to the rest of the group. Samantha was laying low by staying invisible, as ghosts can do that sort of thing, because it would freak Marcus out and lead to weird questions, like why the hell she was real or here in the first place.

Suddenly there was a rustle of bushes several yards away and a horde of Zombies came out, about fifty in total. Marcus stepped in front of Jess and said "Time to fry."

Marcus's flamethrower shot out a huge burst of flame that incinerated the first part of the horde and caused them all to fall to the ground dead. The other Zombies tried to move around the flames but Marcus, with a fierce grin on his face, waved the flamethrower at the Zombies, moving the flames back and forth and allowing no Zombies to get through. As the last one fell to the ground Jess said "That was seriously hot."

"You don't mean just the flamethrower, do you Jess?" Nicholas asked.

Jess walked over to him and slapped him upside the head. Nicholas yelped and said "Ow…that hurt!"

"Good." Jess huffed.

"So, was that hot enough for ya?" Marcus asked with a grin as he turned around, oblivious to what had just happened.

"Yes." Jess said with a blush.

"And by that, she's really means she wants to-" Nick said before being silenced with a roundhouse kick courtesy of Jess.

"Shut it, or I'll throw that statue in the river!" Jess said.

"_Bring it. I can take you."_ C.N. said.

"You don't have the guts!" Nick replied.

Jess grabbed the statue and punted it thirty yards away into the trees, Nick ran after the statue yelling angrily. When C.N. landed, a small explosion went off, destroying all of the nearby trees in the area.

"What the…never mind, I don't WANT to know." Marcus said.

"So how have you survived this long?" Andrew asked.

"Well when it happened I was playing Black Ops with some friends. We heard about Zombies on the news, and we got some guns and supplies and hid in the woods. I got a hold of this flamethrower at this weird lab that we found in the woods, and it's been helpful having it. Unfortunately I'm nearly done with it, especially with that last batch of Zombies. I lost my friends a few hours ago, and they're not answering their phones. You guys are the first survivors I've met ever since I lost them." Marcus said.

"Wow, you're really tough then if you can survive against the Zombies on your own." Jess said.

Marcus flushed red and said "Yeah well, you know."

"Come on you two! Stop flirting and let's get to the bloody hospital!" Nicholas said with a small grin.

Both of them nervously blushed and apologized and began walking again. Suddenly there was a loud bang and Marcus grabbed Jess by the hand and pulled her to the side, seconds before a green laser flew by and vaporized the spot where she had been.

"Y-y-you save my life." Jess said in amazement.

"I'll take that as a thank you." Marcus said with a grin.

Jess flushed an even darker red when she realized Marcus was holding her hand. Marcus quickly let go and said "All right, let's-BAM!"

Suddenly another laser flew by and hit Marcus in the arm, ripping a fair amount of skin and muscle off. He yelled in pain and fell to the ground as blood gushed out of the wound. He rose to one knee and hissed in pain.

"Marcus! You OK?" Jess asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Takes more than that to take me down" Marcus grunted in pain.

"Come on! Let's get to the hospital!" Jess yelled as she helped him to his feet.

The group went as fast as they could to the hospital, unaware that they were being watched.

"Send squads 45, 46, and 47. And…experiment group 201. Kill them all." Illuzio said with a smile.

**Inside the Hospital:**

"OK, this may sting a bit." The doctor said as he cleaned Nicholas's wound with disinfectant.

"AH! THAT _ _ _ _ING HURTS!" Nicholas yelled.

"OK, by that I meant it'll hurt like hell." The doctor said with a smirk.

"You son of a…" Nicholas scowled.

"Oh calm down you baby, suck it up." Joe said as he read a magazine.

"Grr…"

The doctor finished cleaning the wound and Jax said "Hold on, I think I know something that will help."

Jax pulled out a medical kit and pulled out a syringe with green fluid. He walked over and injected Nicholas's wound with it, ignoring the stunned doctor's face. The wound began to heal and suddenly the massive bloody slash on Nicholas's shoulder was reduced to a small red gash. Nicholas grinned and said "It's an improvement, thanks Jax."

"No prob. You can dress the wound now." Jax said to the amazed doctor.

"So what now?" Joe asked.

"I say you all stay here for a little longer. Get any treatment you need before you head out on your way. The Zombies stand no chance against all of us, so you're safe for now." The doctor, named Steve, said.

They had arrived at the hospital and had come across a group of about fifty doctors, cops, and teachers hiding in the shelter. The injured teens were quickly given treatment and they were able to rest for a little while. Five armed cops stood guard outside, and every survivor left was armed with several guns.

"Maybe for a few hours, but we've got to get to Tallahassee to stop the one who started all of this." Judith said as she sat down on Liam's bed, where he had bandages wrapped around his head.

"Well, if you do. Try to be careful. These are dangerous times, and if you do know what has caused this calamity, then do not take unnecessary risks. You may be our last hope" Steve said, and the group nodded.

"Hey, where are Jess and Macrus?" Andrew asked.

"Probably outside on the roof, they said they were going to look at the stars." John said with a sly grin.

"Wanna mess with them?" Nick asked.

"Finally, something intelligent comes out of your mouth." Liam commented.

"Well, you know, I try and-HEY!" Nick yelled.

"Come on, let's mess with them." Andrew said walking out of the room.

**Rooftop:**

"Wow, the stars are awesome tonight." Marcus said lying down on the rooftop, Jess next to him.

"Yeah, I'm glad we finally have a chance to relax. Things have gotten so crazy lately." Jess said with a sigh.

"So…do you have a boyfriend…by any chance?" Marcus said in a casual tone, his face turning red.

"N-no." Jess said with a blush.

"Well, maybe…I was thinking…maybe when this whole thing blows over…maybe you and me could maybe, uh, hang out sometime." Marcus said nervously.

"I-I'd like that." Jess said with a nervous smile.

Suddenly the roof door burst open and Andrew appeared through the door and yelled "HEY GUYS, JESS IS WORKING IT UP HERE!"

"What are you doing!" Jess yelled as hers and Marcus's blush got redder.

"Embarrassing you." Andrew said with a grin.

Jess walked over to and slapped him upside the head.

"OW!" Andrew said.

"Did that hurt?" Jess asked.

"Yes!" Andrew yelled.

"Good. Now beat it!" Jess yelled as she kicked him in the balls and pushed him down the stairs.

Jess turned around and kicked the door shut and said "OK, where were we?"

**Meanwhile:**

"So, how did it go?" Nicholas asked as he tried to put a dollar in the vending machine.

"Jess is working it on the roof." Andrew snickered as the machine spat out Nicholas's dollar.

"Good, so did Jess-WHY WON'T THIS BLOODY THING WORK?" Nicholas yelled as he pulled out a Cobra and shot the machine three times, shattering the glass in the machine. He reached through it and pulled out a bag of BBQ Chips. Nicholas opened the bag and began eating, then looked up and saw Andrew staring at him with his mouth wide open.

"What? I'm hungry." Nicholas said as he ate another chip.

"Move." Andrew said grabbing a pack of cookies out of the machine.

"Guys, come here!" Joe called.

Andrew and Nicholas walked into a nearby room where Joe and John were messing around with a machine.

"Is that a defibrillator?" Andrew asked.

"Yep." John said.

"Come on, are we really going to do this scene?" Nicholas asked himself.

"Looks like it." Jax said

"What the hell are you both talking about?" Joe asked.

"The whole, electroshock thing with the defibrillator, do we really have to do this?" Nicholas asked.

"_**You know what FlygonN. would say."**_ Samantha said.

"True. He's adamant on this scene. Go ahead." Nicholas said.

"What the…OK, that was weird. Anyway, let's get this started." Joe said judo chopping John in the neck, causing him to collapse onto the ground.

"Help me get him in bed." Joe said.

Jax, Andrew, and Nicholas looked at each other and burst into laughter, and Joe said "Oh you guys suck."

"_**You're the one who wants to get John into bed. Who's really doing the sucking?" **_Samantha chuckled as Nicholas sfell onto the ground laughing his brains out.

"Whatever, just get on with it." Andrew said as Jax lifted John up and put him on the hospital bed.

"OK, attention fellow assistants. Watch carefully on how to awaken annoying little dorks. Step one, charging up the defibrillator." Joe said rubbing the electrical pads together.

"Step two. Administer a _healthy_ dose of pain, to said annoying nerd. Observe." Joe said facing the unconscious John on the bed.

"CLEAR!" Joe said as a bolt of electricity passed between the two pads and he pressed them onto John's chest.

"HOLY SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS!" John screamed as he was being electrocuted.

Jax, Andrew, and Nicholas began clapping as John collapsed onto the bed and said "I…hate…you."

"I know. Step three, recharge." Joe said rubbing the pads together again.

"You're not doing that again, are-?" Nicholas began to say.

"CLEAR!" Joe yelled as he pressed the pads into John's chest again, shocking him.

"AHHHHHH!" John screamed until he fell onto the bed again.

"You…son of a…bi-CLEAR!" Joe yelled, cutting John off as he charged the pads and administered another healthy dose of pain to his friend.

"Dude, give him a break for a sec." Andrew said.

"Fine." Joe mumbled as he backed away.

John needed a full three minutes to recover. He got out of the bed, kicked Joe in the nuts and grabbed both of the pads.

"CLEAR!" John yelled placing the pads on Joe's chest.

"HOLY CRAP!" Joe yelled in pain as the pads shocked him.

"_**You all are completely stupid sometimes."**_ Samantha said shaking her head.

"Something you'll have to get used to. Humans have gotten a little weird over the years same, especially in this day and age." Nicholas said.

"_**Maybe, but you guys are really strange."**_ Samantha said.

"Can't argue with you there." Nicholas said as Joe came to.

"You A-hole. I'm going to-!" Joe began to say when Liam burst through the door and said "Guys, I think we have a problem."

"Zombies broke in, didn't they?" Andrew asked.

"Yep, the cops are fighting them now. Let's get Jess and Marcus and help them!" Liam yelled running towards the stairs to the roof.

"Should we tell him?" Nicholas asked.

"Nope." John replied.

"I give it a minute before he gets sent sprawling down the stairs." Jax replied.

"_**I concur."**_ Samantha said.

"AHH!" Liam yelled as he fell down the stairs and crashed into a garbage can.

"She slapped me in the head and Spartan-Kicked me down the stairs." Liam yelled as he picked himself up.

"I could've told you that would happen." Nick said walking up to them with Judith.

"Yeah, well when I have the next opportunity, I'm kicking the dang statue off a cliff." Liam yelled getting to his feet.

"_Try me you mother-"_ C.N. said.

"Whoa! Kids can read this stuff man!" Nick yelled.

"Stop it, only I can break the fourth wall!" Nicholas said angrily.

"Oh, sorry man."

"It's fine. Just don't do it again." Nicholas said.

"Guys. Zombie attack." Judith said.

"Oh yeah. JESS! MARCUS! STOP MAKING OUT AND GET DOWN HERE!" Nicholas yelled.

"…be down in a second!" Jess called.

Both Jess and Marcus walked back downstairs with both of their faces dark red. Everyone was grinning at him and Nicholas said "So…"

"So…" Jess and Marcus said at the same time.

"Get some." Nicholas said with a smirk before walking away.

"GET BACK HERE!" Jess yelled running after the teen.

Suddenly a Zombie burst out of the doorway and charged at the teen. Nicholas ducked under its swipe and shot it point-blank in the face with his Cobra. The Zombie crashed onto the ground dead with a thud.

"Guys! Let's roll!" Nicholas yelled as he ran down the stairs.

"Should we spilt up?" John asked.

"We should check on all of the areas in the hospital, see who we can help out. I'll go with Jax down this hallway. Liam, you and Judith check down that hallway. Andrew, you and Nick go down there. John and Joe, you head down that one. Marcus and Jess, keep it in your pants, and go down the hallway to the left. Avoid the elevators, and don't take any unnecessary risks." Nicholas instructed.

"Gotcha!" everyone said at once.

"Meet up in the front of the entrance, be ready to run for it." Nicholas said reloading the Raid and heading down the hallway.

"So do you think it's Illuzio again?" Jax asked walking next to Nicholas.

"Possibly, let's not wait around to find out." Nicholas said as a wave of Zombie came around the corner.

Nicholas grabbed a nearby cart and kicked it towards the Zombies and hurled a frag grenade at the horde. The cart slammed into the first few Zombies and the frag grenade exploded next to them, killing seven and leaving the rest without arms and/or legs.

Jax walked over to the remaining Zombies and pulled out his machete, killing each one with a stab through the skull. Another few Zombies came around the corner and Jax fired twice with his Ray gun and killed them easily.

"Come on, and be quiet." Jax said, and Nicholas nodded.

The two teens crept through the hallway, hiding in between rooms whenever they thought someone was coming. Suddenly the heard whistling and they hid inside of a room and quietly closed the door. Someone slowly walked by and said "Oh, I wonder where those kids have gone?"

"_**Illuzio."**_ Samantha muttered.

"Bingo." Jax muttered.

"Quiet!" Nicholas hissed.

"Hmm…Commander, search for the children who have been a thorn in our side for too long. Kill them on sight. Understood?" Illuzio said.

"Rauuuugh…" the Zombie commander groaned.

"You'd think there'd be actual dialogue for Zombies. Jeez, the author is soooo lazy, huh Samantha?" Nicholas said.

"_**Yes, what a lazy nerd."**_ Samantha said.

"I wonder when we'll stop breaking the fourth wall?" Jax wondered.

Illuzio walked away as the Zombie commander began searching the rooms. The door to the room Nicholas and Jax were in opened and Nicholas ran up to the commander and bashed him in the head with his shotgun as hard as he could, killing the Zombie.

"Shotgun to the face. Contingency plan? Yes!" Nicholas said with a grin.

"Come on! Let's go!" Jax said drawing his second Ray Gun.

Nicholas and Jax ran down the hallway, killing wave after wave of Zombies. Nicholas ducked under a swipe from a Zombie and slit its throat with his Bowie Knife and then kicked it to the ground. He then spun around and fired twice with the Raid, killing three more Zombies.

Jax cut down wave after wave of Zombies with his dual-Ray Guns, blasting each one in the face or chest and killing each one with one shot. After reducing a total of thirty Zombies to ashes, Jax grinned and pistol-whipped a Nazi Zombie in the face with his Ray Gun and shot at it in the back, killing it. Jax reloaded his Ray Guns and yelled "Who else wants some?"

"Jax?"

"Come on! I mean it! BRING IT ON!"

"Jax!"

"I'm going to send you all back to Richtofen with a bullet in your head, I-"

"JAX!"

"WHAT!"

"They're all dead bro." Nicholas said pointing to the crowd of dead Zombies.

"Oh…um…" Jax said embarrassedly.

"Rule 8 bro." Nicholas said.

"_**Rule 8?"**_ Samantha asked.

"Get a kickass partner." Nicholas said with a laugh.

Jax grinned and said "Come on, let's keep going."

**Meanwhile:**

"Watch out, here they come!" Andrew said pulling out Reaper and getting ready.

"OK, I'll take the ones on the left, you get the ones on the right." Nick said.

"There's twice as many on the right." Andrew said with a frown.

"I know. I can count." Nick said with a grin pulling out C.N.

Andrew shook his head in amazement and then lashed out at a Zombie in front of him, decapitating it effortlessly. Andrew kicked the Zombie to the ground and shot out Reaper's hookshot, embedding the sharp spike at the end of the chain through a Nazi Zombie's forehead.

As the hookshot retracted, Nick ran forward and began swinging C.N. wildly, killing Zombies left and right. Nick bashed a Zombie mechanic in the head and turned around to get bashed in the face by a Nazi Zombie. C.N. fell to the ground and Nick ducked to avoid another hit. Andrew jumped forward and sliced the Nazi in half, spraying blood everywhere.

"T-thanks." Nick said.

"No prob." Andrew said with a smirk.

The duo ran down the hallway, killing Zombies left and right as they made their way down the hallway. Nick put C.N. on his back and switched to the Calamity and began killing the Zombies from afar. After clearing the path, the two teens took a quick breather in an empty room.

"So, where do you think the patients are?" Andrew asked.

"Well, they either escaped or were turned into Zombies. I hope they got out." Nick said worriedly.

"Yeah, me too." Andrew said looking out of the room.

"Hmm…where could those children be?" a voice asked.

Andrew and Nick looked down the hallway and saw Illuzio, not even thirty feet away looking at them with a grin.

"Dude, run for it. I'll handle the demented clown." Andrew said.

"No way. We'll take him down together." Nick said pulling out his Calamity.

"Doubtful." Illuzio said with a chuckle.

Nick opened fire and the bullets bounced off of his skull. Illuzio laughed and said "You really didn't think that would work, did you?"

"A guy can dream." Nick said with a sigh.

"Hmm…I'll leave you to deal with Richtofen's latest experiment." Illuzio said with a smile and disappearing in a flash of green light.

"What…do you think he meant by that?" Andrew asked.

"Oh crap…" Nick said pulling out C.N. and pointing forward.

A new Zombie had just emerged from a hallway thirty feet away from them. It was crouching like a wolf and had webbed hands and feet, each with razor sharp claws attached to them. He had torn, bloody clothes on and his eyes were a pale blue color, and his face was contorted into a snarl.

"Dude…" Andrew muttered.

"Yeah…RUN!"Nick yelled running for his life

"_Coward." _C.N. said.

"SHUT UP!" Nick yelled.

"Don't tell me to shut up! Just run!" Andrew yelled back.

"I wasn't talking to you! I was talking to C.N.!" Nick yelled.

"Oh, sorry." Andrew replied.

Suddenly there was a smash from behind them, telling them that the new Zombie was just as fast as they were, and the duo put on a burst of speed.

**Meanwhile:**

"GET SOME!" Joe screamed and he fired his Commando at the zombie horde coming down the hallway, some scoring random headshots.

"Why do you always say random stuff when you fight zombies?" John asked while firing his MP40.

"I don't know, impulse maybe." Joe replied.

They kept up the fire for a couple more minutes until there was a pile of zombie bodies on the ground. Blood was splattered all along the walls and the hallway reeked of death and bullet casings littered the ground.

John and Joe reloaded their guns and Joe muttered "Come one." Those two kept walking down the hallway, opening different doors to see if they could find anything of use. John opened a door and saw something inside.

"Hey Joe, come here." John called.

"What do you want moron?" Joe replied.

"First off," John then slapped Joe across the face. "Second, what do you think is in those boxes?" John said as he pointed to 5 giant boxes in the middle of the room.

Joe and John went to the boxes, and Joe opened the first one and looked inside. He had a confused look on his face, and then said, "Wait… I've seen these before."

"What are you talking about?" John asked.

"Shut up." Joe then pulled out the plans the he had gotten from the cave and started looking them over, then looked back at the stuff in the box.

"Oh yeah, this is exactly what I need." Joe said with a grin.

Suddenly, Joe heard a buzzing noise coming from behind him. Joe realized what was going on and turned around really quick, grabbed John's arms, which had portable defibrillators in them, then put them on John.

"AHHHHH!" John screamed, then fell to the ground and stared shaking in pain.

"If you're done trying to get your revenge, I could use some help. I could also use these." Joe said picking up the defibrillator unit and put it in his backpack that he picked up in one of the rooms.

John struggled to get up, and then asked, "Why? What's in the boxes?"

"Look for yourself."

John looking into the box that was open and pulled out one of the things. "Light bulbs, why do you need light bulbs?"

Joe snatched the bulb out from his hand and, then said, "They're not light bulbs moron, they're gas tubes. They conduct electricity through them and power anything they are connected up to a hundred fold." Joe said as he began putting the bulbs in his bag and wrapping them in a towel to protect them from being damaged.

"But why, what possible use could you have for something like that?"

"You'll see." Joe said with a smile.

Out of nowhere, the pair heard more moans of the undead heading towards them. John and Joe walked outside of the room and saw a horde of Zombies. A Screecher Zombie was at the front of the group, screeching at the duo.

"Come on, let's go find the others." John said, and they pulled out their guns and opened fire on the zombies.

**Meanwhile:**

BAM!

The Nazi Zombie fell to the ground as its head exploded in a shower of blood and gore.

"Good shot." Liam said with a laugh.

"Thanks!" Judith said reloading her L115 Isolator.

Judith and Liam walked to the end of the hallway and stopped just before they came around the corner. Judith aimed her L115 Isolator down the hallway and aimed at a few Zombies who were walking down towards them. Liam kept watch while Judith fired at the Zombies, killing each one with a headshot.

"OK, now let's get down to the next floor." Liam said pulling out his AK74fu2 and walking into the hallway.

"REEEAAAAH!" a voice screeched from the other end of the hallway.

Judith and Liam turned in surprise and saw the new Zombie that Andrew and Nick were fighting.

"I hereby dub this new Zombie, the Screecher Zombie!" Liam proclaimed.

"GET DOWN!" Judith yelled as the Zombie grabbed a medical cart and hurled it at the two teens. Judith and Liam ducked and the cart flew by and slammed into the wall and shattered.

"Judith, I'll distract it. When it's attacking me, blast it in the skull." Liam said.

"Be careful." Judith said as she readied the L115 Isolator.

Liam reloaded and began firing at the Screecher, who screamed again and charged at Liam. The Screecher swiped at Liam, who jumped back and fired at the Screecher's skull, but the bullets didn't seem to be doing any damage.

"Judith!" Liam yelled.

"Ready!" Judith called.

Liam jumped to the side to avoid a swipe from the Screecher's claws and yelled "NOW!"

BAM!

The Screecher's skull exploded and it fell to the ground with a whine of pain, twitching as life left its body…again.

Liam sighed and smiled at Judith and said "Nice work."

"Thanks, so now what?" Judith asked.

"You die." A voice said as a flash of green light appeared.

Illuzio appeared at the end of the hallway with a smirk on his face. He slowly walked towards the couple and Liam stepped forward and began firing at Illuzio. The bullet's bounced off of his chest and Illuzio chuckled and said "You cannot hurt me with a pathetic weapon like that."

"How about this?" Judith asked aiming at Illuzio's head with her L115 Isolator.

BAM!

Illuzio moved his head an inch and the bullet shot by and bounced off of metal cart and down another hallway. After a series of bouncing noises, there was a colossal explosion that came from a nearby hallway. The temperature began to rise and Judith and Liam could smell smoke.

"Well done, you just hit a series of propane tanks. I'll leave you to this…hot, situation." Illuzio chuckled as he warped away.

"Come on! Let's go!" Liam said grabbing Judith's hand and running down the stairs.

"Why do we blow up every place we go to!" Judith yelled angrily.

"Not sure, but let's get the hell out of here!" Liam yelled pulling out his AK74fu2 and firing on a group of Zombies ahead of them.

"Good point, let's go!" Judith said pulling out her EPC-WIN and opening fire.

**Meanwhile:**

Marcus and Jess bolted down another hallway as the group of Zombies burst from a hallway. Jess looked back and hurled a symtex grenade at the horde, effectively reducing them to crawlers.

"Nice one!" Marcus said pulling out both of his pistols.

Marcus began firing into the horde, scoring three headshots and killing five Zombies. Jess pulled out her R115 Resonator and began mowing down the rest of the horde with a flurry of laser-bullets. When the horde was dead, Jess and Marcus began running back down the hallway. Suddenly a Screecher Zombie burst out of the hallway and screamed at them, causing the hairs on the back of the two teens necks to stand up.

"Sic em!" Illuzio's voice called to the Screecher Zombie, who obeyed.

Jess fired at the Zombie, who ducked under the bullets and tackled Marcus to the ground. The Screecher lifted its arm to slice Marcus's throat when Jess kicked it in the face, sending it sprawling backwards. The Screecher rolled to its feet and charged at Jess, only to be shot point-blank in the face by Marcus. The Zombies stumbled and screeched at the duo and charged again, only for Jess to bash it in the skull and send it stumbling back. Marcus grabbed a grenade off of Jess's belt and hurled it at the Screecher's face. The Screecher let out a scream before the grenade exploded. As the smoke cleared the the Screecher let out a soft growl and crashed onto the ground.

"Thanks." Jess said with a blush.

"No prob. Let's keep going." Marcus said with a grin.

BOOOOOM!

Both teens fell onto the ground as the building shook violently. Flames appeared at the end of the hallway and slowly began making its way towards Jess and Marcus.

"Come on, we've got to get out of here!" Marcus yelled.

"Quick, down the stairs!" Jess said shooting the lock on the stairway and kicking in the door.

Jess and Marcus took to steps down the stairs when they saw twenty Zombies slowly making their way up the stairway, effectively blocking their escape route.

"Now what!" Jess yelled.

Marcus grabbed Jess's hand ran back into the hallway and ran away from the fire. The duo continued to run as Zombies burst into the hallway and went after them, with flames closing in from behind them.

"Now what!" Jess asked.

"Working on it!" Marcus replied with a laugh.

"Why are you laughing?" Jess asked.

"Fighting Zombies with a cute chick in a burning building? Not how I'd thought I'd be spending my Saturday night!" Marcus laughed.

"Oh yeah, well I didn't think I'd be running down a burning hallway being chased by Zombies with a cute guy!" Jess retorted with a blush.

Both teens stopped as they reached a ledge, and five stories separated them from the bottom floor. Marcus and Jess turned around, where the Zombies were slowly getting closer.

"Jess, I've got an idea."Marcus said.

"Yeah, what?" Jess said pulling out her MPK5 and firing at the Zombies, trying to fend them off.

Marcus took a look at the glass barrier separating them from the ledge and said "It may just work."

Marcus was looking at a giant aquarium that was 40 feet wide and 30 feet long and thirty feet high, filled with all sorts of colorful and exotic fish on the first floor. Though it was a sixty foot drop, if they landed in the aquarium they'd be safe.

"Jess, if we jump into that fish tank down there we'll be safe." Marcus said.

"Are you crazy! That's a sixty foot drop." Jess said nervously.

"Well, we've got another thirty seconds before the Zombies get here, and then an extra ten before the fire gets to us! Do you have a better plan?" Marcus said setting up a ramp out of a broken cart.

"…all right, let's do it at the same time." Jess said taking a deep breath.

Jess and Marcus looked at each other and said "One…two…three!"

Jess and Marcus dashed up the ramp and leapt off of the ledge, a wall of roaring flames closing in behind them. Jess let out a small scream as Marcus yelled "BOOOOYAAAAAAH!"

**Meanwhile:**

"Jax!" Nicholas yelled reloading his Dual-Python's.

"On it!" Jax yelled firing at the horde of Zombies blocking the stairway.

After the side of the building exploded, the duo ran down the stairs, killing what they had to. They had encountered a Screecher Zombie and after getting a nasty cut on his stomach, Nicholas was able to kill it with a stab in the face from his Bowie Knife.

"RAAAAH!" a Nazi Zombie screamed as it rounded the corner. Nicholas ducked and decapitated the Zombie with his Bowie Knife, painting the stairway wall with crimson.

"We've got to get out of here!" Nicholas coughed as smoke began to come through the stairway.

"How about we let in some fresh air?" Jax said pulling out the Thundergun and blasting a group of 15 Zombies out of the way.

"Let's roll!" Nicholas yelled putting back his Bowie Knife and pulling out his Galil.

The duo took only a few steps when Andrew and Nick came sprawling down the stairs with a Screecher Zombie climbing down the walls, screeching as it made its way towards them. Andrew crashed onto the ground and slammed into the wall hard, but Nick was able to catch himself on the railing. Andrew looked up at the Screecher climbing down the wall, right towards him.

"Andrew!" Nick yelled aiming carefully and unloading a full clip at the Screecher, which was already covered in bullet holes and slash marks.

Every single bullet slammed into the Screecher's throat and it detached itself from the wall and crashed onto the ground next to Andrew. Nicholas walked up to it to make sure it was dead and fired once with his Galil to be sure as Nick got to his feet

"You guys all right?" Jax asked.

"Y-yeah, thanks Nick." Andrew said as he got up.

"Come on, let's find the others and get the heck out of here." Nicholas said reloading his Galil and kicking open the door to the first floor.

Liam and Judith were holding off a group of Zombies heading towards them with a barrage of bullets, and they didn't realize the group was there at first. Judith blasted Zombie after Zombie's skull off with her EPC-WIN while Liam blasted away with his AK74fu2. Nicholas grinned and said "I guess we should announce ourselves."

"Allow me." Jax said with a grin as he reloaded the Thundergun and promptly blasted through a horde of Zombies.

"Oh, hey guys! What took you so long!" Judith called as the group ran up to them.

"How did you get down here so fast?" Andrew asked.

"Well we-" Judith began to say before another explosion rocked the building.

"We've got to get out of here!" Liam yelled.

"Not without the others." Nicholas said as fire shot from the third story.

"Where are all of the patients and cops?" Jax asked.

"Most got overwhelmed, though some managed to escape through the rear exits." Judith said.

Suddenly Joe and John burst out of a nearby hallway and yelled "Guys, we've got to get out of here!"

"No dip Sherlock!" Liam said as the building shook some more.

"Where's Jess and Marcus?" John asked.

"Not sure, though I-" Andrew began to say before his jaw dropped.

The others looked at where he was looking at. The group saw Jess and Marcus leaping off of the fifth floor, sixty feet above the ground.

"BOOOOYAAAAAAH!" Marcus yelled.

"SWAN DIVE!" Jess yelled doing several back flips.

"What the fu-?" Nicholas began to say before both teens fell into the giant fish tank.

"What next?" Joe asked.

Suddenly there was another explosion and pieces of metal rained down, along with candy bars. The snack machine had exploded on the 3rd floor.

"It's Candy Rain!" Liam yelled as she grabbed a bag of Reese's.

"If only we had our instruments, I love playing that song!" Judith said grabbing a pack of

"Jess, Marcus! What the crap are you doing!" Nick yelled.

"Getting away from…the fire!" Jess gasped as she swam to the edge of the tank.

Jess and Marcus climbed out of the tank and down a ladder to the ground. Both were soaked to the skin, but grinning from excitement at what they had just done.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Marcus said with a laugh.

"Did…did you guys-" Nicholas began to say.

"Come on, let's go!" Judith said.

"They, they just-" Nicholas stammered.

"Yeah, let's roll." Joe said taking a few steps towards the door.

"Did they just jump off five stories into a fish tank?" Nicholas asked, still stunned.

"No time! Let's go!" Andrew said as the building shook again.

"Nothing makes sense anymore." Nicholas said.

The group ran out of the front of the building and watched from the outside as the building collapsed in a fiery pile.

"OK, so what the hell was that?" Nicholas asked.

"We got cornered and we had to jump for it." Marcus said with a shrug.

"So you jumped five stories into a giant fish tank?" Andrew said.

"That is correct." Jess said.

Andrew shook his head and Nicholas said "Come on, we've got to get to the truck. We can go to Tallahassee from there."

The group walked back towards the woods and about twenty minutes later, found Marcus's truck. Marcus stopped and said "Hey, do you guys hear that?"

Everyone remained silent and could hear the faint sound of someone talking. Marcus ran over to the truck and pulled out a wireless radio and said "Jake, is that you!"

"Yeah man! We've been looking all over for you bro. Where are you?" Marcus's friend said over the radio

"Not sure, where the heck are you guys?" Marcus asked.

"Somewhere in Gainesville, we're hiding in a 7-11 out on Eagle Street." Jake said breathlessly.

"I know where that is. Sit tight, I'll be there as quick as I can." Marcus said.

"Gotcha, stay safe bro." Jake said as his walkie-talkie shut off.

"Any chance of you guys tagging along?" Marcus said.

"Sorry, but we've got to stop the Zombies. We're the only ones who can do this." Andrew said.

Nicholas then said "Hey, get a hold of us if anything comes up, all right?"

"Sure. I guess I'll see you later." Marcus said walking up to Jess, who blushed dark red.

"See you around. Stay safe." Marcus said kissing Jess on the cheek.

"B-bye Marcus." Jess said with a shy grin.

Marcus hopped in his truck and fired it up, pulling out of the woods with a loud yell. Jess sighed and said "Come on, let's get to Tallahassee."

"_**I agree, maybe we can come up with a strategy on the way there." **_Samantha said through Jax.

The group walked a little further to the truck and hopped in and drove through the forest to the road and headed to the capital, unaware that a man was watching them from atop the ashes of the hospital.

"Soon children, you will face the demon that you seek. But can you slay him, the master of the undead?" Illuzio mused before warping away in a flash of light.

"We shall see."

**End of Chapter:**

Sorry if it wasn't the most action packed or detailed, I've been dealing with tests and school's been a pain in the butt recently. This chapter took forever to write and I had to finally get it done so I can move on. I sorta lost inspiration halfway through, you know? Anyway, what will the Zombie-crew do to fight Richtofen? Will Illuzio's past be revealed? I'm not telling you! Stay tuned guys and gals, until next time, FlygonN Out!


	9. A Method to Madness

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead Chapter 9: A Method to Madness**

Get ready for waves of info Boys and Gals.

Sorry about the delay, I'm really getting into my other story and I've just finished school. So HOPEFULLY it won't be as long of a wait for the next chapter, but hey, if it is, I apologize in advance. Also, a disclaimer, "Unbroken" is a song by the Black Veil Brides. I don't own it. If you've never heard of it, go to YouTube and enjoy the awesomeness.

I'd also like to bring up a very important point that was mentioned in a review in a review. For those of you who have played Super Paper Mario (I loved the entire Paper Mario Series, each game was amazing), you may have noticed some very interesting similarities between Illuzio and Dimentio. That's because I based Illuzio somewhat off of Dimentio, who was just such a cool villain. I mean come on, a magical jester who backstabs a wizard and actually kills Mario (technically)? I couldn't resist. But Illuzio is not the same as Dimentio; I want to make that point clear. The fact that they both are trying to backstab the guy they work for is a similarity, yes, but that's where the similarities end really. Also, as you'll see after you read this chapter, Illuzio's back-story is what sets him apart from Dimentio. I'd also like to mention that I'm not ripping off of Paper Mario; it's just that Illuzio was inspired by Dimentio. Sorry, just wanted to bring this up since it was brought up in the reviews and I'd once again like to say well done to mybrosdrivemecrazy, awesome job in spotting that. I'm not offended by it; I'm actually impressed someone realized it. Kudos to you my friend, and thanks for the enthusiastic review. 

Enjoy!

**In a Laboratory thirty minutes north of Tallahassee:**

A man whistled as he walked through his lab, content where he was in his research. He was close. Very close to achieving his ultimate plan. Total domination. Destroying everything on this planet and rebuilding it anew with his undead hordes. He would destroy this unworthy world, and he would rebuild from the ashes his own world. His undead army would enforce his rule, and those who stood before him would be crushed.

"Oh, how the years have gone by…" Richtofen murmured as he sat down in his chair with a sigh.

And the years had gone by slowly. Richtofen had discovered shortly after returning to Earth there were a few side-effects from switching bodies with Samantha and then returning to his own. The first of which was that the voices in his head, the ones that began to speak to him when he touched the M.P.D. had been silenced. He felt for the first time in a long time that he was truly in control. He could think clearly, and for that he was all the more deadly. He was determined to see his plan through to the end, No Regrets, no distractions, and no chance of failure.

The second side-effect was that he was either immortal, or his natural aging process had been slowed drastically. He didn't look any older than he did when this scheme was put into motion 50 years ago. He was sure the effect was caused by his switching bodies with Samantha, but it was possible for the 115 gas to have played a role.

"Zhee 115 gas…prolonged indirect exposhure has strange effects on humans…extending zhere lives by many, many years. I wonder if zhee others were affect zhee same way?" Richtofen muttered to himself as he made some adjustments to a large transmitter.

The effects of the 115 gas had become apparent over the years, allowing him to have powers neither his original form nor his ghost form had. Richtofen smiled as he thought of his newfound power. The 115 gas he unleashed in Bradburn County had allowed him to recharge, so to speak, and regain his original powers that had been waning over the years.

Over the years, Richtofen had set up secret labs across America, allowing him to work in peace. His best labs were in New York, Washington D.C., Florida, and in California. Richtofen had stayed too long at his D.C. lab, and was weakened horribly after an experiment gone wrong. Richtofen had to rely on Illuzio to make sure the experiments were safe as he traveled to Florida and execute the beginning phase of his plan, which consisted of unleashing the 115 gas to both recharge himself, and to unleash his first waves of undead minions.

"It's a rather rishky business putting a bit of yourself into your own creations, ja?" Richtofen chuckled to himself.

After the failed experiment, Richtofen had begun to work on the second part of his plan. It had taken several years, but Richtofen had figured out how to turn the unpredictable 115 gas into pure electrical energy, which could be directed through the telephone grid to create as many Zombies as possible. Whenever the energy would hit a telephone tower, the energy would pulse for several miles. Whenever the energy passed by any cemeteries or dead bodies, they would be brought back to live and be subject to his whims. He had built special towers near each of his labs, nodes that would allow him even more control over the Zombies.

Thirty years of hard work went into this particular lab. To prevent any suspicion, Richtofen had to rely on Illuzio to brainwash people to be able to build the lab and machines for him. He didn't really trust the jester, but he was useful. But Richtofen knew that the jester would never trust him, not after what Richtofen did to him.

"That is why it is unwise to haff allies. Zhey are so easily offended." Richtofen laughed.

It had all started when he was testing time travel back before trying to have Fluffy kill Samantha and Dr. Maxis. After Richtofen had returned from the moon, he decided to test out how far back in time he could go, and that had led him to go to the year 1289 A.D. It was a time where King and Queens rules, and knights sought for honor and valor. Richtofen had explored the town he had landed in with interest, and had eventually come across a young jester by the name of Jonathan Ravenwood. He was a magician of sorts, being able to cast spells and the like, but he lacked true power. Richtofen was interested by the jester's power, and wanted the jester to return with him for experimentation. If the 115 gas could awaken the dead, perhaps it could be used in other ways, and amplify Jonathan's powers. But Richtofen was dismayed when he discovered that Jonathan was in love with a woman, and refused to leave with him into the future.

"Oh, he was most upset when she met her untimely demise." Richtofen laughed as he made another adjustment.

"Master Richtofen!" Illuzio said walking into the Laboratory.

"Those teens that are with Samantha are closing into our location." Illuzio said.

"It is about time I deal with those fools once and for all" Richtofen said.

"Do you want me to get the newest experiments and take them out before they get here?" Illuzio asked.

"No…take vhat I've allowed you to control, mien Illuzio. That shall suffice. Protect the Lab until zhee 115 Amplifier is finished and has been activated. Then allow them to come and meet their doom"

"Of course…right away…Master Richtofen" Illuzio said bowing and backing away.

Richtofen turned around and smiled to himself.

"Soon…soon…" he muttered to himself with a demonic chuckle as his eyes turned an even brighter blue.

**Meanwhile:**

The truck zoomed by another sign on the highway advertising another Burger King and Liam said "Well, we've got twenty minutes until we get to Tallahassee…any ideas on what to do when we get there?"

"Not a one!" Jess said cheerfully, playing with the radio from the shotgun seat.

"What the heck are you doing?" John asked.

"Trying to get Marcus's frequency on this thing." Jess said.

"She's trying to get more than Marcus's frequency, that's for sure." Nick snickered to Jax.

Jess suddenly grabbed the wheel and turned it hard to the left, slamming Nick headfirst into the window. Liam grabbed the wheel and regained control of the truck, giving Jess an angry look while she just went back to messing with the radio like nothing had happened.

"Yes Ma'am, I'd like a milkshake to go!" Nick said before passing out in the seat and remaining motionless.

"Idiot. OK, so what's the plan?" John said.

"Well, we could build a giant cannon and fire John-" Joe began.

"No." Judith said.

"Crap, that's all I've got…for now." Joe said the last part quietly.

"Well, the best thing to do is stop Richtofen from using whatever machine he's using to amplify the 115 gas." John said.

"That's a given." Judith said.

"So, I think the best idea would be to blow up the entire lab, destroy the 115 Amplifier, his experiments, and so on, all at once." John said.

"That's a good plan." Andrew said.

"But none of us have got a weapon strong enough to destroy his whole lab, and I've got no clue where to find one." Jax said.

_**"Neither do I"**_ Samantha said.

"I think I know where to find a weapon that CAN destroy Richtofen's lab." Jess chimed in.

"You do!" everyone yelled at once.

"Yep. There's an Air Force Base in Tallahassee. Their bound to have something there that packs enough firepower to blow up Richtofen's lab." Jess said.

"Sounds like a good plan. Do you know where it is?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah, take a right up ahead." Jess said pointing to the nearest exit.

"What do you think Richtofen's plan is?" Judith asked.

"_**He is trying to expand his control over the Zombies. Just in Florida he has an incredible amount of Zombies under his control, but if his power was expanded…well, then our chances of ever stopping him look slim."**_ Samantha said through Jax.

"Well, we better get this right then" Nicholas said as Liam made another turn.

**Air Force Base:**

"All right guys, be very very quiet" Nicholas said getting out of the car.

"We're hunting wabbits" Joe snickered, earning a smack in the head from Judith.

SLAM!

"OW! LIAM WHAT WAS THAT FOR!" Nick yelled.

"HEY SHUT THE HELL UP! NICHOLAS SAID FOR US TO BE QUIET!" Liam yelled back.

"I just said be quiet. _Why_ did I expect anything different?" Nicholas muttered walking over to both of the screaming teens and bashing each one upside the head with a Cobra.

"OW!" Nick yelled.

"OW MAN, WHAT THE HELL!" Liam yelled

"Shut the f_ _ _ up! I said be quiet, not have a shouting match! Now come on!" Nicholas whispered angrily.

"Jerk." Nick grumbled.

"Seriously, why is he so mean to us?" Liam said.

"Are you guys really this stupid, or did you have to take lessons?" Joe asked as they followed Nicholas onto the Base.

"Man, what is their problem today? Do you know Judith?" Liam asked the girl, who shook her head with a smile.

"Come on brainiacs, let's go." Judith said walking towards the base's entrance.

Andrew took one look at the massive chain-link fence surrounding the base and smirked. With two swings of Reaper, he sliced open a path through the fence and said "Ladies first."

Jess walked up to Andrew and smacked him upside the head and Judith scoffed at him.

"What was that?" Andrew asked the others.

"Well, Jess doesn't like you and Judith thinks that was somewhat sexist." Liam said walking through the opening.

The group walked as quietly as they could through the plane yard, making sure not to trigger any alarms. The front door to the base was reinforced with thick steel that none of their weapons could break open, even the Porter's X2 Ray Gun. There was a small terminal next to the door of to the side, somehow still online even though the power was off.

"Guys, hold on. Let me try something" Joe said walking over to the terminal.

Joe cracked his fingers and began to type quickly, going through several screens of what looked like gibberish to the others, but made complete sense to him. Joe then came to a screen where he had to type in a thirty digit security emergency lock-down override code.

"Huh…apparently they shut down this base in so the Zombies couldn't get in. They had to initiate an emergency lockdown of the base in order to protect their vehicles, weapons, and other stuff too. This…" Joe said typing in the long code and pressing enter, causing a green screen with a checkmark to appear "is how we get in"

The door slowly opened and Joe said "I'm surprised an alarm didn't go off"

"With our luck, Nick will set one off" Liam chuckled as they walked into the base entrance.

"Oh come on, I'm not that stupid" Nick said.

"Yes you are" Liam said.

BAM!

"Why you little-!" Liam yelled while clutching the back on his head.

"Shut it you two, this is an infiltration mission" John muttered to the two of them, who nodded.

"OK, we've got to find out where the armory is. That's where the heavy weaponry will be" Jess said looking down the dark hallway. Joe pulled out a few flashlights from his backpack and handed them out.

"OK, where should we go?" John asked turning on his flashlight.

"Well, this is a two story building, and the armory is bound to be on the ground floor." Andrew said pointing the light at his face and doing a scary face.

BAM!

"OK! Who did that!" Joe yelled angrily pointing the flashlight in everyone's faces.

"I did it." John said raising his hand.

John turned off his flashlight and ducked as Joe swung his SPAZ-24 at him, hitting Nicholas in the face. Nicholas fell to the ground and let out a yell of pain. Nicholas was holding his eye and glared at both John and Joe.

"You…you…" Nicholas said getting to his feet and kicking Joe and John in the balls respectively.

"Idiots. OK, let's head down the hallway there. We've got no visibility in here, so here's what we'll do. All of us stick together this time. No splitting up." Nicholas began.

"Won't that make the dialogue scenes harder, and give all characters less time to talk?" Nick asked.

"Stop breaking the fourth wall for the love of crap. Only I can acknowledge and break the fourth wall!" Nicholas yelled.

"Aren't we supposed to be quiet?" Jess asked.

"What? Oh…oh yeah, hahahahahaha…" Nicholas said with a nervous laugh.

"Moron" Liam muttered.

"Oh shut up. Anyway, John and Andrew watch the rear. Joe and Jax, hold these flashlights, one in each hand and aim them forward. Nick, Judith and Liam, you guys are in charge of watching the front and taking down anything that comes at us. Jess, you're in charge of directions. As for me" Nicholas reloaded both of his Dual-Cobra's "I'll help with guarding our front"

"Why?" John asked.

Nicholas tapped his glasses and suddenly the flashed green. Instead of being clear, now the glasses were a darker green and were now glowing faintly.

"Night Vision Glasses" Nicholas said with a grin.

"OK, how the hell did you get those?" John asked.

"Joe was messing around with some equipment and he found the components to make me Night Vision Glasses." Nicholas said with a grin.

"I find that hard to believe" Nick said.

"OK, Zombies are attacking United States, video game characters are coming alive, you have a magical Chuck Norris figurine that can tslk, there's a ghost possessing Jax right now, and the gas at 7-11 across the street is $2.73. Not much here is believable" Nicholas stated.

"And I'm now a technological bad $$" Joe added with a grin.

"More like a technological dumb $$" John said.

"Shut up" Joe said.

"Come on, let's go" Jess said.

The group slowly began to make its way through the pitch black hallways, which was eerily silent except for the footsteps of the teens. Jess was aiming her MPK5 forward while they walked, looking around to see where they were supposed to go.

"Reaaaah!" a voice screamed from the darkness ahead as a Screecher Zombie emerged from the darkness and ran at the group.

Judith quickly aimed and fired her L115 Isolator. Everyone grinned as the Screecher's skull exploded in a shower of blood and the Screecher fell to the ground. Jess walked over to a door and looked inside, and muttered "OK, give me a sec."

Jess tried to open the door and found that it was locked. She fired at the door with her MPK5, effectively breaking the handle off of the door. Jess then kicked the door down and said "OK, let's go"

Jax and Joe aimed their flashlights in the room, trying to figure out what was inside. It looked like the Board Room, with several cushy leather chairs set around an wooden oval table. Jess peaked inside and said "This is where the higher-ups meet I'm guessing. Not what we're looking for"

"But we can still look around. Come on" Joe said going into the room and looking around.

The group waited outside while Joe fumbled around in the room. Finally after three minutes, Nicholas walked inside and said "What's the hold up?"

Joe was stuffing several plans into his backpack, and he said "I found some blueprints and maps lying on the table. I might as well take them so Richtofen can't"

"Good idea. Anything that looks useful, take it" Nicholas nodded.

The two teens walked out of the room and the group made it's way down the hallway. After opening several more rooms, none of which had anything interesting, the group heard the sound of Zombies making their way towards the group from behind.

"Don't worry, I've got it" John said aiming his Porter's X2 Ray Gun and fired at the seven Nazi Zombies coming at them.

Two of the shots killed four Zombies instantly, the others incinerated their legs and reduced them to feeble crawlers. Andrew walked over and killed them with Reaper, and then gave John a nasty look.

"Seriously? What the hell am I supposed to kill if you keep using that Ray Gun?" Andrew asked.

Suddenly a Screecher Zombie bust out of the darkness and tackled Andrew to the ground. Andrew struggled to keep the Zombie from ripping his throat out, but was able to grab his Famas and unload an entire clip into its chest. The Screecher Zombie stumbled backwards a few steps, allowing Andrew to get back on his feet. Andrew put away his Famas and grabbed Reaper off of the ground and hurled it at the Screecher.

BAM!

The scythe's blade struck the Screecher in the face and after it let out a scream of agony the Screecher fell to the ground, dead. Andrew walked over to the corpse and grabbed his scythe and said "Thanks for the help guys"

"Welcome!" Jess said with a grin.

The group continued to make their way through the facility, taking down a few Zombies along the way. Jess looked inside of another room and said "I think this is it!"

"Then bust down the door" Liam said.

"I can't, there's a security code I have to put in. Joe, can you take care of this?" Jess asked.

"Yeah, hold on" Joe said walking over to the door.

"Sophisticated stuff. Give me a sec to crack it" Joe said taking a look at the small terminal.

Several more Zombies emerged from the darkness straight ahead. Judith whirled around and no-scoped three of the Zombies, scoring two shots to the chest and a shot to the skull. Liam aimed his AK74fu2 and blasted apart the other Zombies with the laser bullets from his gun.

"Hey, I've always wondered this. Are they lasers, or are they bullets?" Liam asked.

"Shoot you idiot!" Nick said pulling out his Calamity and opening fire from the Zombies that continued to attack them from the darkness.

"Got it!" Joe said unlocking the door and kicking it down and running in.

The room, as it turns out led to the Generator Room. About a dozen generators stood in the room, as well as another terminal. Joe walked up to the terminal and pulled up on a lever. All of the lights in the room flickered on as the generators began to turn on. After all of the lights (Not the one by Kanye West) turned on, John let out a sigh of relief and said "Thank God"

"Awwww, scared of the dark?" Joe asked.

"Shut up Joe" Jess said walking over to a table and looking at a very conveniently placed map of the facility complete with details on every room.

There were a few machine guns lying next to a few dead bodies in the corner, meaning this was where a few of the personal had holed up. There were several other papers on the table, inventory lists by the look of it. Jess was muttering to herself as she looked at the map, poking at certain locations on it.

"OK, this was the power room. We need to head down there to the armory. We can get new weapons. It also says here that they have…sweet! The ZK-115 Missile!"Jess said happily.

"Does anyone else think it's suspicious that the missile has 115 in its name?" Nick asked.

"Nope. It's because FlygonN would get in trouble if any of the Air Force stuff in this chapter was actually anything that sounded real, he has to BS it" John explained.

"Why? Why must you idiots break the fourth wall?" Nicholas fell to his knees and yelled to the Heavens.

**Meanwhile:**

"I have the strangest feeling someone's talking about us Joe" Nicholas said as he typed the dialogue for chapter 10.

"It's probably because we break the fourth wall so much." Joe replied.

"It's part of my charm. Don't mess it up numbnuts." Nicholas said.

Suddnely Nicholas looked at his phone and got a text reading "Hehe…numbnuts"

""Hey, we need to add a part where John gets hit in the balls" Joe said pointing to the computer screen.

"Fine, but only if I get to launch the missile and say something really cool and dramatic when I do" Nicholas said.

"Wait…the fourth wall! It's seeping into our ninth chapter!" Joe yelled suddenly.

"Hold on let me type in my override code.!" Nicholas began to say.

"What is it?" Joe asked urgently.

"1…1…5" Nicholas said typing it on his keyboard.

"That's the 4th Wall Breaker Override Code! Oh come on, you've got to be fu-" Joe began to say.

**Meanwhile:**

"Ummm…just happened?" Liam asked.

"The voices are talking to me again!" Nick yelled.

"Nah, we'll just forget about it, it's probably not important. Anyway, my dad used to work in the Air Force, and he told me about the ZK-115 Missile. It's definitely got enough firepower to destroy Richtofen and his lab!" Jess said excitedly.

"There's a catch though" Joe said looking at the plans.

"What's the catch Joe?" Judith said.

"Well, according to this it's attached to this vehicle that they use to aim and fire the missile. Well, in order to activate it, they have to input 3 security codes into a terminal in the Armory, where the ZK-115 missile is. And these terminals are different than the other ones I've dealt with, you _have_ to put in the right codes." Joe said with concern etched on his face.

"Or what happens?" Liam asked.

"Well, worst case scenario the missile activates right there and then and we all die in a fiery explosion." Joe said.

"That would be bad" Andrew said.

"Yeah, another scenario would be the terminal locks down and we can't use the missile" Joe said.

"Well, how about this? Joe, you, Andrew, and Judith take that map and find each of those codes. They'll probably be in whoever's in charge's office, so go there and find out where the codes are" Nicholas said.

"You don't know who the person in charge at an Air Force Base is?" Nick snickered.

"Oh shut up. Until five hours ago, you believed that there was a Pudding Fairy" Nicholas retorted.

"Hey, there has to be a reason I keep finding pudding in this bag when I eat it all. It can't keep reappearing because of magic!" Nick said stubbornly, ignoring Joe silently laughing behind his back.

"_You seriously tricked him into believing there was a Pudding Fairy?"_ C.N. asked Joe, who nodded.

"_Wow…well done, I approve. Though whenever a sneeze, pudding comes out that can cure all diseases. Unfortunately, only I can eat it"_ C.N said.

"_That wasn't so much as impressive, as it was disgusting" _Joe said.

"_Don't be jealous"_ C.N. replied.

"What are you guys talking about?" Nick asked.

"Nothing" Joe replied.

"Guys! Back. On. Track." Nicholas said firing his Cobra into the air with each syllable.

"You three, go get those codes. We'll defend the Missile until you return with them. All right, let's go" Nicholas said reloading his Dual-Cobra's.

"I'll lead the way. You guys take the map, meet us in the armory when you've got all three codes. Try to let us know somehow when you've gotten all three codes" Jess said.

"How? The radios broke when we were fighting the Leviathan in the cave" Judith asked.

"Get creative. I'm sure there's an intercom in this place, use that" Jax said.

"_**Hurry up! We're running low on time!"**_ Samantha bellowed.

"The angry ghost has a point, come on, let's go" Nicholas said.

"_**Grrrr…."**_

The groups split up and headed towards separate parts of the facility. At this point, the Zombies had fully broken into the facility.

"Guys, get ready" Nicholas said aiming his Dual-Cobra's forward.

Five Screecher Zombies emerged from a nearby hallway, screeching loudly as they dashed towards the teens.

Jax stepped in front of Nicholas and said "I've got this."

Jax waited until the Screecher's were about five yards away before firing his Thundergun, sending a massive wave of air forward and blasting the Screecher's away, killing them instantly.

"Nice one Jax!" Jess said.

The group continued to make their way towards the armory, fighting Zombies along the way. After about twenty minutes, they finally found the door to the armory.

"Well, now what do we do? This thing's got a terminal that requires a password, and we can't count on Joe to do this" Liam said.

"Hold on, I've got this" Jess said typing in password.

"Please enter Armory Password." A computerized voice said.

"The Password for the Armory is…Password" Jess said typing the password into the computer.

"Oh come on, there's not a cold chance in hell that that'll-" Liam began to say.

"ACCESS APPROVED"

"…never mind"

"You never mentioned which part of hell is cold" Nicholas said kicking open the door.

"What does he mean by that?" Liam asked.

"He's referring to Dante's Inferno, where the 9th circle of hell is frozen" John said, sounding surprised that Nicholas had thought of such of reference.

The Amory was…well for lack of a better word, awesome. It was a large room, filled with every sort of weapon you could think of. Handguns, machine guns, rifles, even weapons that shouldn't be there were there. There were several metal catwalks, allowing the people to make optimum use of the room's largeness. The room was filled with missiles and there was even a small jet inside of the Armory.

"Dude…this is like every American's dream!" Nick said in wonder.

"Nah, there'd be a lot more booze and half-naked chicks" Nicholas said.

"Um…there are women in America too" Jess pointed out.

"…my statement still stands."

There was very long awkward silence, followed by Nick saying "Oh I get it, it's a lesbian joke!"

"Hey, there's the ZK-115 Missile!" Jess said running up to a missile in a launcher vehicle.

"So how will we do this?" Nicholas asked.

Jess stood in that spot, thinking hard. After a full minute she said "Got it."

Jess walked over to a spot behind a desk and pulled out a device. It looked like a laptop computer, but it wasn't, that much was obvious.

"What is that?" Liam asked.

"It's a Missile Guidance Transmitter. This is where the missile goes when you fire it. Basically, if we were to put this inside of Richtofen's lab, and the fire the missile, it would head straight for Richtofen's lab and destroy it. But we would have to both put the transmitter in the lab, and then have someone fire it from here" Jess said.

"How about we have one of us stay here and fire the missile once we get to the lab?" Jax asked.

"_**Whatever we're going to do, hurry up and decide"**_ Samantha said.

"Yeah, Zombies have already broken into the facility" Nick said.

"_**No. Not that. Illuzio is here" **_Samantha said coming out of Jax's body and pointing towards the ceiling.

Everyone looked up and saw her words were true; Illuzio was standing above them, hanging upside-down from the ceiling and shattering the laws of physics. Which is fine by me because that class sucks. Did I just break the fourth wall? Again? Damn straight I did.

"Hello there, children. I see your trying to find a way to destroy Richtofen's lab. Unfortunately, orders prohibit me from allowing you to live. Easily, anyway. My Master would like to tell you though that he is amazed that you could survive for so long. And so in honor of your bravery, he said he'll remember you in the New World Order. He wants to know what you want your statue to be made of" Illuzio said with a chuckle.

"Silver" Nicholas said aiming his Galil at Illuzio.

"Thank you. I'll be sure to tell him. Anyway, time to die. I have an old friend who's been _dying_ to get reacquainted with you" Illuzio said.

Nicholas opened fire at Illuzio, who kicked off of the support beam and fell a hundred feet to the ground. Before hitting the ground, Illuzio flipped in the air and landed on his feet like it was nothing.

"So, how would you like meet an old acquaintance?" Illuzio asked the teens with an evil smile.

"Guys…reload." Nicholas said reloading his Galil.

"Behold, your good old friend, the Leviathan!" Illuzio said snapping his fingers.

Suddenly the entire back wall of the Armory flashed dark green and crumpled away, revealing the Leviathan Zombie that John had frozen back at the Riverside Cave.

And it…looked…_pissed._

"Well, I'd love to stay and chit-chat, but I've got a Nazi to get back to who plans to destroy everything and rebuild his own world from the ashes. Ta ta for now!" Illuzio said snapping his fingers.

Illuzio vanished in a flash of green and the Leviathan slowly lumbered into the room.

"Jess…get inside the transport. Get the missile out of range when we've got it distracted, and drive it outside through the hole the Leviathan made. I'll give you a signal to go. Nick, protect Jess. Liam, John, Jax…get ready guys" Nicholas said aiming his Galil.

"On it! Come on Jess!" Nick said running towards the Missile.

"Yeah, coming! You guys…be careful" Jess said with concern as the Leviathan slowly lumbered forward.

"Grrrrr…" the Leviathan growled at them.

"OK…any ideas on what we should do" Liam asked.

"Use our environment to our advantage. There's plenty of firepower around here that could help us beat this thing" John said aiming his Porter's X2 Ray Gun at the Leviathan.

"Good thinking. All right guys…on go." Nicholas said.

"Three…" Jax said.

"Two…" John said.

"One…" Liam said.

"GO!" Nicholas said unloading his Galil into the Leviathan.

"RAAAAAAAAH!" the Leviathan roared as it lumbered forward, its tail snaking forward.

Jak, Liam, and John opened fire on the massive Zombie, who roared and swung around, whipping its tail at Jax, who ducked and fired with his Dual-ray Guns. Jax jumped over the tail as it whipped back towards him and shot at the glowing red part of the tail, the part that was the Leviathan's only weak spot.

The Leviathan roared in agony and swung a fist at Jax, who had to jump to the side to avoid it. John aimed his Porter's X2 Ray Gun at the monster's skull and fire three times, missing twice but scoring a direct hit the third time, right between the Leviathan's eyes.

"Liam! Up here!" Nicholas called as he ran up the small metal stairs to the catwalk.

"Get that gun and what for my signal" Nicholas said pointing to a gun on the wall.

"Nice!" Liam said grabbing the gun with a grin.

"Come on Jess! Let's get going!" Nick said urgently.

Jess was having trouble getting the Missile Launcher to move. Apparently you had to access the motor controls from a terminal, and Jess was having no luck with it.

"I can't get this thing to move!" Jess said typing on a keyboard frantically.

"_Let me have a crack at it"_ C.N. said.

"Gladly!" Nick said bashing the keyboard with C.N.

Suddenly the screen glowed green and it said "Please put keys into ignition."

"How…and why!" Jess asked angrily.

"Don't question it. Zombie apocalypse." Nick replied.

"...fine."

Jess hopped into the Missile Launcher vehicle and waited for Nicholas's signal. Nicholas watched as Jax and John fired their Ray Guns at the Leviathan, but this barely kept the beast at bay.

"All right. When I say three" Nicholas said tossing his Galil to the ground and grabbing a sniper rifle off of the wall.

"Any plans Jax?" John asked as the Leviathan loomed closer.

"Give me a second" Jax said pulling out his Thundergun.

Suddenly a shot rang out and the Leviathan's tail writhed and began spewing out dark red blood. The monster roared and whirled around, seeing Nicholas on the lowest catwalk, aiming a sniper rifle at him.

"Bring it on you slimy flesh-eating marrow junkie!" Nicholas called as he unloaded another shot into the monster's chest.

"RAAAAAAH!" the Leviathan roared as it lumbered towards Nicholas.

Nicholas aimed the sniper rifle and fired a shot to the left, hitting the wall. Jess took that as her signal, and began driving the vehicle carrying the missile out of range of the Leviathan. Jess was nearly out of range when about twenty Nazi Zombies appeared around the corner of the facility, lumbering towards them.

"I've got this! Go!" Nick said reloading his Calamity and opening fire on the Zombie horde.

Nicholas unloaded another three shots into the Leviathan, who seemed to be unable to move at anything more than a walk, which Nicholas took to mean that the Leviathan wasn't fully recovered from the battle they had had with it just hours ago.

"Samantha, can we get a Max Ammo anytime soon?" Nicholas asked.

"_**Give me a minute!"**_ Samantha said focusing her energy.

"OK…Liam!" Nicholas called.

"Ready!"

"Three!"

Liam grinned and opened fired on the Leviathan with his large Gatling Gun. The Leviathan roared as the bullets slammed into its skin, which was beginning to show signs of wear. The Leviathan whirled around and struck at the catwalk with its tail, sending Liam crashing onto the catwalk.

"Liam!" Jax yelled.

"I'm fine!" Liam said getting to his feet and resuming his attack.

Nicholas fired a shot into the back of the Leviathan's skull. The shot bounced off of its skull, but it was enough to get its attention.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! The Leviathan roared as it turned around and lashed at Nicholas on the catwalk.

Nicholas dove to the side and avoided the attack, but the Leviathan's powerful tail tore right through the catwalk. Nicholas stumbled, but was able to keep his grip on the railing. Nicholas aimed another shot with one hand and fired, but missed the Leviathan and hit the wall.

"Guys!" Nicholas yelled.

Jax ran forward and fired his Thundergun at the Leviathan's feet, causing it to lose its balance and fall to the ground.

"That was my last shot!" Jax said pulling out his Dual-Ray Guns and firing at the downed Leviathan, which was slowly getting to its feet.

"RAAAAAAAAAH!" the Leviathan roared swinging its tail at Jax, who was bashed in the chest and sent crashing down onto the ground thirty feet away.

"Jax!" John yelled.

The tail shot at John and missing decapitating him by millimeters. John aimed upwards and shot at the Leviathan's face, causing it to roar even louder at him.

"How can we take this thing down!" Nicholas muttered to himself as he reloaded the sniper rifle.

**Meanwhile:**

"Boo-yah!" Joe yelled in success as he hacked his 28th door.

"Andrew, how are you holding up?" Judith said as she blew two Zombies heads off with her L115 Isolator.

"Pretty good!" Andrew grinned as he beheaded another wave of Zombies, sending them crashing to the ground, with their heads following a moment later.

"Guys, I found one! Let's go!" Joe said bursting out of the room, putting the piece of paper in his pocket and pulling out his Calamity and Jane.

"Good. Any ideas where we could find the other codes?" Judith said.

Joe shook his head and said "We'll just have to check every office. Come on, let's-" Joe was about to say before there was a loud rumbling noise and they heard three distinct crashes that echoed throughout the building.

"What was that?" Andrew asked.

"How would I know?" Joe replied.

"Good point."Andrew replied with a chuckle.

"…what's that supposed to mean?" Joe asked angrily.

"Nothing."

"OK, let's try and figure out what that was. Whatever it was, it wasn't good, that much I know" Joe said.

"Reaaaah!" a voice screeched out of nowhere.

The group turned behind them and saw a group of about ten Screecher Zombies.

Andrew reacted first and fired Reaper's chain, causing it to tear through two Screecher Zombies at once. Judith then fired twice with her L115 Isolator, blasting apart the two immobilized Zombies.

Joe unloaded onto the Screecher's with his Calamity and Jane, making sure that none of them could get even close to the three teens. After about thirty seconds of nonstop shooting, slicing, and sniping, the hallway was clear.

"Come on, this way!" Joe said running down the hallway. The continued to open doors, finding nothing of value until they smelt something strange. Just inhaling the smell made them feel slightly dizzy.

"Guys, this is 115 gas!" Joe said holding a cloth over his nose.

The others held their shirts over their noses and crept through the hallway, seeking out the source of the smell. After breaking open another lock, they discovered the reason for the 115 gas.

"No freaking way" Joe breathed.

It was a 115 Meteorite, not ten yards in front of them. It was very small, about the size of a football. Joe slowly walked up to it and said "The three crashing sounds, they must have been meteor fragments. I wonder what happens when I…"

Joe pull out a hunting knife and tapped the Meteor, causing it to make a strange sound.

"Ah-ha! So I was right!" Joe said.

"Are thinking what I'm thinking?" Andrew said.

"Yeah, but first things first. Grab the Meteorite. We may need it" Joe said wrapping the Meteor in a towel from his bag and putting it in a spare backpack Joe had brought in addition to his own.

"I'll carry it" Judith offered, as Joe and Andrew we're carrying backpacks full of supplies.

Joe nodded and carefully wrapped the Meteor in the towel and put it in the backpack. The group headed out of the office and headed down the hallway.

Another batch of Zombies headed down the hallway, which the group fought off while Joe continued to open doors. After another five minutes, he found the second set of codes and the second Meteor fragment. Joe then let out a yell of triumph and said "Yes, just what I needed!"

"What did you need?" Judith asked scoring another perfect headshot.

"Tesla coils. Exactly what I needed!" Joe yelled happily as he walked out of the room.

"Whatever Joe, let's just hurry this up" Judith said.

Judith was glad the fragments only weighed about five pounds; otherwise this would get kind of annoying. Between running and fighting of Zombies, they needed to be quick on their feet. After another five minutes they encountered another old friend, the Juggernaut.

It was an extremely muscular Zombie in full uniform with a bulletproof jacket. He turned around and growled at them and stood there, blocking their way to the staircase.

"OK, now what?" Andrew asked.

"We fight!" Joe yelled opening fire with Calamity and Jane.

**Meanwhile:**

"_**The Max Ammo is ready!"**_ Samantha yelled as she hovered by Jax, who was stirring.

John jumped over the Leviathan's tail and ran through the Max Ammo.

"_**MAX AMMO!"**_ Samantha bellowed as the Leviathan tore through another part of the catwalk Nicholas was on.

"Yes we know! Shut up already!" John yelled as he reloaded.

"_**You shut up!"**_ Samantha yelled back.

John reloaded and began firing the Winter's Fury and the Porter's X2 Ray Gun at the Leviathan's face, distracting him. Liam began firing the Gatling Gun again at the Leviathan, trying desperately to kill the seemingly unstoppable Zombie. Nicholas was still trying to hold onto the railing and not fall onto the ground thirty feet below.

Nicholas then looked over to the other side of the catwalk. Nicholas let go of the catwalk and jumped to the other side of the catwalk, barely clearing the gap. He then aimed the sniper rifle and began firing at the Leviathan, trying to hit the tail, which was flailing around wildly.

"Guys, we need a plan!" Nicholas yelled as he reloaded again.

"Tell me about it!" John yelled as he dove to the side to avoid the Leviathan's tail.

Nick was firing nonstop with his Calamity, making sure to protect Jess and the missile that could prove to be the world's only hope. Nick ducked under a Zombie swipe and whirled around firing at a barrel of gasoline, causing the barrel to explode in a massive explosion, engulfing all of the Zombies in a fiery ball of doom.

"Hey Nick, guess what?" Jess called from the missile launcher.

"What?"

"Building's on fire" Jess pointed at the building, which was indeed on fire now.

"Oh come on! C.N., got any ideas?" Nick asked.

"Umm…I guess the water gun would work" C.N. said.

"OK. C.N. use Water Gun on the fire!" Nick yelled pointing the Chuck Norris figurine at the fire, quickly putting put the fire with a huge gush of water.

"Super Effective!" Jess yelled.

"_Did you both just make a Pokémon joke?"_ C.N. asked.

"I think they just did" said a very familiar voice.

Both teens turned around to see Illuzio standing behind them, with a smile on his face.

"Jess…run" Nick said pointing his Calamity at Illuzio, who chuckled.

"Do you really think you can beat me?" Illuzio laughed.

"Yeah!" Nick said firing his Calamity at Illuzio, who warped on the spot.

"You see, we're alike, you children and I. Or even myself and Samantha. You see…we all have suffered at the hands of Richtofen. And like you, I want him eliminated" Illuzio said reappearing on top of the missile, sitting down Indian-style on the tip of a missile.

"Why? You're working for him, aren't you?" jess asked.

Illuzio nodded and said "Only because he is more powerful than I at the moment. After you ruin his plans, I will destroy him, and make him feel my wrath"

"So, you're doing this for revenge?" Jess asked.

"Of course. He ruined my life, just so he could perform his damned experiments!" Illuzio snarled, green sparks flying from his palms.

"So, you're getting us to do your dirty work for you?" Nick said.

"Yes, I prefer him weakened when I face off with him. That way I can take my time and make sure he suffers for everything he's done. Not just to me, but to everyone else whose lives he destroyed!" Illuzio growled angrily

"How can we trust you?" Jess asked.

"Because you're still alive"

"That's a good point" Jess replied nervously.

"It looks like your friends require assistance. I'd help them if I were you" Illuzio said walking off before teleporting in a flash of green light.

"What does he mean by that? They're doing all-" Nick began to say.

"John!" Nicholas yelled from inside of the building.

"Come on shorty!" Jess said dashing towards the battle.

**Meanwhile:**

"There's no escape maggots!" the Juggernaut yelled as it fell to its knees.

"Escape this!" Andrew yelled swinging Reaper at the Juggernaut's neck.

SLLLINK!

Thud.

"Thank God that's over." Joe sighed as he began walking up the stairs.

The group had fought hard against the Juggernaut, who was easier to defeated due to it being a 3-on-1 fight. Judith and Andrew followed Joe as he walked into another office, finding the third and final activation code.

"OK, let's find that third 115 meteorite" Andrew said.

"It's about two doors to the right" Judith said walking out of the hallway.

Judith then turned around and aimed through her scope and fired.

"What was that for?" Andrew asked as the bullet rebounded and went down the stairs, still rebounding off of things.

"Wait for it…" Judith said with a grin.

There was a screech from downstairs and then a nasty thud, followed by another thud.

"I saw a Screecher coming when we were downstairs" Judith laughed.

"You killed a Zombie you couldn't see with a rebound shot?" Andrew said, sounding very impressed.

"Yep" Judith grinned.

"OK, that was pretty cool" Joe admitted.

"Yeah, way to go!" Andrew grinned as he kicked open the door to the last Meteorite.

The last meteorite was lying in the middle of a table, giving off green fumes. Joe noticed a microphone that was connected to the intercom system. Joe flipped the switch from off to on, and tapped the microphone, making a very loud thumping noise echo throughout the facility.

"Guys! I'm not sure if you can hear us or not, but we've got the code. Also, we found three 115 meteors, so if you hear a song play, that's because of us" Joe said into the microphone.

Joe walked over to the meteor and tapped it, and it made a weird noise again. Suddenly a radio that was on the table began to glow green, and it switched on.

"_All right, this is 115.7! You're favorite Zombie Apocalypse radio station! Our next song is a special request from Tallahassee Florida! "Unbroken", by Black Veil Brides. Enjoy!" the man said._

The music began to play, electric guitars and drums began playing a simply awesome way, but as the music played, the fight against the Leviathan was getting serious.

**Meanwhile:**

"John!" Nicholas yelled.

John had been bashed upside the head by the Leviathan's tail, sending him crashing into the wall. Not before shooting the Winter's Fury at the Leviathan's tail, causing it to howl in agony.

"John, you all right?" Jax asked as he got to his feet, wincing from the blow he took earlier.

"I'll live" John groaned as he got up.

"Guys! I'm not sure if you can hear us or not, but we've got the code. Also, we found three 115 meteors, so if you hear a song play, that's because of us" Joe's voice echoed throughout the armory.

"Awesome! Now how the hell do take this thing down!" Nicholas yelled.

"Not sure, but we've got to figure how to and fast!" John said ducking under the Leviathan's tail.

Liam was still firing nonstop into the Leviathan's back, though it seemed that the attack was doing nothing to the creature's armor-like skin. Nicholas reloaded his sniper rifle and took aim again, only to look up and say "Wait a second, I love this song!"

_Now you're adrift in the sea of lies.  
>A foolish villain in an endless chapter.<br>The demons writhing behind your eyes.  
>A simple shadow<br>We can fight together._

_I'll never walk away!_

Nicholas re-aimed and fired over and over, trying to hit the Leviathan's weak spot, the red spot on its tail. Suddenly something flew through the air, sticking to the Leviathan's back. After a moment, the Leviathan's back exploded, and the Zombie roared angrily and turned around. Jess and Nick were firing their guns at the Leviathan now, allowing the others to regroup.

"Nicholas! Look up!" John yelled.

There were at least thirty bombs, similar to the bombs you drop from planes, were hooked onto thick metal chains hanging from the ceiling. Nicholas grinned and aimed his sniper rifle and pressed the trigger.

_Click._

…crap.

Nicholas tossed down the sniper rifle and pulled out his Dual-Cobra's and began firing at the chains. Jess was dashing around the Leviathan's feet, firing all the while. Nick was firing from afar with his Calamity, looking back every few seconds to make sure the missile was OK.

_Tear down! The walls that will surround.  
>Cry out! Above the burning sound.<br>Show me! How bleeding hearts still pound.  
>If we stand together, we will be unbroken!<em>

Nicholas frantically fired his twin guns over and over, trying to hit the distant chain that held the bomb that would crash right into the Leviathan's back.

"Nicholas! Need some help?" Liam asked aiming at the bombs with the Gatling Gun.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Several bombs went off near the Leviathan's head, knocking it to the ground. The Leviathan stirred and very slowly got to its feet. Joe, Judith, and Andrew burst into the Amory and began to process what was going on.

"Nice one Liam!" Jax yelled as he fired twice with his Thundergun at the downed Leviathan.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" the Leviathan roared as its tail shot towards Jax, who dropped the Thundergun and fired his Ray Gun at the tail as it shot towards him, sending it snaking backwards towards its owner.

_We carry forward into the night.  
>The strength of innocence like children's laughter.<br>An army standing for what is right.  
>We'll fall like angels if we lose what matters<br>I will not walk away!_

"Judith! Aim at the chains holding the bombs up! Drop it on his back!" Nicholas yelled firing his Dual-Cobra's at the Leviathan, who swung his fist at the metal catwalk.

"Ah!" Nicholas yelled as he plunged thirty feet below.

Jax, thinking fast, shot his Thundergun, causing Nicholas to be blown away right before he hit the ground, causing him to roll away from the fall.

"Good save Jax! Now finish him off!" Jess yelled as she fired at the Leviathan's back.

_Tear down! The walls that will surround  
>Cry out! Above the burning sound<br>Show me! How bleeding hearts still pound.  
>If we stand together, we will be unbroken!<br>Whoa…Whoaah! _

_Whoa…Whoaah!_

Liam began firing the Gatling Gun at the Leviathan's tail while Judith sniped the bombs above the Leviathan's head. The couple's flawless teamwork was paying off, as they were causing massive damage to the seemingly indestructible Zombie. Nicholas, Joe, John, Nick and Jax all fired at the Zombie, their combined guns doing what one alone could not. The armor of the massive Zombie began to finally show signs of breaking. Cracks began to form in the armor, and the Zombie began to attack more erratically. Its movements become quicker as it sought to end the teens lives before its own re-animation was ended.

Jess and Andrew dashed in between the Leviathan's legs, shooting and slashing at it in an attempt to disorient it even more. Andrew then leapt into the air and swung downward with Reaper, slicing through seven inches of thick armor and cutting off the Leviathan's tail.

_We will not walk away!_

"REEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" The Leviathan bellowed at Andrew, who barely avoided a punch from the Zombie.

"That's for what happened in that cave you jerk!" Andrew laughed taking a few steps back.

"Guys! Hold up, I want to try something!" Jess yelled as she backed up a few yards.

_Tear down! The walls that will surround.  
>Cry out! Above the burning sound.<br>Show me! How bleeding hearts still pound.  
>If we stand together, we will be unbroken!<em>

"What is it!" Andrew yelled.

"Get it to come this way!" Jess yelled.

"You've got it" Andrew said pulling out his Famas and shooting at the enraged Leviathan, who began stepping towards Jess and Andrew.

Jess grinned and pulled a huge rocket launcher out of nowhere. It was another weapon from the Mystery Box, the M72 LAW.

_Tear down! The walls that will surround.  
>Cry out! Above the burning sound.<br>Show me! How bleeding hearts still pound.  
>If we stand together, we will be unbroken!<em>

Jess grinned and said "Bye-bye!"

The rocket shot out and flew towards the Leviathan's upper chest and hit the target perfectly. The huge fiery explosion knocked the Leviathan off of its and feet and crashing onto the floor, where it didn't get back up.

"YES! Awesome job Jess!" Judith yelled as she ran up to her friend and gave her a hug.

"Where did you get that?" Liam asked as he tossed the, now empty, Gatling Gun to the ground and walked down to where the others were.

"Remember when we were back at the Stadium? Well, I rolled at the Mystery Box and got it. But, I thought I'd save it for later." Jess explained

"Wait, then you have three weapons?"Joe said.

"That's right. The MPK5, the R115 Resonator, and M72 LAW" Jess said.

"But you didn't get Mule-Kick. How do you have three weapons?" Andrew asked.

"I completed the Easter Egg! It allowed me to get a free Perk, which was Mule-Kick!" Jess said cheerfully as she fired another rocket into the night, randomly hitting a building a few hundred yards away.

"Makes about as much sense as anything else here. What was the Easter Egg?" Nicholas asked walking over.

"Well, it was-" Jess began to say.

"_**SILENCE! We don't have time for this!"**_ Samantha yelled.

"Good point. OK, Joe, put in those codes and get the missile online." Nicholas instructed.

Joe nodded and ran over to a group of terminals, amazingly untouched by the epic battle that just occurred. Joe's fingers flew across the keyboards as he put in the necessary codes to allow the group control over the missile. Joe frowned and said "We have a problem."

"What now?" Liam asked.

"Well, the rocket requires someone manually operate and ready the vehicle that holds and launches the missile" Joe said glancing at the group.

"OK. Joe, could you ready the missile?" Nicholas asked.

"Probably, though I'd have to stay here and do things manually. You guys go to the lab and place that transmitter. I'll call you guys when I've got everything ready. Be sure to let me know when you've got that transmitter in position. OK?" Joe said.

Yeah, can do. You sure you don't need one of us to stay behind?" Judith asked.

"Nah. The Zombies will be heading towards you guys, and besides, I'll be OK" Joe said reloading his SPAZ-24 with a grin.

"How can we get in contact with you?" Nick asked.

Joe walked over to a body and pulled out the person's cell phone. After finding their number, he said "OK, call me when you're ready"

"Got it" Ncholas said with a grin as he pulled out his phone.

"Wait a second…you guys have your phones!" John yelled.

"Yeah we…oh…whoops" Nicholas said with a nervous laugh.

John reloaded his Winter's Fury and shot Nicholas in the chest.

"S-s-s-s-so f-f-f-reak-k-king-g c-c-cold!" Nicholas stuttered as Jax and Andrew walked over to him and began chipping away at the ice that had engulfed him.

"All right, let's get going. Be careful Joe" Jax said as the group walked outside, Liam and Andrew supporting the now thawed Nicholas, who was still shivering.

"You guys be careful, and hit that Nazi in the face with a shotgun for me!" Joe called.

Meanwhile a few hundred yards away, Illuzio stood atop of a pile of rubble, which was but minutes ago a building. To be honest, Illuzio didn't expect a rocket to fly through the air and slam into him, so for the first time in thirty years he had been surprised by something.

"Either that was extreme skill or the writer is being a fool" Illuzio said angrily dusting his hat off.

Illuzio watched the group head to their truck and drive away, towards the evil Nazi that was threatening their world. Illuzio then moved his gaze to Joe down below, quickly working on readying the missile.

"Can they really stop Richtofen? Hmmm…I suppose only time will tell" Illuzio said before he warped away in a flash of wicked green light.

**End of Chapter:**

Hey there, sorry about the wait. I've been dealing with school and all sorts of craziness. Anyway, what is Joe planning with the supplies he's getting. Will the group get to Richtofen's lab in time? And is there more to Illuzio's past? Find out next time folks, please review and let me know if you enjoyed the chapter. Also, I'm now taking suggestions for Zombie Experiment ideas and Stage Levels for the chapter. Please leave suggestions in the review section. Thanks a ton, and I'll see you next chapter. FlygonN out!


	10. Infamous Night

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead Chapter 10: Infamous Night**

WOO! Chapter 10! I can't believe that a story that I started because me and my friends were bored at Band Camp evolved into something like this. Seriously, thanks a ton, all of you. Most of all, I'd like to thank my awesome friends, who I based these characters off of (me being Nicholas). Without your suggestions, I doubt the story would be as unique and fun as it's been. Thanks for being there for me this year, as it hasn't been easy on me. To my readers, thank you for your support as well, without which I wouldn't have gotten where I am now. Also, special shoutout to mybrodrivesmecrazy and Noskansho, thank you for your reviews last chapter.

I've decided to try to upload once every three weeks, because I'm doing two stories at once and I'm co-writing another story. It's a little hard to even do this deadline, but I'll try my best. Also, because I'm impatient, I'm holding a contest. In Chapter 15 (which I've started on ahead of time, because I'm awesome like that), I've decided to include a very special person to become a part of the story, and become the 11th and final (I mean it this time) member of the team. I'll be having a contest to see if anyone can guess who it is. It's someone pretty well known, and I personally think they'll make the story even cooler. One guess per person, and whoever guesses correctly will win…something. Most likely will get their own customized Zombie to be a boss in the story later on down the road.(Like the Leviathan Zombie and the Football Team style Juggernaut Zombies)

So now the chapter we've been waiting for, the Zombie Slayers vs. Doctor Edward Richtofen! 

Enjoy!

**Tallahassee:**

"Liam, how much longer?" Nicholas asked.

"Nearly there. Jess, you've got the transmitter, right?" Liam asked.

"Yep!" Jess said patting the transmitter in her lap.

"Hey, leave the M72 LAW in here. I doubt we'll need it" John said.

"Why?" Nick asked.

"Well, if we've got a missile, I doubt we'll need a rocket launcher." John said.

"Good point" Judith chimed in.

"Let's see what on the radio" Nicholas said.

"Why?" John asked.

"So we can find out how the news and media are taking this" Nicholas said turning to the Hip Hop station.

"-complete state of chaos in Florida, as, and I'm not kidding on this, Zombies are attacking people left and right. Reports suggest that this all originated in Bradburn County, where the first reports of the Zombies came in from."

"Seems legit" Judith said.

"Late Yesterday night, the first reports of, I still can't believe I'm saying this, Zombies came in. After just a few short hours, over 40,000 people were confirmed dead in just Orange County alone. "

"Florida has been declared a state of emergency as the Zombie outbreak grows. Several thousand residents have already been evacuated thanks to the effort of the Red Cross, and the President is expected to comment on the outbreak sometime tomorrow."

"There are also reports of strange creatures roaming about. Some experts on…*sigh* Zombies, say that they are mutated Zombies. If you see any Zombies, board up your house and find something to um, protect yourself" the reporter said uncertainly.

"She's taking this well" Liam said sarcastically.

"They said nothing about how they're combating the Zombies" Nick pointed out.

"The National Guard is protecting the border to Florida, making sure the Zombie threat does not spread to the rest of the United States. Residents who try to cross the border will be…um, shot on sight." The reporter said.

"What! Why aren't they fighting the Zombies?" Jess asked.

"_**They are afraid. Afraid of the threat, and are unwilling to assist those who need help. Just like they were way back then, when the Zombies attacked Earth before. What did the government do then? Nothing. They're trying to contain the threat…and this means we're on our own"**_ Samantha said coldly as she reappeared.

"So, what's the plan?" Andrew asked.

Samantha nodded and said _**"We'll have to go into the lab and confront Richtofen. While we are keeping Richtofen busy, Jess will set up the Missile Guidance Transmitter and then Nicholas will contact Joe. Right before the missile strikes, we'll get out of the building and watch as everything Richtofen has worked so hard for be burnt away to scraps"**_

"Samantha, I've been wondering about something. What're you going to do after all of this is over?" Nicholas asked, and everyone looked at the ghost, who seemed to be thinking.

"_**I'm…not sure. I could always pass on into the next life. But…"**_ Samantha smiled a little and said _**"I could always take back control of the Zombies"**_

"Then why are we helping you?" Andrew asked.

"_**Because if you help me, you'll buy your world some time. I said I **__**could**__** take control of the Zombies, that doesn't mean that I will. I despise Group 935 for everything they've done to me, and my daddy. They will pay. As for the rest of you, you've earned my favor, so I may not ravage this miserable planet just because of the kindness you've shown me" Samantha said.**_

"Well, that'll have to do then" Liam said with a grunt as he slammed on the accelerator.

**Abandoned Warehouse:**

"All right, this time, shut the hell up! We've got no idea what Richtofen can do. We've got to be prepared, and more importantly, quiet!" Nicholas whispered angrily at Liam and Nick, who whistled innocently.

The warehouse they had stopped at was enormous to say the least. It was the size of a Wal-Mart, except it looked run down and had no distinguishing characteristics about it besides a large telephone tower next to the building.

"Look!" Andrew yelled pointing to the tower.

The tower was glowing dark green, with green electricity charging all around it, but everyone had a sneaking suspicion what the green electricity was.

"Element 115 in electricity form…what is he planning?" Nicholas said in wonder.

Samantha growled and said _**"Richtofen"**_

"Come on, let's go" Nicholas muttered as the group headed into the warehouse.

There was a thick steel door barring the entrance, which Andrew and Jax helped open. The door was rusted with age, and it was obvious it hadn't been used in a while. Andrew walked up to the large padlock on the door and swung downwards with Reaper, tearing through the padlock with ease.

"Nice job" Nicholas said as he pushed open the door.

Inside of the warehouse, they saw something they didn't expect. Instead of a rundown warehouse, the inside was a tastefully decorated room, complete with a crimson red carpet that led from the entrance all the way to the end of the room. There were several dead corpses that were glowing bright green lying in a heap inside of a dumpster in the room.

"Hey, where do you think Illuzio and Richtofen are?" Jax asked.

"Further into the Warehouse. Come on, we're not going to find anything here" Nicholas said.

"Or are you?" a familiar voice asked them.

All of them looked towards a pillar, where Illuzio stood, leaning against a pillar. He was smiling, a truly malevolent thing really, and said "Welcome to our humble abode in Florida. Would you like anything? Coke, Sprite, Root Beer, death?"

"What was that last one?" Nick asked.

"Death?" Illuzio said.

"You're supposed to say Root Beer" Nick complained.

"And you're supposed to be dead" Illuzio replied.

"What I can I say, we die hard" Nicholas grinned.

"You so stole that from Sonic Adventure 2 Battle" Liam said.

"Hey, it's a good line, and it's just before that awesome fight with Shadow too-" Nicholas began to say before Samantha floated out of Jax and said _**"Where is Richtofen!"**_

"In the back, through the huge steel door. He's nearly done with the 115 Amplifier's modification's. I'll stand aside while you take him out. Have fun!" Illuzio said warping on the spot in a flash of green light.

"_**He's up to something. I don't care if he wants Richtofen dead, we should kill him here and now!"**_ Samantha muttered.

"We have to go after Richtofen first, Sam. If we don't the whole world could be destroyed" Jax said.

"_**Fine, Richtofen first, the Illuzio"**_ Samantha relented.

"Guys, reload, and get ready" Nicholas said reloading his Dual-Cobra's.

Everyone reloaded and Samantha said _**"Are you all ready?"**_

"Yep."Jax said lifting up his Thundergun.

"Ready to roll!"John said pulling out the Porter's X2 Ray Gun and the Winter's Fury.

"You betcha!" Judith grinned as she hefted her L115 Isolator over her shoulder.

"No surrender" Liam said grabbing Judith's hand.

"Let's get em'" Nick said lifting up C.N.

"Let's slay some stiff's" Andrew laughed twirled Reaper in a circle.

"Let's roll!" Jess said excitedly.

"I'm ready. Let's go." Nicholas said lifting up his Raid and taking a step towards the door.

"Shouldn't we check in on Joe?" Andre asked.

"True. Joe, how're things going on your end?" Nicholas said after pulling out his phone and calling his friend.

**Back at the Air Force Base:**

"YEAAAAAH! LIVIN ON A PRAYER!" Joe screamed as he fired three shots with his SPAZ-24, killing a Screecher Zombie.

"Man, I love shotguns. Seriously, when shotguns were made, like, Angels got their wings or something" Joe sighed as he fell into a comfy leather chair.

Joe had finished the adjustments and had the missile ready to go. Joe was just waiting for the command, and he would lay waste to Richtofen's Lab. Joe sat down and relaxed for a few minutes before walking over to a workbench he found and he began working on some projects he had started a little while ago. With his ability, he could build devices that even Stephen Hawking would covet.

"OK, so if I attach this here, then it could…yes! I'm awesome!" Joe said as he finished his newest invention.

It was a magnetic field generator. If he equipped it onto the Truck, it could blast away cars that were blocking the major highways. He had built this as a contingency, just in case they didn't stop Richtofen here.

"If I attached this to the truck, we could seriously kick some butt" Joe grinned as he stowed his invention in his backpack.

Suddenly Joe's phone started ringing on the desk, and he walked over to it and said "Yeah, what's up?"

"Joe, how're things going on your end?" Nicholas asked.

"I'm ready here. Awaiting your signal" Joe said.

"Got it. We're heading into the Lab now, you should get a signal when we set up the transmitter. Wish us luck" Nicholas said.

"Good luck guys, I'll be-" Joe began to say when he saw several Nazi Zombies and three Screecher Zombies stumbling in through the hole that led outside.

"I'll have to call you guys back" Joe said aiming his SPAZ-24 and ending the call..

"Bring it you slimy flesh junkies!" Joe yelled opening fire on the undead horde.

**Back at the Lab:**

"Joe's ran into some trouble" Nicholas sighed.

"Zombies?" John asked.

"No, fairies." Nicholas replied.

"Jerk"

"Dork"

"Spaz"

"OK, let's end this. Moron. Anyway, I doubt we can get through this giant arse door." Nicholas said pointing at the giant reinforced steel door.

"So what should we do?" Jess asked.

"Hey, there's a door over there" Judith said pointing to a nearby, but smaller and much less impressive, steel door.

"Awww! I wanted to go through the big door!" Nick whined.

"Samantha, does this door lead to Richtofen?" Jax asked.

"_**Yes. I can lead you to him through here"**_ Samantha said.

"I knew I should've taken out an insurance policy before I came here. After all, Nicholas is leading us again." John sighed.

"Oh shut up. Let's go" Nicholas said opening up the door.

Instead of a room, there was a stairway leading down into the darkness.

"Samantha, can you…like, sense anything?" Andrew asked.

"_**Yes. This is the way to Richtofen, but there's something down there. Another experiment of Richtofen's no doubt"**_ Samantha muttered.

"All right, keep the door propped open. Let's go" Nicholas said taking the first few steps, and activating his night vision glasses.

"OK, the light switch has to be around here somewhere" Andrew said fumbling blindly through the dark.

"Here!" Jess said flipping on the switch.

"How'd you find it?" Nicholas asked, as he was the only one who could see in the dark besides Samantha, because ghosts can do that sort of thing apparently.

"Night Vision contacts!" Jess said cheerfully.

"Where'd you get those?" Judith asked.

"Well, it was a reward for completing another Easter Egg I did back at the Stadium" Jess explained.

"What could you have done to get that?" Liam asked.

"Well…" Jess said.

**Flashback to Stadium:**

"Aiieeeeghhh! I'm too good-looking to die!" Nick screamed as he ran from the Juggernaut.

"La la la la la, la la la la la, la la la la la"" Jess sang as the Juggernaut slowly lumbered behind her.

Jess ducked under a trash can that the Juggernaut the threw a trash can at her. As the trash can slammed into the wall and leveled yet another hat stand, Jess turned around and stuck her tongue out at the Juggernaut.

"Hehehe, this guy is soooooo freaking slow. Hey look, Pac Man!" Jess said excitedly.

There was a slightly bloody Pac Man machine sitting there, next to a fat chubby teen who was splattered all over the wall. Jess picked up a quarter off of the ground and said "This must be my lucky day"

"Waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka wak awaka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka waka" the game droned on as Jess laughed happily.

The Juggernaut was sitting on the ground, panting from having to chase Jess around for the past five minutes.

"Hey, Mr. Zombie guy, you want to play?" Jess asked.

"RAAAAH!" the Zombie roared.

"OK, I'll just press continue then." Jess said with a grin as she continued to play while the Juggernaut tried to catch up.

Suddenly Jess heard a strange noise and saw a grey bar appear out of nowhere.

"Achievement Unlocked: 10G-High Score in Hell." Jess read off of the bar.

"_**Did you just unlock an achievement?"**_ Samantha asked.

"I guess so" Jess replied.

"_**Huh…beat the high score in Pac Man while outrunning the Juggernaut" **_Samantha said.

"How did I get the achievement Samantha? I thought this was real life Zombies?" Jess said.

"_**Well, apparently the author of this story has his head shoved up his own rear end." **_Samantha grumbled in an annoyed way.

"Well, that just about answers every other question I had" Jess replied.

"_**Me too. By the way, you got a prize" **_Samantha said.

Jess looked down at the prize slot, because Pac Man games have those apparently, and pulled out a small box.

"Night-Vision Contacts Perk…WINNING!" Jess cheered as she put the contacts in.

"_**By the way, not that big of a deal, you might want to get onto this at the earliest convenience but there's a giant Zombie charging at you!"**_ Samantha yelled at Jess, who turned around.

"I caught up, time to die!" the juggernaut linebacker grinned evilly.

"OK, back to skipping!" Jess said skipping cheerfully.

"Fanfiction…I hate it so freaking much" the Juggernaut groaned as Jess skipped ahead of him yet again.

**End of Flashback:**

"Any more Easter Eggs you did we should be aware of?" Andrew asked.

"Seven in fact." Jess said.

"_**W-what! But…HOW!" **_Samantha asked.

"I have no idea!" Jess said, sounding just as shocked as Samantha.

"Does…does this count as breaking the fourth wall?" Nick asked, sounding uncertain.

"Stop! If you do it again there's no telling what will happen!" Nicholas warned.

"OK, I promise I'll stop doing it, happy?" Nick asked.

"Yes. Now into this tunnel of darkness and death" Nicholas said walking into the said tunnel.

The group quietly walked down the staircase, making sure to be on the lookout for anything. They emerged in an underground room, lined with jail cells. And where there weren't jail cells, there were what looked like coffins in the walls. They were in a series of catacombs underneath the warehouse.

"What…is this place?" Andrew asked.

"This must be where Richtofen keeps his experiments" Jax said.

"_**I agree, I can sense-"**_

"Zombies?" a voice suggested from the darkness.

Suddenly a man walked out of the shadows, wearing a grin on his face. He was wearing a Nazi Uniform that was black and red, with the symbol of group 935 on his chest. He stood at about six feet, with short black, yet graying, hair and brown eyes. The man smiled at them, revealing a row of demonic looking teeth.

"Who…who are you?" Judith asked.

"Me? Why just a humble researcher, in search of ultimate power" the man chuckled.

"_**Your name! What kind of foul demon are you?"**_ Samantha bellowed.

"My name? Surely you remember me my dear Samantha. I am Henry Porter, member of group 935 and creator of the very weapon you two hold in your hands" the man said pointing to Jax and John's Ray Guns.

"_**Porter! How are you still alive after all these years!" **_Samantha said suspiciously.

"Why through the amazing effects of Element 115 my dear Samantha. After all, that's what your dear father Doctor Maxis was studying. You see, the super-soldier program was one of the main focuses of Group 935 that is true. But you see, Doctor Richtofen had a theory. If Ununpentium, or Element 115 as you may know it, could bring the dead by to life, then what would happen if those who were amongst the living were exposed to it as well?"

"The results…were shocking. Small amounts of 115 exposures not only extended our test subjects, natural life, but gave them enhanced abilities. After the effects of the experiments were clear, Master Richtofen preformed the experiments on the remaining members of 935 as well. We are now ageless, unable to die from natural causes."

"As for how I survived the first Zombie attacks back when we first betrayed Maxis, well, let's just say I'm good at covering my tracks" Porter said with a demonic grin.

"_**Kill him"**_ Samantha said.

"With pleasure" Liam said aiming his AK74fu2 at Porter's skull.

Liam opened fire on Porter, who smirked as the laser-bullets flew towards him. Suddenly Porter disappeared in a burst of particles. The teens looked around for the scientist, but he was nowhere to be found.

"_**WHERE ARE YOU!"**_ Samantha bellowed.

"Right here you miserable ghost." Porter said reappearing as though from nowhere.

"How…did you do that?" Jax asked.

"Yes…you see, Richtofen gave me some rather…special, abilities with his powers. For example, watch this" Porter said with a sick smile as he moved his hand toward Jax, who fired a shot from the very weapon Porter created.

The Ray Gun blast hit Porter head-on, but did absolutely nothing. Then Porter pointed a finger at Jax, who began to float in midair. Jax looked alarmed, but couldn't move his arms or legs. Porter's grin widened as he flicked his hand and Jax was hurled through the air and slammed into the stone wall. Jax fell to the ground, twitching.

"_**Jax!"**_ Samantha yelled.

Porter laughed and said "YES! Power…I can feel it running through every cell in my body! You will never defeat Master Richtofen, he is far stronger than I am due to absorbing Samantha's powers. And his own…experiments, on himself. I doubt even that pitiful jester Illuzio could best him now that Richtofen is powered up again"

"_**KILL HIM!"**_ Samantha yelled.

The group opened fire on Porter, who just laughed as the bullets, freeze beams, and lasers hit him, doing absolutely nothing to him.

"Fools. Did you really thing you could defeat Group 935? We are all powerful! WE SHALL NOT BE STOPPED!" Porter laughed manically, flicking his hand forward again.

Andrew yelled out as he was hurled through the air and slammed into a wall. Porter moved his and and flicked it again, causing Andrew to move off of the wall and slam into it again and again.

"Stop it!" Judith yelled.

"Heahahahahaha! I'm having far too much fun with this." Porter laughed as he slammed Andrew into the wall again, causing him to yell out in pain.

"_**THAT'S IT!"**_ Samantha screamed as she flew at Porter.

"What the-!" Porter yelled as Samantha went inside of him.

"What…are…you-?" Porter said before he began convulsing.

"AAH! What's going on! Get out of me you miserable specter!" Porter yelled as his body began to glow red.

Suddenly Porter's mouth opened and in Samantha's voice he said _**"Shoot him now!"**_

Judith aimed her L115 Isolator and fired a perfect headshot. Porter yelled out in pain and stumbled backwards a few steps. Porter suddenly flashed green and Samantha was blasted out of his body. Samantha landed on the ground looking stunned, but had a triumphant grin on her face.

Porter was bleeding now, dark red blood running down his face. He growled and yelled "You…you have been a thorn in my side for the last time Samantha!"

"_**Hehehehe, like father like daughter!"**_ Samantha replied with an evil smile.

"Get him!" Nicholas yelled firing his Dual-Cobra's at Porter who snarled in pain as the bullets tore through him, leaving huge gaping holes.

Suddenly three large and heavy metal crates rose into the air and hurled themselves at the Zombie slayers, who barely dodged it. Nicholas hurled his Bowie Knife at Porter, who redirected it with a flick of his hand and sent it flying back at him.

Nick suddenly ran forward and yelled "C.N.!"

"**On it! PLASMA CYCLONE!"** C.N. yelled.

A huge crimson blast shot out of the tip of C.N. and hit Porter directly in the chest, sending him flying into the wall twenty yards away. Porter slowly got to his feet and grunted in pain. There was a huge hole in his chest, spewing crimson blood onto the floor. Porter stood up and tapped the horrific wound, which began to miraculously heal. Within ten seconds, it looked as though he had never been hurt in the first place.

He scowled at the group and said "You fools will never stop Richtofen. Go upstairs and meet him, if you have a death wish!"

Porter dissolved into a cloud of particles, and everyone ran up to Andrea and Jax, to check on them. Jax was checking on Andrew, who seemed to be knocked out from being hit in the skull. After a few minutes, Andrew regained consciousness.

"That…hurt" Andrew muttered as he sat up.

"Dude, you OK?" Nick asked.

"Yeah…just, just give me a sec" Andrew said getting to his feet with a wince.

"What the hell was with Porter? He should've died years ago" Nicholas said.

"I'm not sure. What I'd like to know is how can he have telekinesis?" John asked.

"_**Element 115 has strange and unpredictable effects on the living It seems. What we can take from this experience, if Porter is alive, then the other members of group 935 may be alive as well." **_Samantha growled angrily.

The group continued to head through the dark underground, keeping an eye out for anything that could pose a threat. After about five minutes, they came across something that made Liam go "What the hell!"

It was a gigantic meteorite, faintly growing green at seemingly random intervals. It was about the size of an elephant, and even from far away, the group could tell that this was the source of the Element 115.

"How…where did they get this?" Jax asked, awed at the site.

"More importantly, how can we destroy it?" Nicholas asked Samantha, who shrugged.

"_**I have no idea. But I think it'd be best if we disconnected the wires that are attached to the meteorite. It could be what's powering the 115 Amplifier"**_ the ghost said.

Nicholas Andrew, Liam, and Jax began disconnecting the large cluste of wires that were attached to the mysterious meteorite. But it became clear that there was no way to possibly disconnect the wires. No matter what the group used, the wires remained still. The wires also appeared to be made of some strange material, because even Reaper could not cut through them.

"If only we had some giant scissors or something, like, something made of diamond. Nothing's stronger than diamond" Nick muttered.

"Can't you use that annoying doll to cut the wires?" Liam asked.

Suddenly Liam was hurled backwards and landed roughly on the ground.

"What the hell was that?" Liam yelled.

"**I…AM NOT…A DOLL!"** C.N. bellowed so loudly that everyone heard him.

"What the f_ _ _! THAT THING CAN TALK?" Liam yelled.

"**Of course, though I prefer to talk only to my host. Annoying as he may be, he does keep me entertained, and is the most worthy host I've had yet" **C.N. explained.

"Wow…someone actually thinks highly of Nick!"Liam laughed.

"Oh leave him alone, let him have a moment of glory for once" Judith admonished, and Liam sighed and said "Yeah, OK."

"**I can't cut those cords in this form. With my other form I could make quick work of them, but not in this state"** C.N. explained.

"You have another form!" Nick asked excitedly.

"**Yes, but I can't go into it now. You have to prove yourself to me that you're ready. Until then, you get the sexy figurine version of me"** C.N. said.

"Then how do we disconnect those wires?" Andrew asked.

"Well, we'll just have to make sure that the Missile hits the target then" Nicholas said reloading his Dual-Cobra's.

The group took one last look at the Meteorite and moved on, now hesitant at what else could be waiting for them in the darkness of the catacombs.

**Meanwhile:**

"TAKE THIS! AND THIS! AND SOME OF THIS!" Joe yelled firing over and over again.

The Zombies were coming nonstop now. Joe had run out of ammo for the SPAZ-24, and was now using his Calamity and Jane, trying to stem the flow of Zombies, but he wasn't having much luck. Joe growled in frustration and kicked in a Zombies leg and pistol-whipped it in the face.

Joe dashed up the stairs and onto the metal catwalk, trying to escape from the Zombies. A Screecher began to climb up the walls behind Joe, who turned around and ran it through with his sickle, killing it.

"They just won't stop coming!" Joe muttered as he tossed a grenade down the stairs.

The grenade bounced off three steps and hit the floor, where it exploded violently. Several Zombies fell to the ground, now with their legs removed. Joe made quick work of the crawlers and turned around to himself face to face with a twenty foot drop, which was from the Leviathan attacking Nicholas on the catwalk.

"This is ridiculous. How many more of them are there?" Joe muttered reloading Calamity and Jane.

Joe continued to fire until he ran out of Calamity ammo, and was just firing Jane. Joe pulled out a second grenade and hurled it down the Catwalk, blowing the floor up and sending twenty Zombies crashing onto the ground. Joe quickly looked around, looking for some kind of weapon to use.

Joe spotted a chaingun nearby and pulled out his Commando and unloaded on the group of Zombies in front of him, emptying three clips into the undead hordes attacking him. Joe sprinted towards the chaingun on the wall and snatched up with a grin.

"Eat lead!" Joe yelled he started up the chaingun and began unloading bullets nonstop at the Zombies.

Five minutes later, Joe fell to the ground with a sigh of relief. About a hundred Zombies lay dead, for good this time. Joe stepped over the body of a Screecher and opened up a pack of pop tarts that he had stolen from the Sam's Club.

"Hmm…I wonder if there's anything else around here I can use?" Joe muttered as he reloading Jane and walking towards a small maintenance room.

"Jeez, they need codes for just about every room in this freaking place." Joe grumbled as he put in another key code for the maintenance room, completely ignoring the sign that says "DO NOT ENTER"

"Let's see. A few useless machines that will be of no use to anyone except a hobo. A Tesla Coil which can be used for my personal project, and a wrench. Nothing!" Joe said angrily as he turned around.

"Wait, Tesla Coil! That's exactly what I need!" Joe said whirling around and running over to the coil.

Joe walked back into the armory and began working on his own personal project, It was yet another contingency plan, besides shotgun to the face, and Joe was somewhat skeptical that it would actually work, mainly because he had yet to find all the parts for it.

But when he did...

Joe grinned and added the Tesla Coil to his invention and said "Only a few more things to get, and then this baby will be operational"

"Reah!" a Screecher Zombie screeched from somewhere in the Armory.

"Well, back to the old grind" Joe sighed grabbing the chaingun and opening fire on the newest horde of Zombies.

**Back at the Plot:**

"_Huh, first time I've done that"_ Nicholas thought with a grin.

"What are you grinning about?" Jess asked.

"Nothing. So how much further until we get to Richtofen Sam?" Nicholas asked.

"_**Not much further, I can sense him. It seems that Porter was the only member of Group 935 that's here, besides Richtofen."**_ Samantha said.

"What about Illuzio?" Liam asked.

"_**He's far away from here. I cannot sense him at all."**_ Samantha said.

"So, do you think it's just Porter who survived from Group 935, or do you think there are even more of them?" Jess asked Samantha, who frowned.

"_**They should all be dead by now, because it has been many years and time should have claimed their lives"**_ Samantha said.

"_**Richtofen is still alive because he switched places with me…twice. The others, if there are anymore besides Porter, are alive because of the 115 experiments Richtofen preformed on them."**_ Samantha said.

"So you don't think there are any more of them that are alive?" Andrew asked.

"_**No, I do. Richtofen has shown himself capable of accomplishing the impossible several times over…the remnants of 935 are still out there, and every last one of them must pay for what they've done to me!"**_ Samantha said angrily.

"Well, which ones do you know are dead. For sure?" Jax asked.

"_**That's the problem! When I became…what I am now, Daddy told me to kill everyone who was with Group 935. Controlling several hundred mindless bodies at once and having them become killing machines is not an easy feat. By the time I figured out how to control the Zombies, they escaped to Earth again!" **_Samantha yelled angrily, he body flashed green in sheer anger.

"Samantha, please, calm down. We need you to be calm if we're going to actually survive this" Jess said.

Samantha's glow disappeared and she looked at the group and said _**"They will pay for this. They WILL pay!"**_

"We know Samantha, they'll pay for everything they've done to both you, and Doctor Maxis." Nicholas said.

Samantha looked at each one of the teens, who were now risking their lives because of her mistakes. Samantha smiled at them and said _**"Thank you. All of you. For helping me try to make things right."**_

"Richtofen deserves to die for what he's done to not just you, but to everyone who's suffered at his hands. We only did what was right" Nick said.

Everyone stared at Nick, amazed that something intelligent had finally came from his mouth.

"For once, I agree with him. He'll pay for everything he's done, don't you worry about that" Liam said.

"_**Thank you. We should keep going"**_ Samantha said.

After a few more minutes of walking through the Catacombs, they came across a stairway, leading upwards. Samantha looked at everyone and nodded, and as one the group walked up the stairway, leading to the one who had started all of this.

And there he stood in front of a machine, presumably the 115 Amplifier. He wore the same outfit he wore In the Black Ops Zombie game mode, except it was all black and red. His eyes were bright blue and he smiled at the teens with his teeth razor sharp, like a demon in the depths of hell.

"Greetings mine children. We haff not face to face as of yet, ja? I am Doctor Edward Richtofen, soon to be ruler of zis miserable world" the Nazi said looking at each of them, until his gaze finally fell upon Samantha.

Samantha let out a yell of fury and screamed _**"RICHTOFEN!"**_

"Foolish child. You couldn't stop mine glorious plan 50 years ago, and you cannot stop me now. You see, it is already too late." Richtofen said with a smile.

"W-what do you mean?" Judith asked cautiously.

Richtofen moved to the side, allowing the teens to have a clear view of the machine behind him. It was about ten feet tall, and was glowing green. It had a hexagon-like shape to it and seemed to be made out of titanium, though there were several 115 meteorites built into the frame of the machine. Green lightning flew across the device, which had several cords running to the telephone tower.

"This device vas activated not even ten minutes ago. Ze pulse has already reanimated millions of corpses all across ze Eastern United States of America. Even if you could destroy this machine, ze damage will still be done" the Nazi said with a grin.

"You'll pay for this!" Liam said angrily, causing the Nazi to chuckle.

"Really? I recall Dempshey telling me ze same thing, all those years ago. Yet look vat vhere I am now" Richtofen sneered.

"You've been hiding for the past 50 years, some of which has been in Florida, which as you may have noticed, sucks." Nicholas said.

"Silence! You are just children, you do not understand mine glorious plan!" Richtofen said.

"World domination. New World Order. Zombie Army. Yawn. Honestly, if you didn't see this coming, you're as dense as Nick is" Liam said.

"Even I saw this coming" Nick said with a grin.

"Zis is all a game to you all, isn't it?" Richtofen asked.

"Until two days ago, yeah, it kinda was" Nicholas replied.

Richtofen sighed and said "Ignorance is indeed bliss."

Suddenly Porter materialized out of thin air and said "Doctor Richtofen. We must finish the preparations here, lest we fall behind schedule."

"Of course. Let me deal with the children and the pitiful spirit, and zen I vill join you." Richtofen said, and Porter nodded, and then faded away.

"So. Vho Vould like to die first?" Richtofen asked.

"Jess, get it ready. Signal me when it's in position." Nicholas muttered to the brown-haired teen, who nodded.

"Bring it on you psychotic Nazi" Andrew said stepping forward.

Jax, Liam, John, and Nicholas stepped forward. Nick hung back and muttered to Judith "Stay hidden, and then snipe him while he's distracted."

"Good idea. Watch my back, he might have other Zombies around to attack us" Judith muttered as she reloaded her L115 Isolator.

Jax began firing from his Dual-Wield Ray Guns. Nicholas unloaded onto the Nazi with his Dual-Wield Cobra's. John fired from his Winter's Fury and the Porter's X2 Ray Gun. Andrew fired with his Famas at the Doctor, unloading an entire clip into him. And Liam fired both his AUG-5OM3 and his AK74fu2 at Richtofen, who was quickly engulfed in a cloud of smoke from the gunfire.

"Did we get him?" Andrew asked.

"Not even close" Richtofen said as the smoke cleared, revealing that he had taken no damage from the assault.

"What the hell? What are you?" Nicholas asked.

"Ageless, determined, blessed vith otherworldly powers because of my genius, to name but a few" Richtofen said with an evil laugh.

Jess suddenly vanished into thin air, thanks to the still active effects of Invizi-Fizz. She quietly snuck behind the machine and placed the transmitter next to it and pressed several buttons on it and folded the transmitter again. Richtofen glanced in Jess's general direction and she froze and remained absolutely still.

"OK, it's set up. It's all up to Joe now" Jess muttered as she pulled out her MP5K and reloaded it.

"All right, give me a second and…" Judith fired a shot at Richtofen with her L115 Isolator.

The bullet flew towards Richtofen, who cocked his head slightly to the side. The bullet flew by his ear and embedded itself into the wall, not even an inch from Jess's head.

"Eep!" Jess squeaked.

Richtofen chuckled again and said "Fools. You do not understand the extent of mine powers, do you? I am blessed with complete and total control over mine Zombified minions. I am ageless as a result of Samantha's _pitiful_ attempt to stop me."

"_**SILENCE TRAITOR! You won't get away with this!"**_ Samantha yelled at Richtofen.

"I already haff, mine dear Samantha. All I need is ten more minutes, and ze 115 Amplifier will allow me to control enough Zombies to control the entire United States! And from zhere, ze world!" Richtofen cackled.

"We've got to stop him!" Nicholas said, and then he noticed his phone was vibrating.

"Guys, stall him" Nicholas muttered as he slowly crept away from the fight, where Andrew and Liam dashed at Richtofen in an attempt to kill him.

Nicholas hid behind a crate and flipped open his phone and said "Yeah?"

"Nicholas, I'm getting a signal from a location close by. Are you ready for me to fire the missile?" Joe asked.

"Joe, Group 935 is still alive and Richtofen is practically invincible! Are you ready with that missile?" Nicholas asked.

"Ready to go-eh, hold on" Joe said.

"BAM!...OK, now I'm ready to go" Joe said.

"How long will it take the missile to get here?" Nicholas asked.

"Two minutes by my estimate" Joe said.

"OK, fire it in one minute. Call me again when you fire it, and call me a third time when we've got one minute left. Got it?" Nicholas said.

"Yeah, be careful bro" Joe said.

"Right, you too man" Nicholas said hanging up the phone and stepping out from behind the crate.

Andrew fell to the ground with a grunt as a blast of green lightning flew by him, narrowly missing his skull. Richtofen grinned down at him, with green static flying around his fingers.

"Power…ultimate power" Richtofen sang as he shot a blast of green lightning at Andrew, who blocked it with the blade of Reaper.

The beam shot off of Reaper's blade and struck the ceiling, revealing a huge gaping hole in the ceiling. Richtofen grinned as the moonlight engulfed him, revealing a shimmering black veil around him.

"You see, ze moonlight reveals mine true form. I am invincible, and you are all dead." Richtofen said.

Nicholas fired at Richtofen's skull, which would've been a perfect headshot if he hadn't ducked at the last second. Then in the blink of an eye, he was in front of Nicholas.

"What the-!" Nicholas began to say before Richtofen grabbed Nicholas by the throat and lifted him into the air effortlessly.

"You…are nozhing! You and your pathetic world will bow down to me!" Richtofen whispered into Nicholas's face.

Suddenly Nicholas felt the phone in his pocket vibrate, meaning that it was Joe who had called. The Missile was on its way here, and in two minutes this entire compound would be reduced to a flaming pile of nothing.

"Never" Nicholas whispered back to the Nazi, who smirked.

Nicholas suddenly yelled out in agony as green lightning shot from Richtofen into him. Nicholas convulsed and choked as Richtofen electrocuted and suffocated him. The moonlight shone down, giving Richtofen an even more menacing look.

"Fools…all of you…you cannot stop me. Not now, not ever" Richtofen said with a evil grin, revealing hisf demonic razor-sharp teeth.

Richtofen then stiffened up and let go of Nicholas, who fell to the ground, gasping for air. Suddenly Richtofen's eyes turned bright red and he stumbled backwards and yelled out in pain.

"GET…OUT OF ME YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE BRAT!" Richtofen roared.

Suddenly Richtofen twitched and Samantha yelled out _**"Get him! I can't hold him for much longer!"**_

Suddenly a shot rang out and Nicholas saw something collide into Richtofen's skull. Nicholas's eyes widened as he saw black blood gush out of Richtofen's face. Richtofen yelled and whirled around to see Judith aiming her L115 Isolator at him.

"Stay still, the next shot's going to go right between your eyes" Judith said coolly as she took aim again.

"Fools! You vill pay for zhat!" Richtofen said as he brought up a hand, crackling with green lightning, and pointed it at Judith.

A huge green lightning bolt shot at Judith, who gasped and remained frozen where she stood. Suddenly Liam came from out of nowhere and tackled her out of the way, narrowly avoiding the attack himself.

Suddenly there was a shout and Samantha flew out of Richtofen's body and fell onto the ground, looking strangely exhausted. Richtofen straightened up and said "You vall are more trouble than I vhought you'd be."

"Guys! We've got to get out of here, now!" Nicholas said shakily getting to his feet.

"Aw, leaving so soon?" Richtofen said firing a blast of lightning at Nicholas, who jumped to the side and barely avoided it.

"I am just toying vith you vall. I haff not even begun to fight vith mine full power" Richtofen laughed.

John suddenly fired ten shots with the Winter's Fury around Richtofen, trapping him within a huge mound of ice. The mound stood twenty feet tall, and Richtofen was completely enclosed inside of the ice. Then, cracks began to form in the ice.

"RUN!" John yelled running towards the door.

Everyone bolted towards the door after John, who was firing at the enormous padlock on the door. After three shots, it cracked in half. Jax, Andrew, Liam, John, and Nicholas pushed and shoved the huge metal door, but it wouldn't budge.

"What are we going to do!" Jess yelled as she kicked the door.

"Get out of the way!" Nick yelled running up to the door.

Nick swung C.N. as hard as he could at the huge steel door, knocking the entire thing off of its hinges. Nick looked at the figurine with wonder, and noticed that there was something wrong with it.

"Guys…C.N…he's chipped" Nick said, pointing to a small piece of the hat, which had fallen off.

"**Yes, I am, aren't I?" **C.N. replied in a monotone…tone.

"No time! We've got thirty seconds!" Nicholas yelled.

Suddenly there was a flash of green from behind them and Richtofen emerged from the ice block, looking pissed.

"YOU VILL ALL BOW TO ME!" Richtofen yelled as green lightning shot from his body.

"Guys, run! I'll hold him off!" John said firing both of his wonder weapons at the Nazi.

The group quickly ran outside and saw the missile, not even a hundred yards away.

"JOHN! GET OUT OF THERE!" Nicholas yelled at John, who smiled and shook his head sadly.

The missile came closer, and everyone ran for cover and barely got behind the truck before-

BOOOOOOM!

The colossal explosion from the missile sent all of the teens flying onto the ground. The heat from the explosion was hot enough to where even from the safety of the other side of the truck, they felt like they were in a furnace. About a minute later, the explosion had subsided and the teens slowly emerged from behind the truck.

The warehouse had been reduced to a flaming pile of nothing. Pieces of concrete were still burning, and there was a few scraps of metal left from all of the machines in the warehouse…but John was nowhere to be found.

"John?" Nicholas called.

Nothing.

"John!" Jess called.

Nothing.

"_**Maybe he got knocked out. Let's look for him"**_ Samantha suggested.

Ten minutes of searching the burning wreckage, nothing. John had disappeared. He wasn't in the wreckage, neither was Richtofen, but that was to be expected. He had probably warped away, just like Porter had.

"_**Guys, I think we have to face facts…John…didn't make it out of there when the missile hit"**_ Samantha said softly.

"No" Jax grunted.

"DAMN! John! Why did you have to play hero! WHY!" Nicholas yell as he fell to his knees.

Everyone stood at the foot of the wreckage, trying to comfort one another. They had been through so much. It had been as though their streak of good luck would never end…and then just like that. John was gone.

Suddenly a noise cut through the group's grieving. It was a tall figure on a military-issue motorcycle came zooming into the parking lot. The figure had a Commando and a SPAZ-24 on his back, with two black pistols as his sidearm's. It was Joe.

"Hey guys, you won't believe…hey, what happened?" Joe asked, noticing the expressions on everyone's face.

"John…John didn't make it Joe…he's gone" Andrew muttered.

Joe looked at the flaming wreckage for a solid ten seconds, and then let out a sigh.

"I told you guys he'd be the first one to die, but man, I never expected this" Joe said sitting down on the ground.

And as one the group mourned the loss of their friend John, who gave his life so that they could live. Richtofen had gotten away, and more death and destruction was lying in wait for the young Zombie slayers. So they cried, and let their tears fall freely without shame. As one they mourned, and as one they would forever remember this dark and infamous night.

End of Chapter:

Yes, I changed the ending a little, what I had before just seemed in really bad taste to me, even though I had it preplanned like 5 chapters ago. Anyway, Group 935 is back, the Zombie-Slayers lost an important member, and the Zombies are still coming strong! STAY TUNED! AND PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS GOOD AND AWESOME, REVIEW! It gives my miserable life meaning! Hehehe, got a little overdramatic there. Anyway, please review, and submit your guesses towards the (now tenth) new member's identity in the form of a review. Until next time, FlygonN…OUT!


	11. Heavy Metal

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead: **

**Get ready for some serious waves of info folks. Again.**

Note: Hey there everyone, I was able to get this chapter up earlier than I said I would have it, mainly because I'll away from my computer for a few days this week. So, here you go, happy birthday. Also, I'd like to apologize to a Guest reviewer, who I'm assuming was named Ryan based off of his review. I accidently deleted your guest review when I was messing around with the Review Moderator thing that just came out. My bad bro, I'm really sorry about that. Also, I appreciate you wanting to have your own character in the story, but it just wouldn't work out. I know my friends pretty well and their mannerisms are what make their characters so fun to write about. It just wouldn't work out man, sorry. But, you could make a cameo or something. Message me and we'll talk about it. I am now accepting Guest Reviews though, but I'm hoping that anyone who reads the story please login and submit a legit review. 

Anyway, here's a little bit more info about that contest I announced last chapter. In chapter fifteen, I'll be introducing the tenth and final member of the team. Here's what the team will be like in chapter fifteen.

Nicholas-the sexy and brave leader, based off of yours truly. 

Nick-spazzy, kind of annoying, and Chosen One of Chuck Norris. Knows more about Chuck Norris than the Greybeards know about the Thu'um. (for you Skyrim people)

Joe-tech-savvy teen with supernatural mechanical and computer skills.

Jess-a bubbly teen who can perform various aerobatic maneuvers that makes her unpredictable when she's fighting. She's also part squirrel, and part Ninja. 

Liam- dating Judith, loves to mess with Joe and is very annoyed by Nick's antics.

Judith-resident sniper of the team, dating Liam. Best friends with Jess and Nicholas.

Jax-temporary Host of Samantha, is granted increased strength, speed, and stamina. Quiet, yet resourceful and intelligent.

Andrew- awesome melee fighter who uses a scythe and is disliked by Jess.

Samantha- the ghost-like girl who is aiding our heroes in their quest. Has many powers, some of which are just now being revealed. If I need to go into more detail, Imma slap you with a wet noodle.

"To be Announced"-a character I'm not revealing yet. Tee-hee.

OK, here are the rules. Submit your guess towards the identity of the character in a review. (No Guest Reviews, those don't count). One guess per person, but there can be multiple winners. The first person to guess it correctly gets a Zombie of their own design to be in a chapter coming soon. Also, if you get a message from me, PLEASE don't tell anyone else who the "secret person" is. Kinda defeats the purpose of doing this, and I'll be upset. Second person to guess it, and so on, will have their own customized Zombie in a later chapter. This contest will go on until I post chapter 14. After that, I'll message the winner(s) and ask what kind of awesome Zombie Boss (or regular Zombie, such as the Screecher Zombies) they want to have appear in my story, and I will bring your creation to life! I pride myself on being very adaptable, and most of my best ideas have been on spur of the moment kind of things. So, please submit your reviews and guesses. 

Also, special shoutout (these will become regular now), to ThomasAndrewsTitanicfan1337, mybrosdrivemecrazy,SoxxyMoxxyFanfics, fanficfan32, OokamiAeon, and alexsnow752 ( for the last two, I had to take out the periods or it wouldn't let me put your names in) . Thank you so much for your reviews, and your guesses. Your reviews make my power grow. Muahahahaha…

And without further ado, because I am a long winded person and can't seem to shut the heck up, enjoy!

**Chapter 11: Heavy Metal**

"_**We're going to have to leave here soon"**_ Samantha said.

"Just give us a few minutes Samantha, we…" Jax stopped himself.

"_**I understand"**_ the ghost said gently.

Judith wrapped an arm around Jess's shoulder, trying to hold back her own tears. Nicholas, Andrew, Liam, Nick, and Jax were looking at the flaming wreckage, wishing that it could've been them instead. They knew John had done what he did to give them a chance to survive. But at what cost…

"_**I…am sorry. All of you. He was a good person, and though I didn't know him for very long, he was a good friend"**_ Samantha said softly.

"We'll avenge him. We'll make Richtofen pay!" Andrew growled angrily, gripping Reaper so hard that it hurt his hands.

"Yeah, come on Judith" Jess said wiping her eyes.

Liam walked over to Judith and gave her a comforting hug, which she returned. Nicholas walked to the rubble and spotted a charred Ray Gun and a destroyed Winter's Fury. Nicholas grabbed the two destroyed weapons and arranged them on top of a piece of rubble, a makeshift memorial to his friend's sacrifice. Jess went to the truck and found John's Marching Band uniform. She laid it next to the memorial and said "Bye John."

"Bye John" Judith said wiping a tear out of her eye.

"Bye John" Liam said wrapping an arm around Judith's shoulder.

"Bye John" Andrew muttered.

"Bye John" Nick said softly.

"_**Bye John"**_ Samantha said as she floated nearby.

"Bye John" Joe muttered, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.

"Bye John" Jax said softly, tears starting for fall down from his eyes once again.

"**Bye John"** C.N. said.

"Bye John. You were an amazing friend to all of us. Know that we'll continue to fight in your name my friend…farewell" Nicholas said as tears rolled down his face.

"Anyone else want to say anything?" Nicholas asked.

Joe stepped forward and said "Even though I put you through a lot of crap, I still considered you one of my best friends. I'm sorry I wasn't a nicer guy to you, buddy"

The teens sat there for another few minutes, remembering their friend and all they had done together. Then, as the Zombies came closer, they hopped in the truck and reluctantly drove away, looking back at the wreckage that had claimed their friend.

Ten minutes later he group's truck began to encounter traffic for the first time in their journey. They were stuck behind a crapload of cars, and weren't going anywhere fast.

"OK, this is getting ridiculous" Nicholas said in an annoyed tone as the minutes went by in ever growing amounts.

"Are we there yet?" Nick asked.

"That's the 78th time you've asked that!" Judith replied angrily.

"Well, I'm just wondering" Nick replied.

"No. We are not there yet" Jess said calmly.

"Are we there yet?" Nick asked again not even a minute later.

"No" Andrew replied.

*Ten Minutes Later, though still in the same spot*

"…So…are we there yet?" Nick asked.

"_**No"**_ Samantha said through Jax.

"…Are we there yet now?" Nick asked.

"We're dead stopped in the middle of traffic! What the hell do you think!" Nicholas asked Nick, who starred at him.

"So is that a yes…no…maybe…you've got to give me a straight answer" Nick said in an annoyed tone.

"THAT'S IT!" Joe said reaching into the front seat and pressing a button on the front dashboard.

Suddenly a blue pulse shot from all around the Truck, blasting cars into each other and causing thousands of dollars in vehicle damage.

"What in the name of Avenged Sevenfold was that!" Nicholas yelled.

"Magnetic Pulse Generator. I developed it while I was at the Air Force Base. It's waterproof, energy efficient and everything. Press the button, and it blasts cars away from us" Joe explained.

Jess reached forward and pressed the button, blasting the cars again.

"Hehehe, it's fun!" Jess said.

"I knew no good would come from you city folk and your flying machines!" an old man yelled.

"We're not even flying!" Jax yelled at the old man.

"No, but they are!" Joe yelled pressing the button and not letting up, repeatedly blasting the cars until they were rolled over on the side of the road.

"Liam, hit it!" Nicholas yelled.

Liam shot through the traffic, dodging through the one or two strangling cars on the road. Finally the group broke through the makeshift military blockade, which was literally a wooden fence with some barbed wire around it.

"By order of the Military, we ask that you turn around-HOLY CRAP GET OUT OF THE WAY TIM!" the officer yelled as he jumped out of the way.

The truck smashed into the blockade, reducing it to rubble as it shot by the stunned officers.

"I told you we should've put more stuff on the blockade, but no, you wanted to go get wasted instead" Tim complained as he got up.

"You only live once man" the officer, whose name was James, said.

"YOLO!" a random man shouted.

"And now we're wanted by the Military…nice going Joe" Judith said.

"Hey, at least we got past the crappy barricade" Andrew said with a grin.

"By the way, in loving memory of John, I lost the game" Joe said.

"DAMN IT JOE!" Nicholas yelled, startling Liam.

Liam suddenly swerved and went off of the road, sending everyone crashing against the doors. The truck shot into the nearby forest, nearly slamming into several trees. Suddenly the trees cleared, and the group had their first clear view of Georgia…unfortunately, it was from the amazing vantage point of a cliff.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!"Joe yelled.

"GUYS! BAIL!" Nicholas yelled as the truck barreled off of the cliff.

Jax pulled out his Thundergun and blew off the side door and jumped out of the truck. The others followed suit and were able to get out right before the truck slammed into a pool of water.

Swamp Water to be exact.

"This…is…so freaking gross" Judith shuddered as she tried to get out of the muck, no drenched from head to toe in mud.

"Well, not only do we all need a shower, we need a new ride" Andrew pointed pointing to the truck, whose engine burst into flames.

"Typical. We can't go somewhere without something blowing up" Liam sighed.

"Oh no!" Joe yelled looking through his bag frantically.

"Oh thank god I put it in plastic bags, it's safe" Joe let out a sigh of relief

"What's safe? Your tampons?" Liam smirked as tried to get out of the swamp muck.

"Go to hell Liam!" Joe snapped.

"Already there numbnuts" Liam replied.

"Hehe…numbnuts" Jess said as she rose out of the muck.

"Well, this sucks" Nicholas said as he tried to get out of the swamp water.

"OH REALLY! YOU DON'T SAY!" Joe said with an incredible amount of sarcasm.

"Sorry, I was stunned for a few seconds. It's not every day you jump out of a falling truck into a random swamp" Nicholas said shaking his head as he tried to get out of the swamp.

"Hey guys, look! I made a friend in the swamp!" Jess said cheerfully.

"What?" Nicholas said turning around.

Jess was sitting on a log, holding a two foot long dark brown snake. It was curled contently around her shoulder and Jess was grinning happily.

"…Jess?" Liam said.

"Yeah huh?"

"There's a snake on your shoulder." Liam pointed out.

"Yes, there is" Jess replied beaming.

"Any…particular reason?" Nick asked.

"He's my new friend. He told me there's a car dealership nearby where we can get some new wheels" Jess said.

"How would a snake know that?" Joe asked.

"Because his friend got run over by some fat chick test driving a car…he doesn't like talking about it" Jess said shaking her head sadly.

"Oh, all right. I hope that place has a shower. And a washer and a drier…damn, we should probably stop by a Wal-Mart or something too" Judith said finally getting out of the swamp.

Wait, hold on a second. Jess, how did you talk to the snake?" Nicholas asked.

"Why does it matter?" Jess asked.

"Are you a Parseltongue or something? Like in Harry Potter?" Nicholas asked.

"Umm…I don't know what you're talking about?" Jess said nervously.

"No, I mean, are like Harry Potter or something? If so, could you get me into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this weekend, and get me some free butterbeer? Cause that stuff is like crack to me" Nicholas said.

"Nerd" Joe said.

Nicholas turned around and said "Liam. Push Joe into the swamp"

"With pleasure" Liam said Russian Leg-Sweeping Joe back into the muck.

"You douche!" Joe yelled.

"Cry me a river biatch. Well, cry me a swamp anyway" Liam amended

"Anyway it's a Zombie Apocalypse. Nothing here makes sense. It's as though we're in a bad fanfic" Jess said as the snake slithered off of her shoulder.

"Blasphemy!" Nicholas yelled.

"…what?" Jess asked.

"I…I mean um, let's head to that Target over there, and get some new clothes and wash off. Then we can get a new ride from somewhere" Nicholas said.

The group headed to the nearby Target, which was, of course ravaged by Zombies. The group dashed into the store and killed every Zombie inside, in a way to epic to be written down, and not because the author is lazy…OK, maybe a little.

About an hour later, the group emerged from the Target with their now washed and dried clothes, due to there being a Laundromat nearby, and with fresh supplies. Everyone more or less had gotten exact replicas of the outfits they had before, except for Jess, who changed her clothes to a grey sweater, black cargo pants and a blue and pink leather jacket.

"I'm a ninja in disguise now" Jess said with a grin.

"Ah, Twinkies" Liam said with a sigh after devouring said snack treat.

"…not saying a word." Judith sighed.

"You just did" Joe said.

"Shut it Joe" Judith said.

"All right, let's head over to the car dealership" Nicholas said pulling out his Raid and reloading it.

The group slowly made their way over to the car dealership. And within several minutes of walking, or more specifically, everyone walking and Joe carrying Nick, who claimed he twisted his ankle, they arrived at the dealership. It was a large facility with several large glass windows in the main building. There was a monster truck out front, for display purposes, and Jess let out a sob and said "I miss him"

"Who, John?" Joe said.

"No…well, yeah, I miss him. But I meant my truck! I killed dozens of Zombies with that thing!" Jess cried.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find you another ridiculous vehicle to destroy stuff with" Joe said.

"You're just trying to make me feel better" Jess said angrily.

"Did it work?" Joe asked.

"Not really."

"Worth a try." Joe shrugged.

The group found some of the employees walking around, as Zombies. Jax made quick work of them with his Dual-Wield Ray Guns, reducing the mini-horde to a pile of burning limbs. The group walked inside of the shop to see that some of the employees had at least barricaded the other doorways, meaning the Zombies could only come in through the front.

"OK, what do you guys want to do?" Jax said.

"I say we rest. The sun's coming up, and I'm exhausted beyond reason" Joe said pointing at the bags under his eyes for emphasis.

"Yeah, how about we keep watch in shifts-"Nicholas began to say.

"_**I will keep watch. You all rest"**_ Samantha said.

"You sure? Wait, do ghosts need to sleep?" Nicholas asked.

"_**No"**_ Samantha said giving him an annoyed look.

"Sorry, just wondering Sam" Nicholas said with a grin.

"_**It's fine. You all rest up, it's been a long day"**_ Samantha said floating outside.

"OK, how do you all want to do this?" Joe asked.

"Well, I say since we're at a car dealership, we find the coolest cars and sleep in them" Liam said.

"Good plan" Nicholas said walking towards the door.

"Dibs on that one" Nicholas said, pointing to a awesome looking 2013 silver Camaro with a jagged black and white stripe going along the side.

"That's a nice car" Liam said.

"SHOTGUN!" Joe yelled.

"Get your own!" Nicholas yelled.

"The shotgun seat is reserved as a position of respect. And for people who carry shotguns. See? Quid pro quo." Joe said aiming his SPAZ-24 at Nicholas, who pulled out his Raid and aimed it at Joe.

"Yes, that is true, _Sarge_, but the thing is…it's a position of respect, of which you have none" Nicholas said with a smile.

"Burned!" Liam coughed.

"Pwned" Jax coughed.

"Oh all of you can just go straight to hell" Joe grumbled as Nick closed the door.

Suddenly the car started up and Nicholas began to back up. The headlight shone in everyone's eyes, and Joe said "Stop rubbing it in!"

BEEEEEEP!

Nicholas blared the horn at Joe, who yelled out and fell onto his back. The group laughed at Joe, who got to his feet and said "I'm going to get my own car"

"You do that" Liam snickered.

Each of them got their own vehicle, of varying degrees of awesomeness. Andrew got into an army-style jeep that looked more like a tank than a jeep. Judith and Liam shared a 2013 White Ford Mustang Convertible. Nick, going the practical route, got inside of a State-of-the-art Luxury RV, complete with stove, bath, and running water.

Nick was surprised at how nice the inside of the RV was. It had two small bedrooms, which had to bunk-beds in each room. There was a small couch inside, several cupboards, a mini-fridge and an oven. The front had two plush leather seats. Nick made a mental note that he needed to have the others help him add more furniture and beds to the RV, because this would be good for a replacement vehicle.

"Hey Joe, could you use some of that tech equipment you have and trick out my ride?" Nick asked Joe while he began to make pancakes in the RV.

"Not right now, maybe later" Joe said as he sat down in his Bumblebee-Style Camaro, just like in Transformers.

Jess, who was annoyed that Nicholas and Joe had gotten the cooler looking Camaro's, settled into a Camaro that was dark blue but had red flames along the side.

Jax had a Gold Mustang and was just quietly relaxing in the seat. Samantha floated nearby, keeping watch as the sun began to rise. Samantha doubted the Zombies would attack now that the sun was out, but she wasn't going to take any chances. The crew rested for about 10 hours; catching up on come much needed sleep.

Nicholas woke up and chowed down on some chips that he got from Target. He got out of the car and walked around the dealership, thinking.

Richtofen was still out there.

John was dead.

And their path of blood and death wouldn't be ending anytime soon.

"So what are we going to do now?" Nicholas asked himself with a sigh.

"Survive"

Nicholas turned around and saw Joe looking at him, through his Camaro's open window. Nicholas walked over to the Camaro and got in the shotgun seat.

"Dude, I just don't know what to do right now" Nicholas said in a defeated tone.

"What do you mean?" Joe asked.

"Like…should we just keep going? It's just going to be more of the same Joe. Death, blood, danger. Never knowing when the carnage will ever end. And after losing John…well, I'm not sure I could stand losing anyone else. You're my best friends" Nicholas said with a sigh.

"Well, we're the only ones who can stop Richtofen now Nicholas. We've got to keep fighting" Joe said.

"I guess so, but still. I'm…" Nicholas trailed off.

"Scared?" Joe prompted.

"Worried. I'm worried that even after all of this, we'll fail. We'll let everyone down. That all of this might be for nothing. Are we just prolonging the inevitable? Let's face it, we've gotten this far from sheer luck and having powerful weapons. Do we really have a chance?" Nicholas said.

" I don't know. We'll just have to do the best we can man, and that'll have to do" Joe said with a shrug.

"Maybe." Nicholas said opening the door and getting out of the car.

Joe sighed and rolled up the window and began blaring heavy metal. Nicholas walked away, in deep thought.

The sun began to descend overhead, and group began to make preparations for the inevitable waves of the undead that would surely be coming their way. Joe had Jax, Liam, and Andrew go get supplies more from Target to help him modify their vehicles, and to add new stuff to Nick's RV. Joe began making adjustments to some of the cars, adding weapons to them and adding…special features.

"OK, so what does this button do?" Liam asked Joe, pointing to a red button on the steering wheel.

"Try it and find out." Joe said with a sly grin.

"Wait a minute…this isn't some form of idiotic prank, is it?" Liam asked suspiciously.

"No, I didn't have time to install a trap or anything" Joe replied with a depressed sigh.

"Oh, OK then" Liam said pressing the button.

Suddenly the seat moved forward and slammed Liam's skull into the steering wheel five times. Liam fell backwards into the seat, dazed and having a content smile on his face. Judith stormed up from behind Joe, who was laughing his a$$ off, and promptly kicked him in the shin.

"Ow! What was that for!" Joe demanded as he hopped around in pain.

"Idiot." Judith muttered as she tried to wake Liam up.

"Waffles…remember everyone, use the waffles" Liam laughed goofily.

Joe walked away, snickering uncontrollably. He strolled over to Nick's RV, which was the most tricked out. He put the Magnetic Pulse Generator on the front of the RV. Joe took a few steps back and admired his handwork. Nick's RV was now a motorized death machine, complete with fully-automated turrets on the top of the RV.

"I could add more if I had the time, but I did my best. Also, the inside should be tricked out enough to where all of us could stay in there comfortably. Oh by the way, if you want to see something awesome, try pressing the green button" Joe said.

Nick looked at the green button on the steering wheel. Nick's hand slowly reached towards it and he pressed the button. Joe smiled as Nick's seat suddenly moved forward and slammed his head into the steering wheel repeatedly.

"I love being me" Joe said with a smile as Nick collapsed onto his chair, grinning happily.

About twenty minutes later, and getting everyone with that prank, Joe settled cheerfully into his Camaro, ready for the undead hordes. He then pressed a button on his dashboard to open the sunroof, and found his face being smashed into the steering wheel, over and over again.

"Curse my technological badassedness" Joe groaned as he collapsed in his seat.

About fifteen minutes later, the group started a meeting, because the Zombies were starting to come at them.

"OK, here's the plan guys, so listen closely" Nicholas said urgently.

"We're all ears" Liam said.

" The plan is…survive until we get a better plan" Nicholas said.

"Seriously?" Joe asked.

"Yep. Get ready guys" Nicholas said pulling his Raid.

"_**Let me make sure you all start out right"**_ Samantha said glowing bright green.

Suddenly a glowing ammo clip appeared in front of Jess, who walked through it.

"_**MAX AMMO!"**_ Samantha screamed.

"Seriously?" Joe said.

"_**Shut up! It's my thing."**_ Samantha pouted.

"All right guys! Get ready!" Nicholas said walking forward to meet their friends.

A Screecher Zombie dashed forward and Nicholas fired his Pack-a-Punched shotgun at the Zombie, scoring an amazing headshot. The Screecher let out a small groan before falling to the ground with a _thud_.

"Shotguns…awesome" Nicholas said letting out a happy sigh.

Judith kneeled and took aim with her L115 Isolator, and began sniping the heads off of Zombies. Liam stood nearby, making sure none of the Zombies came remotely close to her. The others ran off to confront the hordes, firing nonstop for several minutes.

Then the group began to get pushed back.

"Guys, retreat!" Nicholas yelled.

"I've got a plan!" Andrew said running away.

"Coward!" Nick yelled.

"COWARD THIS!" Andrew yelled as he got into the jeep and revved it up.

Andrew's jeep shot towards the groups of Zombies and smashed through them, leaving a considerable dent in the Zombie horde.

"YEAH! TAKE THAT!" Andrew yelled blaring his horn as he road-killed about eighty Zombies with his jeep.

"Awww…I want to run over Zombies" Jess pouted.

"Don't worry, this will last about another minute, remember, FlygonN has to make things interesting" Nick said.

BAM!

"What did I say back at the warehouse Nick?" Nicholas asked Nick, who was twitching on the ground.

"Not…to break the fourth…wall?" Nick groaned.

"Yes. And if you do it again, you're getting written out of the fanfic" Nicholas said.

"You don't have the guts!" Nick said getting to his feet.

"Try me" Nicholas said with a grin.

"HEY! I'M KILLING ZOMBIES IN A JEEP OVER HERE! KIND OF BADASS!" Andrew yelled mowing down another row of Zombies.

"All right, maybe we should help him" Nicholas said.

"Damn straight!" Liam said jumping off of the car and dashing towards the horde, his AK74fu2 firing rapidly.

"Liam! Wait for me!" Judith yelled running over to Liam with her EPC-WIN aimed at the horde.

The couple looked at each other for a second and said "Together!"

Liam and Judith began firing as one into the horde with their weapons, Judith causing many Zombies to lose their heads due to the still active effects of her Deadshot Daiquiri Perk. Liam grinned and ran towards the horde and dove at the ground, creating a wicked explosion that charred every single Zombie within twenty feet of him. Liam laughed maniacally and fired at the remainder of the horde, killing them in a few short bursts from his gun.

"What the hell was that!" Nick asked, referring to the explosion.

"PhD Flopper. You can do it too, numbnuts" Liam said.

"Hehe…numbnuts!" Jess said pulling out her M72 LAW and firing a missile at a cluster of Zombies, sending them back to hell in a wicked explosion.

Nicholas turned around and noticed that the Zombies were now starting to come in from the wooded area. Nicholas got the other attention and pointed towards the new arrivals.

"What now!" Jax growled aiming his Dual-Wield Ray Guns.

"Joe, did you finish the modifications to our cars?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah, they're good to go" Joe replied aiming his Commando at the new horde.

"OK, here's the plan. Get to your cars, and give them hell!" Nicholas yelled.

The group dispersed and ran to their individual vehicles. Nicholas quickly got into the seat of his Camaro and fired it up. Nicholas grinned as the engines revved loudly, enough to get the attention of every Zombie on the property.

"COME ON YOU SKELETAL F***TARDS! BRING IT ON!" Nicholas screamed into the night as his car shot forward into the horde of Zombies.

"_**Good Lord…he's lost it"**_ Samantha said in amazement as Nicholas barreled through row after row of Zombies.

"Yep" Jax said blasting a Zombies head off with a Ray Gun without missing a beat.

Nicholas suddenly veered the Camaro into a tight turn, making it go around and around in a circle. Zombies began to surround the car by the dozens, and Nicholas laughed and pressed a red button with a skull on it.

"EAT MY FLAMES!" Nicholas yelled with a grin as red fire shot from the tailpipes of he Camaro.

The flames incinerated the first few Zombies, but as Nicholas began to travel in a circle, the flames incinerated everything within thirty feet of the circle. Nicholas continued to do this until the flamethrower ran out, after which, he straightened the car and slowed down, and observed the damage.

"Well…I torched about ten cars, but killed about 100 Zombies with that stunt" Nicholas said hopping out of his Camaro and pulling out his Dual-Wield Cobra's.

A Screecher Zombie came bursting out of a truck and lunged at Nicholas, who fired three shots with both of his Cobra's at the Screecher, who roared in pain as it swiped at his face. Nicholas ducked and placed the tip of his Cobra on the collarbone of the Zombie and pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through the Screecher's throat and it fell to the ground, convulsing.

"_**Behind you Nicholas!" **_Samantha screamed at Nicholas

Another Screecher swiped at Nicholas's skull from behind, and Nicholas rolled forward to avoid the swipe. Nicholas got to his feet and aimed his Cobra's at the Screecher, who was snarling at him.

"Bring it" Nicholas grinned as he reloaded both of his Cobra's by quickly dumping the shell casings on the ground stuffing the bullets inside of the pistol.

The Screecher growled and let out a howl into the night. It reared on it's two legs and barreled towards Nicholas, who smiled and aimed his Cobra's at the Zombie.

"Liam! Look out!" Judith yelled.

Liam ducked and Judith fired at two Nazi Zombies coming at him from the side, scoring two excellent headshots.

"Nice one!" Liam grinned, giving Judith a thumbs up.

"Think that was nice? Watch this!" Judith said aiming at a Screecher that was dashing towards the duo.

With four quick bursts of her EPC-WIN, Judith was able to down the fast moving Zombie long before it got to Liam. Liam scoffed at the Zombie and fired a shot at it's skull, which exploded.

"Somewhat unnecessary, but it was still satisfying" Liam said aiming at another Zombie and killing it with seven shots to the shoulder.

Liam looked towards Judith and saw a Juggernaut Zombie lumbering towards her. Liam dashed towards Judith and grabbed her hand and ran from the Juggernaut, which was now making its way toward the couple.

"Any plans!" Judith asked.

"Not really, though staying alive would be a good start!" Liam said as the Juggernaut hurled a tire at the couple, who jumped to the side to avoid it.

The duo dashed through the cars in the lot, trying to escape from the Juggernaut. The Juggernaut began to pick up speed, and began to smash through cars. The Juggernaut picked up a red Mazda and hurled it at the couple, who yelled at the car went flying towards them. Suddenly the car exploded and went flying back at the Juggernaut.

"NO!" the Juggernaut yelled before being crushed by the car.

"You both OK?" Jess asked from about thirty yards away, her M72 LAW aimed over her shoulder.

"Yeah, we're OK. Thanks" Judith said gratefully.

"This is getting crazy. Hey, watch out!" Liam yelled, pointing to a swarm of crawlers that were swarming around her car.

"Yikes!" Jess yelled as she leapt from the roof of her car to the roof of a Mustang.

"I'M SORRY MY BABY!" Jess cried as she fired a missile at her Camaro, destroying all of the crawler Zombies at once, but sending her car flying and exploding fifty yards away.

"Ouch" Liam muttered with a wince as the car landed and screeched on the ground.

"I think I just died a little" Jess sobbed as her car exploded again, this time from the gas engines leaking into the flames.

"Well, you better pull yourself together. We've got some more company" Liam said reloading his AK74fu2.

"OLY OLY OXIN FREE MOTHERF_ _ _ ERS!" Joe yelled as he fired his Commando from on top of his car.

Crawler Zombies were crawling alongside his car, and he was shooting them off with some slight difficulty. Joe kicked one of the crawlers in the head and opened the sunroof and jumped into his car. Joe fired upwards with his Calamity, killing a Nazi Zombie that was trying to get in through the sunroof.

"GAH! You got blood on the seat!" Joe yelled as he closed the sunroof.

Joe put the keys in the ignition and revved up the Camaro's engine and shot forward, running over dozens of Zombies. Joe realized that at the speed he was going at wouldn't be good enough to make it through the entire horde.

"Time to activate turbo" Joe grinned, pressing a red button on the dashboard.

Suddenly the car accelerated to three times the speed it was originally going, meaning all Zombies that were unlucky enough to be in front of the car were promptly flattened by the speeding car.

Joe grinned and said "It's good to be king"

Joe then realized he was heading straight for a wall.

"AH! Activating roof cannon!" Joe yelled pressing a blue button on his dashboard.

A small cannon emerged from the roof of the car and fired a huge laser, powered by a 115 meteorite that Joe kept from the Air Force Base, at the wall, creating a hole big enough for the Camaro to go through. Joe smashed through a little bit of the wall and emerged onto the road. Joe drove back into the front entrance of the Dealership to find Andrew on top of his jeep, swinging Reaper wildly to hold off the hordes attacking him from everywhere.

"Hold on Andrew!" Joe yelled revving the engine and speeding towards Andrew.

"HOLY CRAP!" Andrew yelled as he jumped off of his car.

Joe suddenly turned the car and narrowly avoided Andrew Jeep, but managed to kill all of the Zombies attacking them. Unfortunately Andrew's jeep was destroyed by the gunfire.

"Thanks for the save man" Andrew said with a grin.

Joe backed up his car and said "Welcome, now hop in!"

"Roger that" Andrew said leaping onto the hood and in through the sunroof.

"It's called a door you dork" Joe grunted as Andrew got a little bit of Zombie on the seats.

"Just run over that Screecher you nerd" Andrew replied putting Reaper out the window.

"Activating turbo." Joe muttered pressing the button.

"Activating what now?" Andrew said before letting out a yell as the car shot forward and slammed into a Screecher.

"HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF GOD!" Andrew yelled.

Andrew held onto Reaper as Joe drove around the compound, and whatever Zombies weren't run over by Joe's Camaro were decapitated by Reaper.

"This is awesome!" Andrew yelled, and Joe grinned and made the Camaro go even faster.

Booooom!

"Nick!" Jax yelled angrily as his Mustang rolled over, now smoldering wreckage.

"My bad Jax, here's the Thundergun" Nick said.

"Just…just shut up for a moment" Jax said.

"_**Jax, it was just a car"**_ Samantha said in an annoyed tone.

"**Psh. Those cars of yours are nothing."** C.N. said.

"I declare B.S. on that statement" Nick said.

"**Umm, I can run twenty laps around the planet before you even started your car"** C.N. scoffed.

"_**Silence you detestable entity"**_ Samantha replied.

"**Shut the hell up, ghost who smells like burnt cabbage"** C.N. replied.

"…_**meanie"**_ Samantha said sniffing herself.

"It's the 115 gas, and you can barely smell it Sam" Nick said.

"_**Thank you"**_ Samantha said.

Suddenly the car about five cars away from them exploded violently. The group looked behind the explosion and saw Jess with her M72 LAW, grinning.

"Wam bam, thank you ma'am!" Jess yelled firing another missile.

"She just blew up Liam and Judith's convertible" Jax said.

"Hey Jax, I bet ten dollars that my car will survive through all of this." Nick said.

"I'm in" Jax said shaking Nick's hand.

"_**Are…are you betting! At a time like this!"**_ Samantha asked in amazement.

"**Can I get a piece of this action?"** C.N. asked.

"_**You don't have money!"**_ Samantha snapped.

"**Excuse me? I own all of the world's banks. In fact, the government pays me every month"** C.N. said smugly.

"Really? Sweet" Nick said.

"By the way, duck" Jax said.

Nick ducked and Jax fired his Ray Gun, blasting a Nazi Zombie's skull clean off. It crumpled to the ground and Jax said "They never get tougher in reality"

"But in reality, you get hit enough, you down for good. In the training session we did yesterday at the Stadium, if we got hurt and downed, the Zombies ignore you and attack everyone else. And if you downed in real life…well…you're a goner." Nick pointed out.

"_**Well said. But I think you all need another dose of training. I just need to find a good place"**_ Samantha said thoughtfully a she floated nearby.

"That's what she said" Nick snickered.

"_**And like that my respect for you is gone"**_ Samantha said.

"I don't need you, I've got Chuck Norris" Nick replied.

"**That's debatable"** C.N. said.

"By the way, more Zombies are here" Jax said.

As if on cue, Nick was tackled to the ground by a Screecher. Nick placed the tip of Calamity on the forehead of the Screecher and pulled the trigger. After six headshots the Screecher rolled off of Nick and onto the ground.

"OK, I'm ready to kill some Zombies" Nick said angrily.

"Let's go then" Jax said reloading both of his Ray Guns and jumping back into the fray.

Nick pulled out C.N. and bashed a Zombie in the skull with it, causing it's skull to explode violently. Nick ducked under a Zombie's swipe and swung C.N. at the Zombie's chest and a jagged spike emerged from the figurine and embedded into the Zombie's skull.

Jax jumped back to dodge a Zombie's swipe and blasted it apart with one of his Ray Guns. Jax easily sidestepped another swipe from a Nazi Zombie and grinned as he fired a shot to its chest, blasting its arm off and sending it crashing onto the ground.

"REEEAH!"

"REAAAAH! Yourself you Zombified jerk-off!" Nicholas smirked as the Screecher fell onto the ground, riddled with bullet holes.

"NICHOLAS! WATCH OUT!" Jess yelled aiming her M72 LAW at him.

"SON OF A BIT_ _!" Nicholas yelled as he jumped to the side as Jess fired a missile at him.

The good news: There was a small group of 5 Zombies that were incinerated in the explosion.

The bad news: Nicholas's Camaro was destroyed when the missile hit it.

"Wha…you…just…my…WHY!" Nicholas yelled

"Whoops. My bad!" Jess said with a sheepish grin.

"Hold off the Zombies, I need a minute" Nicholas said starring at the flaming wreckage.

Five minutes later…

"HE'S STILL STARING AT THAT THING!" Liam yelled as he fired his AUG-5OM3 at the attacking Zombies.

"KEEP SHOOTING! HE'LL SNAP OUT OF IT ANY MINUTE!" Judith yelled sniping off several Zombie's heads from afar.

"I LIKE YELLING!" Jess yelled as she fired wildly into the horde.

"Hold on, I can snap him out of it" Liam growled tossing a grenade at the flaming wreckage.

The wreckage was blown up, which is ironic I know, but still funny. Nicholas starred at the _wreckage_ of the wreckage in horror and said "No words…can express my anger…I…"

"Be angry later, we've got Zombies to kill!" Liam yelled.

"Right" Nicholas said getting to his feet and pulling out his Galil.

"Judith, follow me. Snipe over here behind this car, I'll watch your back. Liam, Jess. You both go invisible and kill as many Zombies as you can" Nicholas said.

"Solid plan" Judith replied.

"By the way, I'm going to dropkick your boyfriend into a lake in chapter 12, now follow me" Nicholas said to Judith in an annoyed tone walking away from the hordes.

Nicholas hopped on top of a car and fired from the higher ground, getting more headshots this way. Jess and Liam went invisible, sowing mayhem amongst the Zombie ranks by firing while Judith aimed from behind the car, sniping the heads of Zombies. The group quickly killed about sixty Zombies, and eliminated most of the horde.

Jess suddenly became visible and yelled as a Screecher slashed at her. Jess jumped backwards and fired her R115 Resonator, but it had no ammo left, and neither did her MP5K. The Screecher lunged at Jess who yelled and tried to run from it. Suddenly there was a _shlink_ sound and the Screecher fell to the ground, with a large knife embedded in its skull.

"Jess! Get back to the others!" Nicholas yelled.

"On it! And thanks!" Jess said pulling out her M72 LAW.

"Liam, how are you doing on ammo?" Nicholas asked walking over and picking up his Bowie knife.

"Not bad, I'm out of ammo for the AK74fu2, but my AUG-5OM3 is good to go" Liam replied.

"OK, Judith, how about you?" Nicholas asked.

"I've got ten more shots in my L115 Isolator, and my EPC-WIN is about halfway empty." Judith said.

"OK, whose vehicles are actually still drivable?" Nicholas asked, glancing at his car which exploded a third time, for no discernible reason.

"Um, Nick's and Joe's." Liam said.

"All right, head to Nick's RV, we're getting the hell out of here!" Nicholas said hopping on top of a nearby car.

"Let's roll!" Nicholas said reloading his Galil and firing at a nearby Crawler trying to climb alongside the car.

"Come on Judith!" Liam said firing at a new horde of Zombies.

"Coming!" Judith said switching her L115 Isolator for her EPC-WIN.

The trio made their way to the back of the lot, where Jess, Nick, and Jax were holding off the Zombies hordes attacking them. Jess was standing on top of the RV, firing a missile when she could. Nick and Jax were doing most of the fighting, seeing as Nick had the unstoppable power of Chuck Norris at his disposal and Jax had two Ray Guns and a Thundergun.

"Jess! Get inside of the RV and activate the turret!" Nick yelled.

Jess dropped in through the open window and yelled "What button is it!"

"Blue one!" Nick yelled.

"On it!" Jess yelled back pressing the blue button.

Two small turrets on the side of the R.V suddenly appeared from the vehicle and began opening fire onto the Zombie hordes. Jess grinned and said "I think we'll be taking this car."

"Then I win the bet!" Nick yelled as he and Jax finished off the last remnants of the horde attacking them.

"OUT OF THE WAY!" Joe yelled as they came speeding towards them and suddenly stopped. Andrew flew through the windshield and would've been killed if Jax hadn't shot a blast from his Thundergun to cushion the fall. Andrew was able to land lightly on his feet and said "Never…again"

"Oh shut up, your car got destroyed" Joe snickered as he got out of the car.

"BY YOU!" Andrew yelled.

"Yep" Joe chuckled.

There was an explosion about 150 yards away. The group look across the burning and destroyed dealership and saw Nicholas, Liam, and Judith dashing across the undamaged cars to avoid the huge Zombie horde that was now attacking.

"Guys, let's use the RV as our new vehicle to drive around in, it's perfect" Joe said.

"Yeah, good pick Nick" Jess said with a grin.

"Yes, but you still haven't won the bet" Jax chuckled.

"Huh?"

"Joe's car is still undamaged" Jax said.

"Joe, go dismantle the equipment from your car, we may as well add it to the RV" Andrew said.

"On it, watch my back. It'll just take a minute" Joe said dashing back over to his car.

"Jess, ready the RV to go. We need to get out of here" Samantha said.

"On it" Jess said starting up the car.

"Come on, you guys!" Andrew yelled.

Nicholas jumped over a Nazi Zombie and whirled around firing his Galil at two Nazi Zombie's that were now traveling on top of the cars. Judith was in front now, with Liam in the middle, and Nicholas was at the back, trying to hold the undead at bay.

"We need a distraction!" Judith yelled.

"WAIT! I know!" Liam yelled as he pulled out a Monkey Bomb.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU USE THOSE EARLIER!" Nicholas bellowed as he ran for his life.

"Forgot about them!" Liam yelled hurling one to his left.

Every single Zombie that was chasing them suddenly ran at the Monkey Bomb and just stood there, to everyone's amazement. Nicholas fired at the Zombies, killing them while they were distracted, while Liam and Judith ran for it. Suddenly the Monkey Bomb exploded, and every single Zombie looked at Nicholas.

"Oh crap" Nicholas said before running like hell had come.

"Jess, the second Nicholas gets in the RV, step on it" Liam said while Nick walked over to Jess's M72 LAW and picking it up.

"Shotgun!" Nick called sitting in the front seat and aiming the M72 LAW outside the window.

"F_ _ _!" Joe yelled angrily.

"GUYS!" Nicholas yelled as his Galil ran out of ammo and he switched to his Dual-Cobra's.

"Jess, activate the turret!" Liam yelled.

"It's already activated" Jess replied as the turret shot at the Zombies.

"Oh…well, throw a Monkey Bomb outside the window" Liam said.

Jess tossed a monkey bomb to Liam who sighed and hurled the Monkey Bomb as hard as he could. The bomb landed far enough away to where Nicholas was able to get into the VR.

"Step on it" Nicholas gasped as his lungs screamed in agony.

"WAIT! I have to do something!" Nick yelled taking aim with the M72 LAW.

"What could you possibly have to do! The Zombies are coming right for us!" Judith asked.

"This!" Nick yelled firing the M72 LAW.

The missile soared trough the night and collided with its target, which flew into the air and crashed onto the ground in a flaming pile of metal.

It was Joe's Camaro.

"_**What…the…hell?"**_ Samantha said in pure shock.

"OK, now we can go" Nick said, sounding satisfied.

Jess slammed on the accelerator and the RV shot forward. It knocked down the flimsy metal fence and Jess turned onto the main road and continued the group's journey. Armed with a new set of wheels, the group decided that their new goal was to head north. Where Richtofen would probably strike next. But first, something had to be settled.

"Jax…time for you to pay up" Nick grinned.

"What?" Jax asked.

"This RV was the last one of our cars that survived. Therefore, I am the winner" Nick said.

"You blew up my car…as part of a stupid bet?" Joe bellowed at Nick, who nodded.

"I'm…not even surprised at this point" Joe said walking over to a soft sofa and collapsing onto it.

"Here, even though you cheated" Jax said paying up.

"No, I just tipped the odds in my favor" Nick said.

"**That was pretty clever of you"** C.N. said.

"Thank you" Nick replied putting the ten dollars in his wallet.

"You DO realize that the bet doesn't even matter at this point, considering if a place is deserted, we can take whatever we want, right? We literally just destroyed an entire car dealership, you moron" Liam said.

Nick looked stunned and said "Son of a-"

End of Chapter:

I like doing that.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Like always, review and tell me what you liked, or if you have suggestions, let me have them. (Don't worry; you'll get credit if the idea is put in, I'm open to all suggestions). So at this point, please login to your account and submit a legit review/guess towards the new character's identity (There some stories I've followed for months, yet I'm too lazy to submit a first review for it) And remember, I am now taking guest reviews, so please be mature with this, I had to consider long and hard whether or not to do that. Anyway, thanks for reading. I'll be away from my computer for a while, so I won't be able to message you until I get back. By the way, I personally thank all people who review my story and stuff by messaging them. So that's it ladies and gentlemen, and turtles, (I have to thank the turtles too) and until next time, FlygonN out!


	12. Ghost Stories

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead**

Behold, my first ever filler chapter. This isn't to say it's not important, it's just something that I honestly had no plan for and that I have to thank one of my best friends, JC785, for giving me the idea to do this. Also, he's writing a Black Ops fanfic called "Survival". My character is in that story as well, though a little different, as well as several other colorful characters. So please check that story out when you finish reading and reviewing this chapter. (You're welcome Joe, next time you steal my catchphrase I'll punch you through the computer.)

**Side note:** Despite the fact that I've had a freaking poll up for two months (or more), only 1 person bothered to vote. Therefore, the next chapter's training scenario will be a Kino Der Toten style "map" and I'll have some of my own personal spins on it, including some new stuff. By the way, if I say there's a poll, vote on it please, because you have a direct impact on what happens in the story. And whoever that one person was, let me know so I can thank you.

Anyway, the contest is still on, so please submit your guesses if you have not already towards the identity of the new member in chapter 15. Also, special shoutout to the always enthusiastic mybrosdrivemecrazy and my de-evolved form new reviewer, Trapinchh. Thanks a ton, and like always, thank you for staying with me everyone, because I've just started to realize how rough my first 3 chapters were. I'm actually considering going back and editing them to make them a little more serious and have a little bit more action, but I'll let you all know if I do that.

Anyway, enjoy!

**Chapter 12: Ghost Stories**

"And that's the story of how I saved Christmas" Nick finished.

"_**That story was awesome…I liked all the parts with me in it"**_ C.N. said.

"OK, this is Nick were talking about. I'm not even surprised 96.1% of that story involved Chuck Norris" Andrew said flipping through a green book with an awesome dragon on it.

"That…was the worst story ever…" Joe said.

"Of all time" Nicholas added.

"Not my fault, I'm mentally connected to Chuck Norris" Nick said.

"Nick. That was the biggest load of crap I've ever heard in my life. Not including that stupid 'Sittin on a toilet video' that Jess showed me" Nicholas said as he rested on his sleeping bag on the floor.

"Sittin on a toil-" Joe began to say.

"Shut it Joe, or do you want me to start singing…_it_?" Nicholas said opening one of his eyes partway.

"You…you wouldn't dare!" Joe said in horror.

"I would" Nicholas said.

"Wait, what would you do?" Jess asked, emerging from the bathroom wearing a turban towel hat and ninja pajamas.

"He means the forbidden song. The song that will cause the end of civilization itself!" Joe said dramatically.

"Stop being a drama queen" Liam said from the driver's seat.

"_**For the readers who want to know, Nicholas meant 'The Song That Never Ends'" **_C.N. said, breaking the fourth wall for about the 80th time since the story began.

After driving through Georgia, mainly to just keep the Zombies off of their trail, the group had decided that they could unwind and start relaxing. After all, they deserved a break after two days of hardcore Zombie killing.

Judith sighed and said "I miss John"

"We all miss him Judith. We all kinda took him for granted, and now look…he's gone forever" Jax said.

"_**Those who we've lost, are not always so"**_ Samantha said quietly as she reappeared next to Nicholas.

"What do you mean?" Nick said.

Samantha sat down, though floating slightly off of the ground still, and gestured for the others to do the same.

"_**I lost much at an early age. Richtofen preformed the most painful experiments on me. My daddy, I mean, my father, Dr. Maxis, was too busy with his experiments to notice. When Richtofen and the other betrayed my father, he told me to kill them all, every last member of Group 935, before he finally died."**_ Samantha said.

"_**But those who leave us, are never truly forgotten"**_ Samantha continued.

"You mean that they live on in our memory" Nicholas said, and the specter nodded.

"_**Those who pass into the other life, they never truly leave us. They remain with us forever, forever engrained in the halls of your memories, and in your hearts" Samantha said.**_

Everyone remained silent, and pondered the spirit's words. She had been around for much longer than them, so naturally she would be wise in the ways of life to some degree, even if she was a spirit.

After about ten minutes, Andrew said "So Samantha, I've been wondering something"

"_**Yes?" **_

"So, you and the three other Zombie-slayers we all know escaped the Moon over fifty years ago, right?" Andrew asked.

"_**Yes, I told you that already"**_ Samantha said.

"Yeah, but what happened after that?" Andrew asked.

"Why do you want to know?" Jess asked.

"Because maybe hearing her story will help us figure out what we should do next. If you haven't noticed, we've been driving aimlessly for hours with no clue what to do"Andrew said as they passed the same Olive Garden for the 7th time.

"_**Well, we had just escaped the Griffin Station…"**_Samantha began.

**50 years Ago…**

Three men suddenly appeared in a flash of blue light in the middle of a destroyed warehouse. An American Marine. A Japanese soldier from the Imperial Army. And a Russian soldier from the Red Army. At first sight, a ragtag group that would probably kill each other whenever any of them got the chance.

In reality, they were the world's best Zombie slayers.

"OK, so where the hell are we now?" Nikolai asked curiously.

"_**We seem to be back in Area 51…or what is left of it"**_ a demonic voice said.

Suddenly a little girl in a white nightgown appears out of thin air. She looked at the group sadly and said _**"We must get out of here! Richtofen will be coming any minute!"**_

"Creepy kid's got a point. Come on, I know a place near here we can lay low for a while." Tank said.

"After you" Takeo said with a smirk.

The group dashed into a burnt down forest, with Samantha floating nearby. Nikolai began to pant heavily and the other two men began to get further ahead of him. After Nikolai was about thirty feet behind them, Takeo and Dempsey began to slow down.

"Jeez, you've got to work out more man" Dempsey smirked.

"Shut it! Nikolai didn't buy Stamin-Up! He was too busy drinking vodka!" Nikolai snapped.

"_**Please, hurry! They are coming this way!"**_ Samantha said nervously.

"What wrong with you?" Dempsey said.

"_**You all are my only chance at making this right. Plus…I put you all through so much, I…I don't want you to die"**_ Samantha said guiltily.

"Child, you do not owe us anything. The Doctor was planning this from the beginning" Takeo said quietly as the group ran for their lives.

"You mean, Richtofen was playing us the whole time?" Dempsey growled.

"Yes. Try to remember Dempsey" Takeo urged the marine, who slowed down for a few moments as he searched his memories.

Suddenly a memory flashed in the back of Dempsey's mind. Being in a cold, dark room. Richtofen chuckling behind him. Dempsey, being unable to move due to being restrained in an operating table.

"Do not worry, Tank Demshey. Zis von't hurt a bit" Richtofen said with an evil laugh as he put a needle into Dempsey's neck.

"That son of a…he injected me with something" Tank said as he came back to his senses.

Takeo nodded and said "He did it to Nikolai and me as well. I had a feeling you were starting to remember when we went to Paradise. He used us…we thought we were just fighting off Samantha…only to find out Richtofen was using us to get him to the Moon"

"_**So, you are not Richtofen's friends?"**_ Samantha asked.

"No, but when I see him again I'll show him how friendly I can be!" Dempsey growled.

"_**I…do not understand"**_ Samantha said, confused.

"Dempsey, please calm yourself. Samantha, he means that he wishes to kill Richtofen" Takeo amended.

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting she's just a kid" Dempsey said with a sheepish grin.

"_**A kid that could still kill all three of you and make you drown in your own blood!" **_Samantha yelled suddenly.

"Jeez, calm down" Dempsey said.

"_**No! I will not! I…I…I ruined everything!"**_ Samantha sobbed as she floated onto the ground.

Tank, Nikolai, and Takeo looked at each other, at a loss for once. Here was the girl that had made their lives hell for the past few weeks, and here she was crying her heart out.

Nikolai muttered "She may be evil ghost child, but she is still child"

"Hold this for one moment" Nikolai said tossing Takeo his bottle of vodka.

"Come Samantha, do not cry. It is not all your fault" Nikolai said

"Holy sh_ _. Nikolai is actually doing something that isn't retarded" Tank said in amazement.

"It appears as though Richtofen's experimentations are wearing off" Takeo said quietly.

"What do you mean?" Tank asked.

"It is…difficult to explain. Have you ever realized that Nikolai cannot do anything but drink his beloved vodka?" Takeo asked.

"Yeah, but that's because he is Russian" Tank said.

"No, it is not. You see, Richtofen and Group 935…I believe that they experimented on all of us. Samantha, well, what they did to her is obvious" Takeo said.

"Dempsey, did you notice that I only spoke in old sayings most of the time, and that I mentioned the Emperor almost constantly?" Takeo asked.

"Yeah, kinda weird, but I didn't really care. I mean, we had Zombies on our tail most of the time, no offense" Tank said with a grin.

"That is another point" Takeo said.

"What do you mean?" Tank asked.

"You were trying not to offend me just now. All throughout our journey, you said and did, whatever you want, whenever you wanted to" Takeo said.

"What the…you're right Tak. I just sort of lost control over myself for a while. I felt really angry, all of the time. And for some reason, I hated that damn Nazi even though I had just met him" Dempsey muttered.

"And Nikolai. He drinks Vodka as though it were the only thing keeping him alive, and he always seems to find some more wherever he goes. I believe that Richtofen experimented on him to make him utterly dependent on vodka. When arrived at Paradise, I noticed that he didn't make as many references to that accursed drink. Richtofen experimented on all three of us, but now the changes are wearing off now" Takeo explained.

"Heh, that damn Krau _ed up" Tank chuckled.

"Oh Samantha…vhere did you and your friends run off too?" Richtofen's voice rang out through the forest.

"Son of a-let's get the hell out of here!" Tank said.

"OK Dempsey, I think we've calmed down now" Nikolai said as Samantha floated into the air again.

Samantha sighed and said _**"We have to get out of here. Dempsey, lead the way"**_

"Gotcha" Dempsey growled taking the lead.

The group continued to dash through the trees, as quietly as they could. After about half an hour, the group stopped for a break.

Takeo leaned against a tree and muttered "We cannot run forever. How much further is the safe house?"

"Hey, I'm not even sure it's still there. I've been around this area once before, so I set up a small bunker a few miles away, but we need some wheels" Dempsey said panting slightly.

"Hey, there's a car over there!" Tank yelled.

A battered white car was miraculously undamaged, in the middle of the road. Tank ran over to it and threw open the front door and began to hotwire it. By the time the others had caught up, Tank had turned on the car and the engine was going.

"All right idiots; let's get the hell out of here!" Tank yelled.

**Safe House:**

"Nice work Dempsey, but do you have any vodka?" Nikolai asked.

"I thought you said the experiments were wearing off?" Tank said tossing Nikolai a bottle of vodka.

"They are. That doesn't mean he still doesn't love that accursed drink" Takeo shrugged.

"Yeah, that's the stuff" Nikolai said contently.

The trio was now inside of Dempsey's safe-house, which was a small underground cave that had several crates full of guns, ammo, food, medicine, and other supplies.

Takeo looked at Dempsey and said "Are you sure that Richtofen cannot find us?"

"Probably not. This place is pretty far down" Tank replied slowly.

"That is what she said!" Nikolai laughed.

Tank, Takeo and Samantha looked at Nikolai, who had burst out laughing at his own joke. After a minute, Nikolai had calmed down to where he could take a drink of vodka.

"So Samantha, what in the hell happened back there?" Tank asked.

"_**I…I don't know. I tried to get my powers back so we could finally kill him, but instead of taking away his powers, it allowed him to regain his body, and keep my powers"**_ Samantha said miserably.

"Hey, don't worry about it kid. We all make mistakes. The problem is, how the hell do we fix this?" Tank asked the other three, who remained silent.

"Dempsey, are you close to the leaders of your country?" Takeo asked after a few minutes.

"Well, I know a few of the big wigs, and I spoke to the President before I got sent to…well, wherever the hell I met you two. I'm still a little fuzzy on the details." the marine replied.

"Excellent. I say that our next plan of action should be to notify the leaders of your country of the problem. They may be able to do something about it that we cannot" Takeo said.

"So, road trip to D.C?" Tank asked with an amused grin.

"You are correct" Takeo nodded.

"Eh, I guess I'll have to pack a few extra bottles of vodka" Nikolai said with a sigh.

"Hey, Kid. Can you make yourself invisible or something? We don't want to spoke any survivors we see along the way" Tank said to Samantha, who nodded.

"_**Yes. I still have many powers, even though Edward took some of them"**_ Samantha said.

"OK. We're going to load up and head to the Pentagon. We can meet up with President Kennedy, if he's still alive. We should probably round up any survivors we can, you know, powers in numbers" Tank said.

"Sounds good. Come on, let us go meet your filthy capitalist leader" Nikolai said.

"You know, he happens to shower every day Nikolai. Unlike you" Tank said.

"…eh, showers are for you soft Americans" Nikolai replied.

"Say the man who smells like a monkey's a$$ after it took a dump" Tank chuckled.

"Go to hell, or better yet, get some supplies into the car" Nikolai said.

"Whatever you idiotic drunk" Tank growled walking over to a crate of weapons.

The group began to load up the car with canned food, supplies and guns. Tank rode driver's seat, Nikolai rode shotgun while Takeo got in the back, purely so Nikolai didn't drink their alcohol in just one night.

"Hold onto your hats!" Tank yelled flooring the car, which shot forward.

The group drove for a few more hours, but decided to stop at a hotel because Takeo was about to shoot Nikolai out of sheer annoyance. It looked abandoned, except for a man with a shotgun who was sitting in a chair. He got up as they pulled over and said "Well, ain't this a strange sight"

"You're telling me, there is no vodka in my hand" Nikolai grunted.

"What my friend is saying is that we're surprised to see any survivors" Tank said.

"Oh yeah. Missiles come out of nowhere and kill all of the Zombies attacking. Damn near killed as many people as it saved. I figure I'm the only one left alive in town, Though that's not saying much, considering I'm not even from this place!" the man laughed.

"Right. You don't mind if we, er-stayed here for the night, do you?" Tank asked.

"Nah, come on in. You can help me keep watch. Zombies may be dead, but I can feel it…something's out there…something evil" the man said with a scowl.

"OK, Tak, Nikolai. Come on." Tank said getting out of the car.

"What do we call you?" Tank asked.

"Call me Jeff. Jeff Crossbranch. And you?" the man asked.

"I'm Tank. That's Nikolai and Takeo." Dempsey said pointing to each of them.

"And how about your other friend?" Jeff asked.

"W-what?" Tank asked.

"Your friend. I can sense something. Something off. It's somewhere around there" Jeff said waving a hand behind Nikolai.

"_**Hmmm…this man is…strange" **_

Samantha appeared behind Nikolai, looking thoughtful.

"_**How…could you sense me?"**_ Samantha asked.

"Natural ability. I could tell something was off about them Zombies. Killed a couple thousand myself on my way here from California. You…ghosts are supposed to have a smell to them, but you…you smell just like them Zombies" Jeff said.

"_**Hmm…this man has a spark in him. He should have been with you all when you were fighting my Zombies. Maybe you would've done better" **_Samantha said smugly.

"Hey, I only downed in that stupid swamp because Takeo can't fend for himself!" Nikolai complained.

"Silence!" Takeo ordered.

"Anyway, if you lot are threatened by my ability, don't be. I'll let you stay the night, though I have to ask, do you know what caused the Zombie outbreak?" Jeff asked.

"Hold on, group huddle" Tank said.

He walked over to his other three companions and said "Think we can trust him?"

"Maybe…We will keep watch. Take turns so we can guard against treachery" Takeo said.

"Good plan. Tak, you take first watch. I'll take second, Nikolai, you take third. Got it?" Tank said, and the other men shook their heads.

"_**No. I will take all three watches!"**_ Samantha proclaimed.

"What?" Tank said.

"_**I do not require sleep. Not anymore!"**_ Samantha said cheerfully.

"Hmm…kids' got a point. And we could all use sleep. OK Sam, you've got watch duty" Tank said, and Samantha nodded.

"_**I will not let you down"**_ Samantha promised.

"That's the spirit, no pun intended. Hey Jeff, we'll take you up on that offer!" Tank said.

The group stayed the night with the strange man, with Samantha keeping watch, the three Zombie-slayers had a peaceful sleep for the first time in a while.

The next morning, the group loaded up once more, but before they could do more than pack Nikolai's 8th case of vodka, Jeff came out and said "Where are you lot heading?"

"Washington. We've got to see if President Kennedy is still alive. If so, we brief him on what happened. If not, well…we'll figure something out when we get to it" Dempsey said darkly.

"Well, if you don't mind, I'd be wondering if there's room for one more on this adventure. I've been holed up here for a week, the only person left here to fend off those undead hordes. Now that they're gone, I'd figure I'd go with the first group of survivors I could find. You all know why this happened, and I'm entitled to an explanation to why Zombies have been attacking me" Jeff said.

"Group huddle. Again" Tank grunted.

"OK, do we really want this guy hanging with us?" Tank asked.

"He seems kinda fishy, what with the way he sensed Samantha. But, he seems OK enough. I say we let him come with us. The more the merrier" Nikolai said.

"I…ugh, concur. Though his abilities are a tad suspicious, we need allies if Richtofen can control the Zombies now" Takeo said with a wince, as though agreeing with Nikolai was causing him to die a little inside.

"How about you kid? What'd you think?" Tank asked Samantha, who appeared out of nowhere looking thoughtful.

"_**If he is trouble I can deal with him. If he is helpful then he can be our friend!"**_ Samantha said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, good point. We'll keep him around for now. Hey, Crossbranch. You want in on the group? Get your stuff and come on! We're heading to D.C.!" Tank called.

"Thank you, it'll be nice to get out of this God-forsaken town" Jeff said walking into his house and getting some more ammunition.

Twenty minutes later, the group loaded up and headed towards the Pentagon, whose protectors were slowly recovering from the hell they had been subjected too.

**U.S Pentagon:**

**Two Days Later:**

"Maldito! Out of cigars" Fidel growled as he reloaded.

"For goodness sake man, get a grip on yourself" Nixon replied, sinking into a chair with a sigh.

"Well, at least they've finally stopped, since there have been no attacks for two whole days. Thank goodness" President Kennedy sighed, sitting down on the ground.

"So, who do you think ordered the missile strike?" McNamara asked the others, who shrugged.

"The Koreans? The Russians? Who knows?" Nixon said.

"Whoever they are, they killed all of the Zombies…so they're not all that bad" Kennedy said setting his Olympia on the ground.

"So…what are you doing next?" Fidel asked the others.

"Well, I'll make sure you get back to your country safely. First things first, we have to address the survivors. We have to tell them the threat's over" McNamara said.

"What do we tell them? We don't even know what happened!" Nixon snapped.

"But we do" a new voice said, as the front doors to the Pentagon were kicked open.

"Who are you?" McNamara asked.

"Come on, you've got to remember Tank Dempsey, Mr. President" the man in the front said with a laugh.

"Agent Dempsey! Y-you're alive!" Kennedy said, sounding amazed.

"It wasn't easy. I'm glad you're OK sir" Dempsey said walking into the room, followed by Nikolai, Takeo, and Jeff.

"Oh, yeah. Introductions. Guys, this is Takeo Masaki, Nikolai Belinski, and Jeff Crossbranch. Guys, this is Richard Nixon, President John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, and….Fidel Castro? The hell is this guy doing here!" Tank asked aiming a M1911 at the Cuban Leader, who chuckled.

"We were trying to make sure the Missile Crisis never happens again. We've got…I honestly can't believe I'm saying this, bigger problems than the Missile Crisis. Zombie attacks, and then we're bombed by who knows what!" Kennedy said to the marine, who chuckled.

"Sit down boys, it's a long story" Tank said with a laugh.

An hour and a half later, the leaders who fought inside of the Pentagon were filled in on the events of the past few days. They had listened to Dempsey's tale with astonishment, for it challenged all of their beliefs.

"Esto es una locura…" Fidel said in amazement.

"But it makes sense in a way. Though you said this ghost, Samantha, came with you. Where is she?" Nixon asked.

"Come, brave child. It is OK" Takeo said comfortingly.

Samantha rose up out of the ground, looking ashamed. She had sent Zombies into the United States to attack the world leaders in a fit of rage when she realized that she hadn't been able to kill any of the members of group 935.

"So…you're the one who put us through that hell?" Nixon asked.

"Richard. That's enough. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Maxis" Kennedy said politely.

"_**I…I…I'm sorry for what I put you through"**_ Samantha said in a low voice.

"It's quite all right. Now, this Richtofen…now controls all of the Zombies?" McNamara asked.

"Yes. He will no doubt attack. The problem is, when?" Takeo asked.

"We have no way of knowing. It may be today, it could be twenty years from now. The best thing for us to do is to do damage control" Nixon said.

"¿Cómo se propone hacerlo? How do you propose to do that? The world has been ravaged by these…missiles!" Castro said angrily.

"We have a few fail-safe's designed. Come." Kennedy said, motioning for the others to follow them.

Jeff walked next to Dempsey and said "So it's really true? Those Zombies we fought, all this time it was that Richtofen fella's fault? Not Sam?"

"Yeah. Poor kid's had it rough. I don't blame her for being mad. She wasn't trying to kill us. Poor kid was trying to kill the guy who killed her dad" Tank said with a sigh.

"You were helping Richtofen too though, weren't you?" Jeff asked.

"Yeah, well. We didn't know who exactly we were helping. It was only to stay alive" Tank muttered.

"True. Truth be told, I'm not surprised she went after all of you instead of just Richtofen. It seems to me that she wanted to get anyone who was associated with Group 935. She thought you were in league with the people who made her life hell" Jeff said.

"You may just have something there" Tank replied, surprised with the man's reasoning.

"Well, I'm glad for the experience anyway. This whole experience has taught me one thing. Zombie killing comes naturally to some, like us. I hope when the time comes, my grandchildren will be capable Zombie-slayers just like you three"

"Careful what you wish for" Tank chuckled.

The President took them to an untouched section of the Pentagon. No blood or corpses were anywhere near this area, which continued a single door. Kennedy had to type in three key codes to activate the door.

"I must ask each of you, to swear upon God's name that you will not reveal what I am about to show you to anyone. If word got out…it could throw the world into disarray" Kennedy said.

Everyone agreed, though Castro did reluctantly, and everyone walked into the room. It was full of TV monitors, all linked up to a large blue camera-like light. This light was connected to several machines and monitors, all of them blank.

"What is this infernal contraption?" Nixon asked the President.

"If you become President, you'll have the honor of learning all of the details. It is a device that allows us to use the televisions of the United States, or the World for that matter, and emit a flash through the Televisions sets. This Flash will cause everyone who looks at the Flash, to forget everything that happened in this nightmarish time" President Kennedy said.

"That's insane! How come we haven't heard of this before?" Jeff exclaimed.

"It's a secret that only the President and his most trusted advisors know of. This is more of a gesture of necessity than trust. When our countries recover from the Zombie attacks and the missiles, there will be pandemonium unless measures are taken"

"So, we make everyone forget about the Zombies to avoid mass panic? What do we tell them when they wonder what happened?" McNamara asked.

"We'll come up with something. We'll have to cover this up. We'll have to meet with all of the countries hit by the missiles and swear them to secrecy, and then hit their people with the Flash. No one must know about this" Kennedy said.

"So, what are we going to do when people wonder why the land is destroyed?" Nixon asked.

"We'll have to organize a team to help rebuild whatever damage was done by the missiles to the US and to clean up the corpses. Every day, we'll administer the Flash. It'll be a matter of time before the world forgets everything that happened" Kennedy asked.

"What'll happen if someone finds out? After the Flash?" Tank asked.

"Who would believe them?" Kennedy asked.

"Yeah, sounds like the plot of one of them video game things I heard about" Jeff chuckled.

"Well then everyone, as President of the United States. I'd like to thank you for your efforts. Especially you four. Though you did blow up the Earth, you saved us from a bigger threat. So I thank you" Kennedy said.

"It is no problem at all Mr. President, now do you have any vodka?" Nikolai asked, and the others chuckled.

**Present:**

"Wow…that's pretty cool" Judith said as Samantha finished her tale.

"THAT'S SUCH UTTER BULL CRAP!" Liam yelled angrily.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Joe asked in an annoyed tone.

"Why is it that the _coolest_ thing to happen in U.S history, is something we never covered in school!" Liam yelled.

…

"Sweet mother of penguins…he's right" Jess said.

"I would've gotten an A in AP US History if we had covered _this_ on the final exam" Jax grumbled.

"Yes, but the thing is, it doesn't help us that much" Nick said.

What d you mean?" Jax said.

"Well, first off, we don't even know where Richtofen is. What are we supposed to do?" Nick said.

"Guy's got a point. The story was informative, and it's kind of helped us understand the situation behind this a little better, but still, what next?" Nicholas asked.

Suddenly there was a wicked green flashed and an explosion rocked the RV. Green electricity coursed through the RV, stalling it. Liam yelled as he lost control of the RV, which began to slow to a stop.

"What the hell was that!" Nicholas said grabbing his Raid and reloading it.

"I think we're about to find out" Joe muttered.

Suddenly a figure appeared in a flash of green light in the RV. He was dressed in a Nazi uniform, with a black and red design. He was immersed in a dark green aura, and he gave off a distinct smell of sulfur.

It was Illuzio.

"Greetings. I come in peace, children, so please lower your weapons" Illuzio said carelessly.

"How can we trust you?" Judith asked.

"It doesn't matter, because you don't trust me anyways, especially since that miserable excuse for a spirit is still lingering around here" Illuzio smirked.

"_**SHUT UP!"**_ Samantha yelled.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyways, I would like to inform you that the next place Richtofen is heading towards his Laboratory in Washington D.C." Illuzio said.

"Why D.C?" Andrew asked.

"He felt that having a base in the nation's capital would be beneficial to him. Plus, he had eyes and ears, namely me, inside of the White House. I can be quite skilled in reconnaissance when I want to be" Illuzio said in a smug tone.

"How can we tell whether or not you're lying to us!" Jax demanded.

Illuzio shot a green spark at the TV nearby and a report came on, talking about Zombie attacks all along the East Coast.

"The worst of which are in the capital, where over half a million people have reported dead. President Obama has already been moved to a secure location, while the National Guard is trying to control the growing Zombie population. It is suggested that-"

Illuzio snapped his fingers and the TV shut off.

"Now do you believe me?" Illuzio smiled.

"If you want Richtofen to die, why didn't you help us when we fought him yesterday?" Liam asked.

"Well, I must maintain my ruse for a little longer. Besides, you were doing pretty well on your own" Illuzio smirked.

"John died you son o _!" Nicholas yelled aiming his Raid at Illuzio and shooting him at point-blank.

Illuzio caught the bullet and examined it. He eyed the shotgun shell closely, and inhaled the faint smell coming from the bullet.

"115. The Element that caused all of this…listen well. Do not take the direct route to the capitol of your nation. Allow that miserable ghost to guide your path; it will lead you to D.C. Not safely, there will be risks. But you all will survive. And if what my visions say is true, you all are not alone in this fight against Richtofen" Illuzio said.

"What do you mean, don't take the direct route?" Joe asked.

"Richtofen is taking his time. The more Zombies under his control, the stronger he will become, much like the tidal wave picking up strength before it slams against the shore. Therefore, you should hone your skills in the meantime. Strike when he arrives at his lab, not before then. If you do this, you will be successful in this venture" Illuzio said.

"Why can't we just attack him while he's traveling to his lab?" Jax asked.

"Because he is too powerful, and you don't stand a chance as of now" Illuzio said.

Illuzio took a step back and said "Well, I must leave for now, dear children. Porter has sent something after you and in about thirty minutes, it will have caught up with you all. Ciao!"

Illuzio clapped his hands and disappeared in a flash of green, leaving everyone wondering what else would they have to encounter, just to stop Richtofen.

End of Chapter:

Sorry it wasn't that long everyone, Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed my take on Five and how it ties in with Zombies. That map is hard for me. I blame my little brother, who Rage Quits like a wuss. Anyway, please review and let me know what you think, and submit your guesses if you haven't already towards the identity of the new character in chapter 15. Remember, this is the identity of who will join the team I'm looking for here.

Also, I'm starting a poll on my Profile page. Who is your favorite character in the story so far? Please vote and let us (me and my friends) know!

Anyway, next chapter will be a long one, so it may take the full three weeks or more for me. Especially with college starting up soon. I'll see you in chapter 13 my awesome readers, until then, FlygonN out!


	13. Herrenhaus der Untoten

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead **

Prepare for the AN (Author's Notes) of Doom.

OK, so whoever the bloody hell actually voted on my first quiz…that one person…THIS CHAPTER IS FOR YOU MY FRIEND! Because no one, not even my friends I based my characters off of, bothered to vote. Seriously, I'm lazy, but you guys are even lazier…I approve.

Anyway, thanks to the always awesome mybrosdrivemecrazy, soxxymoxxyfanfics, and Trapinchh as well as two new reviewers, SuperRedbaron221 and uig50. Remember, when you review, it makes me update faster, as evidenced by chapter nine, which took me three days to write half of and finish thanks to a review. So in other words, review. Even if you're not logged in, just leave a comment on what you liked, or if you have a suggestion or something.

Anyway, like I said last chapter, I've got a poll up on my profile page, so check it out when you can. Who is your favorite character so far in Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead? Please vote for this, it's on my profile at the top of the page. You can vote for up to three characters. The results of the poll will be up after chapter 14 is posted. Also, to those of you who are IN the story, such as JC785, you can't vote on this. I want this to be a legit poll and it has to be fair. I'm not counting votes from characters in the story, even me. (And no, I haven't voted.)

Disclaimer, I don't own any characters except my own, and the song , "Save Me" is by Avenged Sevenfold. I will have a link available later on in the chapter so you can listen to the song while reading, to make the experience even more awesome. Or you can skip it, whatever floats your boat.

Oh, and I may be using the popular term "Rape-train" in my story. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it's when you get a bunch of Zombie's to chase you, like fifty or more, and then you lead them around the map, shooting at them to rack up points. Personally I hate the term; I think Rave Train works better. You know what, screw it, I'm using Rave Train. I just like that better. Sorry if that's a little weird, but, hey, I just don't feel comfortable using that phrase in the story.

Also, if you're into Mass Effect 3, you should check out Trapinchh's story "N7: Galactic Defense" and give it a review. It's good start to a sure to be awesome story. Also, if any of you guys are writing a story and want me to look at it, just message me or tell me in a review. I'll be happy to look at it and review it. It's the least I can do for you all after so much support with this story.

OK, enough ranting, enjoy my own little slice of Kino Der Toten!

Side note: The China Lake sucks.

**Chapter 13: Herrenhaus der Untoten**

The group had spent the last few minutes, pondering Illuzio's words. Andrew had pulled out Nicholas's laptop, which they had stolen from Target, and was now watching a video.

"Andrew…what the crap are you watching?" Judith asked walking over to the computer, which was showing a girl with blonde hair slaughtering Zombie's. All sorts of colors were flashing across the screen, and Andrew was grinning.

"Um, the Lollipop Chainsaw trailer?" Andrew replied.

"…why?" Judith asked.

"Why not? I'd play it" Nicholas replied.

"Dude, what the heck?" Judith replied, shaking her head.

"Hey, it's about a chainsaw-wielding cheerleader who kills Zombies. Who wouldn't play that?" Nicholas asked.

"Oh, you'd play her all right. Bow Chicka Bow Wow" Joe snickered, earning a kick in the chest from Jess.

"Pervert" Jess said as Joe groaned in pain.

"OK, so you mentioned a new training ground for us?" Nicholas said to Samantha, who was looking outside of the window.

"_**Yes, but I'm not sure how I would do it. I have to find a place and then use my powers to turn it into a-" **_Samantha began to say before a loud roar drowned out her words.

"What…was that?" Jess asked.

"_**It sounds familiar to me…and it reeks of 115"**_ Samantha said nervously.

"Samantha, what do we do?" Nicholas asked.

"_**If we went to somewhere, anywhere, I could convert that place into a secure training ground for you all. You'd have to fight through 20 rounds of Zombies, but you'd be safe for a little while from whatever is chasing us"**_ Samantha said.

"Hey, what about that place?" Andrew said pointing to a dilapidated looking mansion.

It was a run down mansion that looked as though it hadn't been lived in for years. The faded white paint on it looked chipped and the roof tiles were falling off. In other words, this house was creepy as all get out.

"_**That'll be perfect! Just like that wretched opera house the others were sent to all those years ago!"**_ Samantha said with a laugh.

"ROOOAAAAAH!" the monster roared from behind them.

"Liam! Step on it!" Nicholas yelled.

"You've got it!" Liam said flooring it.

Everyone was sent crashing onto the floor except Samantha, who laughed loudly at the awkwardness of the huge pile of limbs that were the Zombie-slayers.

"Jeez Liam, warn us next time?" Jess asked.

"Sorry!" Liam grunted as he slowed down the car without losing control and plow them into a tree.

"It's still catching up!" Andrew yelled, glancing out the back seat.

"Samantha, how long will it take to transform the house into a Zombie map?" Nicholas asked as he and the others got out of the RV.

"_**Give me a minute"**_ Samantha said disappearing into thin air.

Jak pulled out his Thundergun and said "Guys, get ready"

A few moments later, the tree-line exploded, revealing the beast that was chasing them. All they could see was the outline of the monster in the night, which was at least five stories tall.

"Oh god…what is that thing!?" Nick yelled, aiming C.N at it.

"**Now that's big"** C.N. said in surprise.

"That's what she said" Joe replied.

"Looks like Richtofen has moved on from Humans back to animals again" Joe groaned.

"_**It's ready! Get inside of the Mansion!"**_ Samantha yelled.

The front doors of the mansion were flung open, with a blinding blue light going around the entrance. The group quickly dashed through the entrance before the creature could attack them. Samantha took one look at the creature, whose eyes she could see glaring at her through the trees, which was snarling at her.

"_**They're safe from you, so get out of here!"**_ Samantha said with a laugh as she flew into the house.

The creature growled and crouched, ready to attack the house. A figure on top of its head whistled, and the monster relaxed.

"They escaped. Well, they'll have to come out of there some time" Porter said from on top of the creature's head.

**Mansion:**

"Why am I on the floor?" Liam asked.

"Why am I on the floor?" Jax asked.

"Why are you both asking why you're on the floor?" Nicholas asked the two teens, who got to their feet.

"Dunno. Hey, my Ray Guns are gone!" Jax groaned as he held up the M1911 and a knife.

"Yeah, that's how it goes Jax" Judith said.

The room they arrived in was a rundown foyer, with four boarded up doorways, drenched in blood. It was rather dark in the room, but there was enough moonlight coming in through the windows to where they could see their way around. There was an old chandelier that hung from the ceiling, covered in dust. Upon closer inspection of their surroundings, there was a door upstairs, but the one on the left side of the room was blocked off due to a pile of debris that was unmovable. Next to that there was an Olympia on the wall. The Quick Revive Perk-a-Cola machine was propped against the wall next to Jax.

"Just like Kino Der Toten. Four barriers, two ways you can go" Joe said to Nicholas, who nodded.

"Alright, here's the plan. We split up in teams of four to search this place. Jax, you Judith, Jess, and Liam go through the bottom path. Me, Joe, Nick, and Andrew will take the top path" Nicholas said.

"Hey, look up there!" Judith pointed out.

There was a wooden plank that had a drawing of a map on it. It showed a rough outline of the whole mansion it seemed. It was hard to tell where the power switch was on the map, but both paths they could take seemed to eventually turn up at the same spot.

"This is just like Kino. I'm guessing the power switch is in the back part of the mansion" Jax said.

"OK, let's start getting some points, and then we can get going" Nicholas said walking over to the side barrier.

(Round 1)

Zombies slowly began to walk to the windows and broken boarded up doorways and began to tear the barriers apart. Jess grinned and jammed her knife into a Nazi Zombie's face, killing it instantly. Her point total jumped to 630. Andrew walked up to her barrier and fired three shots at another Zombie before slashing into face off. This is not hard to do, considering they're Zombies. It's not like dead bodies are like, magically fortified or anything when they become Zombies or something.

Oh wait, yes they are according to Treyarch.

Anyway, enough of that rant. Back to the action.

Judith and Liam worked as a team to eliminate their Zombies, with Judith shooting and Liam going in for the kill with his knife. Nicholas and Joe worked together to kill five Zombies, getting roughly the same amount of points.

After the last Zombie was killed, thanks to a kick in the head from Jess, and end of round music came on and the group got itself ready for another wave.

(Round 2)

"Hey, Judith. Try the M14 out again!" Liam called as the Zombies began to break in.

Judith glanced around and spotted the chalk outline next to the barrier Nicholas was fighting at. Judith ran over to the chalk outline and placed her hand on it.

"Buy" Judith said to the chalk outline.

Suddenly, a gun emerged from the chalk outline, and Judith grabbed it off of the walls, reducing her points by 500.

"_**Yeah, sorry the M14 was a 1000 last time"**_ Samantha's voice said.

"No problem, it's an honest mistake" Judith laughed as she took aim and blasted a Zombie skull off of its shoulders.

The Zombie's broke through Jax and Nick's barrier, but the duo managed to subdue the Zombies with a few slashes and blasts from their crappy pistols. Suddenly one of the Zombies fell to the ground, after being shot five times in the skull, and a glowing 2 X appeared, floating in midair. Nick walked through it and fired several shots at a Zombie, which fell to the ground, riddled with bullet holes.

"_**DOUBLE POINTS!"**_ Samantha yelled.

"Guys, unload a full clip into each Zombie, and then knife!" Nicholas yelled, and the other nodded and continued to slaughter.

The second round ended fairly quickly, and the ground took a small breather as the end of round music came on.

"Hey, we've got some extra points; think we should go on to the next set of rooms?" Nicholas asked the others as the beginning of the round music started up.

(Round 3)

"Yeah, let's go!" Jess said cheerfully, as she walked over to the bottom door and pressed a hand on it and said "Open"

The door flew open and Jess's score of 2240 dropped to 1490. She found herself in a dinning room, where the table was smashed in half and the china was broken or covered in dust. Two barriers were in this room, one of which was a broken door that was boarded up. The other was a hole in the wall that led outside, but was boarded up.

"OK, I've got a plan!" Jess said cheerfully.

"What's the plan?" Judith asked.

"OK, Judith and Liam. You both go back to the first room and get a barrier each. Me and Jax will handle this room. Tell Nicholas that he and Joe should go onto the next room while Nick and Andrew stay in the first room to get Zombies. Each of us gets a barrier!" Jess explained.

"That's a good plan Jess. Come on Judith, let's go explain it to everyone" Liam said running back into the last room.

"Guys! Two of you go onto the next room; the other two of you stay in here and get the other two barriers!" Liam yelled as he ran over to a barrier and began emptying his pistol into a Zombie.

"Sound like a solid plan! Come on!" Nicholas yelled running upstairs and putting a hand on the door, with Joe close behind.

"Open!" Nicholas said, and the door flew open, revealing an upstairs hallway. There were several paintings on the wall, but Joe and Nicholas ignored them at first. There was an MPL on the wall, next to a Double Tap Perk-a-Cola Machine. But with the power off, all they could do was make note of its location.

Nicholas and Joe followed the hallway until they emerged in a small study, which had two holes in the roof. There was a hole in the wall at the end of hallway that was now visible. Books were strewn all across the room, drenched in blood. There was a small door to the side of the room, which lead onwards, but was closed.

"You get left, I get right?" Nicholas asked Joe, who nodded.

A Nazi Zombie crashed through the ceiling a moment later, growling at the duo. Nicholas ran at it and kicked it in the knee, causing it to fall to the ground. Joe walked up to it and shot it nine times in the throat killing it.

"Little bit of an overkill" Joe said with a laugh.

"There's no kill quite like overkill" Nicholas grinned, turning around and slashing at another Zombie which dropped into the room.

With each of the rooms covered, the group made quick work of the Zombies, leading to the end of round 3.

(Round 4)

"Hey, are you getting the MPL?" Joe asked.

"No, the MP40 is somewhere around here, or the Stakeout. I'll stick it out until I get to that" Nicholas said.

"If you say so" Joe said.

Suddenly Samantha screamed _**"MAX AMMO!"**_

"Sweet" Nicholas grinned, reloading his gun in preparation for the fresh wave of Zombies.

"YOU'RE WELCOME!" Nick yelled, as he was the one who had gotten the perk.

"NO ONE CARES NUMBUTS!" Liam yelled back.

"…HEHE! NUMBNUTS!" Jess yelled.

"Hey Nicholas, look at this" Joe said.

"What?" Nicholas said, turning around.

"Look familiar?" Joe asked, pointing to the eight portraits on the wall.

Nicholas, grinning and holding a Galil in his hands.

Joe, looking off to the side of the portrait, trying to look cool.

Jess, grinning cheerfully with her eyes closed and her tongue stuck out.

Jax, grinning widely with a Ray Gun in hand.

Judith, smiling at the portrait to the left of hers.

Liam, smiling at the portrait to the right of himself, which was Judith's.

Nick, grinning while trying to fit C.N. in the shot too.

Andrew, grinning fiercely at the camera.

"Yeah…wow, Sam's really good when it comes to details" Nicholas muttered.

"_**Thank you. By the way, the Zombies are coming"**_ Samantha said.

Zombies began to break through once more, and the group turned their attention back to the undead hordes. The Zombies became stronger, and much more difficult to kill. After a solid minute of no problems, Zombies broke through Nick's barrier and came out into the open.

"Die!" Nick yelled, unloading his pistol from close range, getting several headshots before knifing them, maximizing the amount of points he could get while emptying the almost useless pistol he had.

"Jeez, what's gotten into you, Sparky?" Andrew asked slashing at a Zombie three times before jamming his knife into its skull viciously.

"Nothing really, I just get into the moment. Like Liam over there" Nick said pointing to Liam, who had pinned a Zombie to the ground and was force-feeding him bullets.

"Liam, is that necessary?" Judith asked sniping the heads off of two Zombies who were slowly making their way out of the barrier.

"No, but it's fun!" Liam laughed as he kicked the Zombie down the stairs.

Jax ducked under a Zombie swipe and unloaded on entire clip into a Zombie's skull before slashing out it's throat with a hoarse yell.

Jess was fighting two Zombies at once, and realized after a moment she was out of ammo. Jess glanced around the room and saw a candelabrum that was nearby on the wall. Jess ripped it off of the wall and bashed one Zombie I the skull with it and then stabbed the other one with the spiky end of it.

"Ummm…does that count?" Jess asked Samantha.

"_**I guess so. Come to think of it, the others never used their environment as weapons like that before…yes, that counts"**_ Samantha decided.

"Awesome!" Jess said grabbing another candelabra and hurling it like a spear through the stomach of another nearby Zombie.

The end of Round Music came on shortly after Andrew tore the arm off of the final Zombie and bashed it to death with it. As the round ended, Jess decided that it was time to open the next set of doors.

(Round 5)

"Jax, can you open the doors? I need a gun" Jess asked the teen, who nodded and pressed his hand against the door.

"Open!" Jax muttered, and his score dropped by 1000.

The door swung open, revealing a enclosed garden area. There was a stone walkway that winded through the garden, which was overgrown with wild plants. There were two gaps in the stone wall, which were boarded up, meaning those were the two barriers that Zombies came out of. There was an MP5K next to a stone pillar and a Mule Kick machine sticking up out of the bushes.

Jax and Jess both grabbed an MP5K and put their pistols away. Judith and Liam walked into the room and got their bearings. Liam walked up to the MP5K and said "Hmmm…I'll take it"

"Buy" Liam said, clipping the M1911 to his belt and grabbing the SMG.

"I'll stick with this for now" Judith said, reloading her M14.

"OK, we'll hole up here and take out whatever Zombies come in through the door. Got it?" Jax said.

"Got it!" Jess, Liam, and Judith said at the same time.

Suddenly a Screecher Zombie jumped off of the second floor balcony and in to the midst of the Zombie-slayers. Jess reacted first and roundhouse-kicked the Screecher in the face. The Zombie stumbled backwards, but swiped at Judith, who jumped back to avoid it. Liam and Jax opened fire on the Zombie, who went down after a few seconds worth of combined gunfire.

"Nick, Andrew, come on!" Nicholas yelled.

"Coming!" Andrew said punching a Zombie in the jaw while Nick ran by.

"OK, Andrew, open the door. You've got the most points" Joe said to the teen, who nodded.

"Open!" Andrew commanded, and Andrew's point total dropped by 1000.

The door revealed a small spiral metal staircase. Halfway down, there was a chalk outline for Symtex grenades, which all of them bought. The four man group emerged in a huge kitchen area that looked more like a foyer than a kitchen. There was a small passageway that seemed to lead to the other side of the mansion, but it was blocked off by a broken piano.

There was a Juggernog in the corner, next to a chalk outline on the wall in the shape of a shotgun.

"YES!" Nicholas yelled running over to the gun and saying "Buy!"

Nicholas grabbed the Stakeout with a grin and said "I'm set"

The others spotted an MP40 chalk outline on the wall next to a barrier. Joe, Andrew, and Nick grabbed the SMG and Nick laughed, firing several shots at the skull of a Zombie walking towards the barrier through a hole in the wall.

"Sweet! This should hold me until I get C.N. back!" Nick said excitedly as he ran back up the stairs.

"OK, four barriers in here. Andrew, me and Joe will handle this room. Go back Nick up" Nicholas said, and Andrew nodded and ran after Nick.

"Alright, let's do this" Joe said aiming his MP40 at a Zombie who had broken through a barrier and unleashing hell on it.

Nicholas laughed and ran up to another Zombie, ducking under its deadly swipe, and bashed his shotgun into its chin, killing it instantly. He whirled around and blasted another Zombie's arm off. Two Screecher Zombies began to tear through the wooden planks blocking the other two barriers, and Nicholas and Joe began to back up as the two Zombies's growled at them.

"Heh, this is going to be fun" Nicholas laughed running at the Screecher on the left.

Nicholas ducked under the Screecher slash and hurled a Symtex grenade at the wall next to the Screecher, which was blasted it to the left several feet. The Zombie got to its feet and began chasing the Zombie-slayer up the stairs.

Joe continued to fire at the Screecher, despite it charging at him. Joe threw a grenade at the ground and jumped to the side. The Screecher slowed to a stop right above the grenade and was blasted into the next door from the explosion. The Screecher got to its feet and screeched at Joe, who took aim again and fired an entire clip at the rampaging Zombie's skull.

Nicholas ducked under another slash and fired a shot into the Zombie's chest, causing it to roar in agony. The Screecher jumped onto the wall and slashed at Nicholas from its new vantage point, cutting his arm.

"Damn!" Nicholas growled bashing the Stakeout into the Screecher's skull again before jumping back.

The Zombie roared and leapt from the wall, but was silenced by a shotgun blast to the face. The Zombie crumpled onto the ground and Nicholas saw Joe deal with the other Screecher in a similar fashion.

Andrew and Nick were camping in the library hallway; easily taking out any Zombie's coming down the long hallway with their MP40's. A Nazi Zombie broke in through the ceiling next to Andrew, who ran at it, rolling underneath another Zombie who had broken through the side barrier, and placed the trigger of his gun at the Zombie's hip and moved the gun wards, firing his SMG all the wall. The Zombie was literally shot in half, after which Andrew slashed at it with his knife, putting it out of its misery.

"Nice work!" Nick said with a grin as he shot the skulls off of several more Nazi Zombies stumbling down the hallway.

(Round 6)

Andrew began to fix one of the barriers while Nick watched the hallway with his MP40. He saw a Screecher climb along the walls and began firing at it. Andrew looked up and saw the Zombie climbing on the wall above him. Nick jumped back as the Zombie Screecher screamed loudly at him, causing him to wince in pain from the force of the shriek. Andrew jumped onto the Screecher's back and jammed his knife into it's neck and pulled it out, and then repeated steps one through two as the Zombie tried to claw at him.

"Jeez, talk about gratuitous violence. Are we sure this is Rated "T"?" Nick asked Andrew as the Screecher's body fell onto the ground.

"What did I say!?" Nicholas yelled.

"Blah, blah, blah" Nick said mockingly as he reloaded his MP40 and fired into the oncoming hordes.

"Keep firing, don't let up!" Jax yelled, reloading his MP5K.

"There's a crap-ton of these things! We're being pushed back!" Liam yelled as kicked a Zombie in the chest was able to get closer than the others. Liam the promptly shot it's head off.

"I'll open the next set of doors" Judith said to the others.

"I'll come with you!" Liam said, backing up and firing at the same time.

Judith and Liam ran over to a plant covered door.

"Open!" Judith yelled, putting a hand on the door, which flew open at the cost of 1250. It was a small indoor pool area, but the water strangely crystal clear. There was blood drenching the floor over by the Jacuzzi.

There was a Deadshot Daiquiri Perk-a-Cola machine next to the door to the next room, and about ten feet away as a chalk-outline for the AK74u. There were two more barriers to watch out from in this room, but what really held the two teens attention was the glowing pillar of blue light coming from-

"The Mystery Box!" Liam yelled in delight, pressing a hand on the box, which flew open and began to cycle through every weapon it contained. Finally it landed on a C275, which Liam switched with her M1911.

"Crap! Oh well, it's better than the China Lake" Liam said.

"OK, my turn" Judith said as she rolled.

Judith had much better luck, as she landed on a Famas. Judith swapped her M1911 for the Famas and said "Hey guys, we found the Box!"

"OK, switch!" Jax yelled running into the room, followed by Jess, who was firing at the oncoming hordes.

Jax placed his hand on the box and rolled. The weapons switched randomly and finally landed on a RPK.

"All right!" Jax grinned, holding the machine gun with both hands.

"My turn! My turn!" Jess said bobbing up and down on her heels.

Jess pressed her hand on the box and rolled, and the weapons switched and changed and finally landed on the Ballistic Knives.

"Ooh, cool!" Jess said grabbing the Knives.

Jax and Jess dashed back to the Garden, where Judith and Liam were fending off the hordes that were now coming at them. Jess leapt into the fray, slashing at Zombie's left and right like a maniac, racking up points all the while. Judith cut through ten Zombies effortlessly with her Famas, aiming at their heads.

Jax unloaded onto the horde with his RPK, emptying the entire 100 round clip into the Zombies coming at them. Liam watched the barriers from behind, shooting at the Zombies coming at them with his MP5K.

(Round 7)

The Round ended about a minute later, and the group allowed themselves a second to rest before the undead hordes came at them again. Jess walked back over to the Mystery Box and rolled again, this time getting Monkey Bombs.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeaaaah!" Jess yelled cheerfully.

"What happened Jess, did you get a Thundergun or something?" Judith asked.

"Nope. MONKEYS!" Jess yelled cheerfully.

"Oh, that's good too" Judith said.

Aren't you going to roll?" Jess asked Judith.

"No, but we're good here. It's probably the bear next. I'll roll because we may as well have it ready for use at some other part of the mansion" Judith said, rolling again and getting the demon teddy bear.

"**BYE BYE!"** Samantha said as the teddy bear flew into the air.

"Perfect" Judith said with a smile, ready to tackle the undead hordes again.

"Shotgun!" Nicholas yelled, bashing another Zombie in the face, and then spinning around and firing into a nearby barrier, where another Zombie was trying to break through the barrier.

Suddenly, the Mystery Box appeared about twenty feet from where Joe was fighting three Zombies at once. Nicholas killed another Zombie with a burst from the Stakeout and began reloading it while we walked over to the Box.

"OK, let's go" Nicholas said, taking a chance and rolling.

The weapons spun and changed, landing on the AUG.

"Yes. Awesome!" Nicholas said swapping his M1911 for the AUG.

"Nick and Andrew! Front and center!" Nicholas called.

Andrew dashed into the room, but thwacked Nicholas on the head.

"No. You do not say that" Andrew said sternly, taking a roll on the box.

Nick walked into the rooming, firing at the Zombie trying to go down the stairs.

"Joe! Backup! Now!" Nick yelled as he took a few steps back to reload.

"I've got your back" Joe said calmly, tossing a Symtex grenade into the stairway and blowing several Zombies to Kingdom Come.

"Thanks. I'll go roll real quick" Nick said to Joe, who nodded and aimed his MP40 began to fire at the Zombie coming down the stairs.

Andrew switched his M1911 for the Commando, which he held with a grin. Nick ran over and placed his hand on the Box, and a creepy tune began to play as the weapons switched. The gun that it landed on was the M72 LAW, which Nick groaned at.

"Ugh, I don't want a rocket launcher!" Nick complained, not even bothering to get the weapon.

"Stop complaining shorty, just get the rocket launcher!" Joe yelled, but Nick waited until the Box reset itself before rolling again.

The Box switched through its guns again, and it landed on the C275 this time. Nick growled, and said "NO!"

"Just get the gun!" Nicholas yelled.

"Nope" Nick said as the pistol sank back into the straw lined Box.

Nick rolled a third time, and finally got his coveted Chuck Norris figurine back.

"**Thank God…I mean Thank Me. Being in that stupid thing is annoying and it takes forever to finish. It's like waiting for FlygonN to update"** C.N. complained as Nick bashed a Zombie in the skull with the statue, causing its head to explode.

"I swear, can we go one bloody chapter with breaking the 4th wall?" Nicholas asked no one in particular.

"Probably not" Nick replied.

"My turn!" Joe said with a grin, running down the stairs and rolling.

The guns quickly flew by as the music played, and it finally landed on the gun known as-

The China Lake.

"…damn it" Joe growled, switching his M1911 for the crappy grenade launcher.

"Why don't you try again?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, give it another go. Anything is better than the China Lake" Joe growled as he rolled again.

The Box opened up and the creepy music tinkled out of it, and as the weapons sun around, it finally landed on the-

"Teddy Bear…why did I expect anything different?" Joe grumbled as the teddy bear and box flew into the air.

"_**BYE BYE!"**_ Samantha cackled gleefully.

"Wow…sucks to be you, nerd" Nick laughed.

BAM!

"I wouldn't have to use this thing if you hadn't been a Box-hog!" Joe snapped as he aimed the China Lake at the stairs and fired, creating five crawlers.

Andrew walked over and killed each of the crawlers, effectively ending the round with several shots from his MP40.

(Round 8)

Suddenly mist filled the Mansion, and Samantha said _**"What? I'm not doing this!"**_

Suddenly a blue lightning struck down next to Joe, revealing a snarling Hellhound. The Zombie dog leapt at Joe, who fired nonstop at the Zombie dog's face to kill it. It crashed onto the ground and remained still.

Nick swung C.N. in a circle, killing three of the Zombie dogs at once in a fiery explosion. Andrew fired his Commando at a trio of dogs circling him and was able to put each of them down.

Three more lightning bolts crashed down around the group, who backed into a corner and got ready to fight. Andrew made quick work of any of the Hellhounds coming at him with a burst of his Commando.

"RAH!" Jax yelled, unloading his RPK.

"DIE!" Liam yelled, firing his C275.

"FEEL THE WRATH OF THE NINJA SQUIRREL QUEEN!" Jess yelled slashing at a dog with her Ballistic Knives.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" Judith yelled, unloading another clip into the side of a Zombie dog and killing another dog in the process.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Jess replied, kicking a Zombie dog in the snout before jamming both knives into its back.

The hounds continued to charge at the group until Andrew killed the final one, where a Max Ammo appeared above the dog's corpse.

"Hey Sam, did you do that?" Nick asked.

"_**No. For a moment, I had no control over the events in the House. I have control again, but I'm not sure what'll happen if I lose power over the house again"**_ Samantha said nervously.

"Well, we've got to keep fighting. Send the next wave" Nicholas said as he reloaded.

"_**OK, be careful"**_ Samantha warned.

Everyone reloaded their guns and Joe walked through the power up.

"_**MAX AMMO!" **_Samantha yelled.

(Round 9)

Nicholas opened the next door, which ended up being an elegant-looking bathroom. There was one toilet seat to the side, drenched in blood, but it was at the top of a small alter. There was blood all over the counters, but there was a Speed Cola machine over by a Zombie barrier in the wall. An M16 chalk outline on the wall as well. There was an elegant bronze door on the left which led to the next room.

"I guess this is like, the ultimate king luxury bathroom of awesomeness" Nicholas said with a laugh.

"Someone's compensating for something" Joe said pointing at the unnecessarily large golden toilet seat

"Dude, if there wasn't blood on the seat, I'd probably…" Andrew trailed off.

"Dude. Not cool" Nick gagged.

"Cry me a river; we've been slaughtering Zombies nonstop for two days. We've only stopped once, and that was at Target!" Andrew complained.

"We'll do a potty break later, when we're not living out the coolest Zombie game ever" Nicholas said.

"Dude, have you ever played Lollipop Chainsaw?" Andrew asked.

"No. I watched the trailer though. Looks pretty cool, I'll probably get it" Nicholas said.

"…right…" Joe and Nick said at the same time.

"Oh shut up. It's a game about a cheerleader who goes around slaughtering Zombies with a tricked out chainsaw. You'd have to be an idiot not to buy it" Nicholas growled angrily.

"Reah!" a Screecher roared, lunging at Nick, who bashed it in the skull with C.N, killing it instantly.

"Guys, can we have this discussion later?" Nick asked.

"Fine. But I will win this debate, or die trying!" Nicholas said bashing a Zombie in the face with his Stakeout.

The group began to fend off the Zombies in the bathroom, though they were slowly being pushed back due to the small space. Suddenly, there was a glowing green golden ammo clip floating amidst the horde.

"C.N?" Nick said.

"**With pleasure!"**C.N. said.

"**SONICBOOM CANNON!"** C.N. bellowed, shooting a huge blast of air that literally tore a group of thirty Zombies to shreds, leaving bits of bone and clothing behind, effectively ending the round.

(Round 10)

"Wow…that's awesome" Joe said in shock.

"**Yeah, I am"** Nick and C.N. said at the same time.

Joe walked up to the ammo clip and walked through it.

"_**MAX AMMO!"**_ Samantha yelled.

"Screw it, let's open the door. If the power isn't on yet, the power has to be in the next room" Nicholas said opening the final door.

"Wow…this makes Kino look like crap" Andrew said.

The room opened up to an enormous ballroom, like in "Beauty and the Beast". There were several stairways in this room that led up to several balconies, which had a chalk-outline on each one. There was a Stamin-Up Perk-a-Cola machine in this room, in addition to a Sickle and a Bowie Knife, separately. There were six holes in the wall that had been boarded up, which were obviously barriers that Zombies could attack from. There was a power switch on the wall next to them, which Joe flipped on. The chandelier on the ceiling lit itself, and the entire house shook as the lights flickered on.

"Way better. OK, let's wait here until the others get here-" Nicholas began to say before the other door opened and Jax, Jess, Judith, and Liam walked through it.

"Oh…never mind then" Nicholas said.

"Smooth" Joe snickered.

"Shut up" Nicholas said running over to the Bowie Knife and getting it.

"I always try to get to the Bowie Knife first. That's my winning strategy in Kino Der Toten. It's an instant kill up to Round Ten" Nicholas said testing out the knife with a few swings.

"Yes, but it's Round Ten" Andrew reminded him.

"Yes, but it's still good to have" Nicholas said with a grin.

"So, what's over on that side?" Nick asked.

"MP5K, Mule Kick, Deadshot Daiquiri, AK-74u" Jax said.

"Symtex Grenades, Double Tap, MP40, Stakeout, Juggernog, and Speed-Cola" Nicholas said.

"OK, should we circle around here and get whatever we need?" Jess asked.

"Yeah. Buy whatever you need, and get ready for a long hard fight" Nicholas said, walking over to Stamin-Up and downing a bottle of the magical soda.

Everyone but Joe got a bottle of Stamin-Up. Andrew grabbed a Sickle and grinned evilly as he lashed out at a Zombie. The group made quick work of the Zombies now that they were together.

Liam grabbed a Bowie Knife off of the wall and went to work on a group of Nazi Zombies while Judith decimated a group of seven Zombies with several quick bursts from her Famas, cutting through them effortlessly.

Nicholas and Andrew were hacking and slashing away at the Nazi Zombie coming from all sides. Nicholas ducked under one swipe and bashed it in the face with his MP40 and sliced it's head from its shoulders.

The group quickly ended the round and they began to make their way around to get whatever perks they needed.

(Round 11)

There was a door at the front of the ballroom that led into the lobby where they started out. Jax and Andrew walked over to the Quick Revive and grabbed a bottle of the fishy Perk-a-Cola.

"UGH! It still tastes horrible!" Andrew gagged.

"Yeah, let's go get something else, preferably something better tasting" Jax groaned.

The group realized there were Zombies behind them and opened fired, with Nicholas and Andrew jumping into the horde and slashing away with their melee weapons.

"Keep it up!" Joe yelled as he reloaded.

Joe fired the China Lake into the horde, creating several crawlers, which were stabbed by Nicholas's Bowie Knife less than 5 seconds later.

The group ran past a few of the crawlers and made their way into the dining room and into the garden. Five Screecher Zombies were waiting for them though, and lunged at them.

"I've got this" Nick said walking to the front.

"Nick, wait!" Nicholas yelled as Nick charged into battle.

Nick ducked under a slash from the first Screecher and bashed it over the head with C.N., killing it instantly. Nick swung C.N. like a club and hit the second Screecher in the chest, and when he pulled the statue away, there was a huge hole in the Screecher's chest. Nick jumped back to avoid a swipe from the Screecher and aimed C.N. at the group and hurled him like a spear.

"_**What the hell!?"**_ C.N. yelled as he flew through the air.

The statue impaled and went through the third Zombie, killed the fourth by going through its head, and stuck inside of the fifth Zombie's stomach.

"Wow…Nick finally has an awesome moment" Jax said as Nick retrieved C.N.

"For the first and last time" Liam said with a grin as he walked over to the Mule Kick machine.

"_**Yeah, because the next time he does that, I'm killing all of you"**_ C.N. grumbled.

Nicholas, Nick, Joe, Jess, and Liam all bought the Perk-a-Cola known as Mule Kick, allowing them each to be able to carry a third weapon on them. The Mystery Box was also nearby, so the group bunkered down in the room while the ones who bought Mule Kick rolled.

Nicholas went first and rolled on the Box, who flew open at the cost of 950 points. The creepy music played and as the weapons stopped rotating, the Box landed on the Python. Nicholas grabbed the six-shooter with a grin and said "Oh yeah, this'll work fine"

"My turn" Joe said, taking a roll.

The Box flew open again and the guns changed quickly, finally landing on the SPAZ-12, Joe's favorite gun.

"YEAH! JOE'S BACK IN BUSINESS!" Joe yelled, putting the China Lake and MP40 on his sidearm holsters.

Jess skipped up to the Box and said "OK…GO!"

Jess put a hand on the Box which flew open. She eagerly looked at the flash of light that illuminated the weapons. It landed on the Explosive Tip Crossbow.

"Awesome!" Jess said gleefully, grabbing the crossbow.

"It sucks now, but thing is really good if you can Pack-A-Punch it" Andrew said.

"Guys, we've got company!" Judith said blasting at a few Zombies that were making their way into the garden.

"OK, let's deal with these idiots!" Nicholas said switching to his Stakeout and fired into the quickly growing horde of Zombies.

The group was able to fend off the Zombies, but they noticed several Crawlers coming from behind.

"Joe! Liam! Take care of the Crawlers" Jax yelled, not letting up with his RPK.

"Got it!" Joe and Liam said at the same time.

The group kept battling the hordes that came at them from both sides, but eventually, they managed to subdue them and end the round.

(Round 12)

"Hey, I want to get a Deadshot Daiquiri" Judith said.

"OK, Liam, can you go with her to get one? Meet us in the foyer. We'll wait for you there" Jax said.

"Yeah, come on Judith" Liam said to the black-haired teen, who nodded.

The two of them left to go get the Perk-A-Cola while others rolled a few more times in the Garden. Jess switched her Ballistic Knives for the HK21. Jax tried to roll again, but ended up getting the Teddy Bear.

"_**BYE BYE!"**_ Samantha laughed.

"The group continued to walk back to the foyer, but Jess spotted something they missed the first and second time they went through the room. It was a Perk-a-Cola machine, the PhD Flopper. Jess bought a bottle and drank it before catching up with the others.

"Jeez, what's taking those two so long?" Jax asked, firing his MP5K at the incoming Zombies.

"Sorry we're late!" Judith yelled as she and Liam ran into the room, firing at the Zombies as they did.

"We got attacked by a Screecher that seemed a little smarter than the other Zombies" Liam added.

"OK, let's head up the stairs. There's Double Tap upstairs" Nicholas said as he switched to his AUG and mowed down the last few Zombies.

The group ran up the stairs and into the hallway to the Study. Joe grabbed a bottle of Double Tap Root Beer and drank it down.

"Ah, that's the stuff" Joe said with a satisfied sigh.

"Come on, let's keep going" Nicholas said walking down the stairway, where everyone bought more Symtex grenades.

The group emerged in the Kitchen where everyone bought a bottle of the always helpful Juggernog. Jess started hurling Symtex grenades into the stairway where all of the Zombie's were as the others bough Speed Cola. Jess jumped backwards with a flip as a Screecher tried to attack her.

"Yeah, no. Not happening" Jess said with a grin as she fired an explosive tipped arrow into the Screecher's head, which exploded and killing the remaining few Zombies.

(Round 13)

The group quickly made their way back to the ballroom, where they noticed something they didn't see before.

There was a strange outline on the wall. It looked as though it were a skull with wings. Nicholas felt like the symbol was something he knew, but he couldn't place his finger on where he knew it from.

"Hey, look up there!" Joe said, pointing up towards the ceiling.

It was a trio of projectors, each one glowing bright blue. Each one had a long glowing cord running to one of the rooms in the mansion from the look of it. The Projectors were still off, despite being immersed in a blue glow.

"Think that's an Easter Egg?" Joe asked.

"Probably. These maps usually have something like that" Nicholas said.

"OK, let's try to get those projectors turned on. Jess, you, Judith, Andrew, and Joe head around through the Dining Room and try to find the things that power the Projectors. I'll go with Jax, Nick, and Liam. Keep an eye out for the Pack-A-Punch Machine while you're at it" Nicholas said.

"Aye aye!" Jess said cheerfully, sprinting down the ballroom into the foyer, with the others on her trail.

"I wonder what the Easter Egg Song is?" Nicholas asked.

"Who knows? Knowing FlygonN it's more metal" Nick said, earning a bash in the head from Nicholas.

"Stop. Seriously" Nicholas growled.

"OK. The Box is over there. Jax, Nick. You two look around here and in the bathroom for the power supplies to the Projectors. Me and Liam will circle back around through the Study and the Kitchen. Stay sharp" Nicholas warned as he and Liam ran to the Foyer.

Nick walked over to the Box and rolled while Jax killed any of the approaching Zombies with the MP5K, Nick yelled in joy as he got the Dual-Wield C275's. Nick rolled a second time and the Spectre, which he traded for his MP40. Jax tried his hand again at the Box, and as the weapons stopped changed they landed on-

"Ray Gun" Jax said with a satisfied grin as he switched his MP5K for the Wonder Weapon.

"Come on, let's go" Nick said running into the Bathroom area.

Nicholas slowly looked around the Lobby room, making sure he hadn't missed anything. Liam was firing at the Zombie coming in from the barriers. Liam ducked under a swipe and slashed at the Zombie twice with the Bowie Knife, killing it.

"Hey, you've got them, right?" Nicholas muttered to Liam as he inspected the room carefully.

"Yeah" Liam replied as he fired his C275 at an incoming Zombie.

Nicholas crouched down next to a power Box and cut the front panel off. He found a switch inside of the power Box and pulled down on it.

"Bingo" Nicholas breathed with a smile.

The Box flashed green and a green flashing spark traveled along the length of the cord that was connected to the box and it traveled into the wall and up to the first Projector.

"Nicholas!" Liam yelled as the Zombies began to swarm him.

"I'm here" Nicholas said looking through his AUG's scope and aiming his AUG at the Zombie's heads and mowing them down.

The two were able to contain the horde and they ended the round when Liam saw a floating bomb perk in the middle of the horde and ran through the Zombie's and through the Nuke.

There was an explosion sound and all of the Zombie's head were blasted off. All of the remaining Zombie fell onto the ground in a heap, most of them were on fire.

(Round 14)

"WE GOT THE FIRST PROJECTOR!" Nicholas yelled, his voice going throughout the house.

"OK!" Nick yelled.

"We're still looking!" Jess yelled.

Jess and Judith were looking around in the Dining Room while Andrew and Joe scoured outside for the Box. Jess looked all around the room, but she couldn't find the power generator. As the Zombies began to break in, Jess pulled out her Crossbow and fired an arrow into the barrier, killing two Zombies on once. She reloaded and switched to her HK21 and unloaded onto the Zombies.

Judith aimed her Famas at a oncoming Screecher, running down the hallway screeching at them, and fired nonstop at its skull. The Zombie tripped and crashed onto the ground, sliding to a stop at Judith's feet, dead.

Judith grinned and said "Hey Jess, did you see that?"

"Little busy!" Jess said kicking at a Zombie trying to break through the barrier.

"Oh, hold on" Judith said walking over and shooting the Zombie.

Andrew and Joe were searching through the garden, keeping a lookout for anything that could be the power generator for the Projector.

"Hey, three Zombies coming from the Pool Room" Andrew said.

"I've got them. Keep looking" Joe said pulling out his SPAZ-12.

Joe walked up to the 5 Zombies and quickly fired off 8 shots, thanks to his Double Tap perk, and effortlessly kill them. As the Zombies crashed onto the ground. Andrew let out a yell of triumph and slashed through a hedge with his sickle.

"Should've gotten the Bowie Knife!" Andrew grunted as he slashed his way through the hedge.

"OK Joe, I think I found it" Andrew said, finally able to get to the electrical generator box and flip the lever on the side. The box flashed green and a spark traveled along the length of a wire that went straight to the second Projector.

"All right, let's finish the rest of these scumbags off" Andrew said with a grin as Zombies came from the Pool Room.

"Jax! Look" Nick said, pointing to the wall where the strange outline was.

The two wings of the skull were now being hit by the light from the projectors. The wings were now white and black and had more definitive features. Now the middle part of the outline needed to be filled in.

"Come on, that power thing's got to be around here somewhere" Jax muttered, firing his RPK at a few Nazi Zombies.

Nick, who had just killed about ten Zombies with his MP40, noticed a golden price tag immersed in a green light.

"GUYS! FIRE SALE!" Nick yelled.

"Guys! Get to a box spawn point!" Nicholas yelled back.

Nick waited until the Fire Sale was about to disappear and walked through it, Jax was in the Bathroom area while he got the Ballroom.

"_**FIRE SALE!"**_ Samantha yelled gleefully.

Everyone began rolling and switching weapons as fast as they could, after about thirty seconds, the Fire Sale ended and everyone went back to fighting the Zombies.

Nick had found nothing at all that was worth switching his weapons over.

Joe had switched his MP40 for the Galil.

Nicholas switched his empty AUG for a SPAZ-12, but then got the AUG again on his third roll, and grabbed his original gun again, this time with full ammo.

Judith had gotten her old sniper rifle back, the L96A1.

Jax had gotten his other old gun back, the mighty Thundergun.

The others had been protecting Judith while she rolled, and the round ended as Jess fired another explosive crossbow arrow into a Zombie's chest.

"Boom" Jess said with a grin as the Zombie's chest exploded into nasty, gooey bits and pieces.

(Round 15)

"OK, Nick, keep looking" Jax said as they went into the Bathroom.

"Hey, look up there!" Nick said pointing to a small power box.

"That's gotta be it. I'll give you a boost" Jax said lifting Nick up to the box.

Nick tapped it with C.N. and a green spark flashed from the box and traveled along the length of the wire.

"Hey, everyone. Get in here! Now!" Nicholas yelled.

Everyone fought their way back to the Ballroom, where Nicholas and Liam were fighting off three Screecher's at once. Nicholas was carefully fighting with his AUG while Liam fended off the Zombies with a newly acquired MP40. Jax tightened his grip on the Thundergun and blasted all three of the Screecher's away, including 8 Zombies.

"Thanks. But that's not why I called you. Look at that" Nicholas said, pointing to the back wall.

"Whoa, so that's what it was" Nick said, sounding impressed.

On the back wall, an image was now formed by the three lenses hitting the same spot. It was a wicked image of a spectral skull, with its mouth hanging open with a defiant grin. It had wings sprouting out of either side of its head. The image looked slightly distorted though, as though it wasn't quite right.

"Any of you guys recognize that?" Nick asked.

"It's the symbol of my favorite band, Avenged Sevenfold. That's got to be the Easter Egg song. But it's still not playing" Nicholas muttered, walking up the stairway to get a better look at the Projectors.

"Judith, come up here, give me a hand" Nicholas called, and Judith nodded and ran up the stairs while the others prepared themselves for another round.

On their way back to the Ballroom, Liam had grabbed an MP40 off of the wall and switched his C275 for it. But he realized that with even more Zombie's coming he'd need another gun with more ammo, as his MP5K was out of ammo.

"Guys, I'm getting an AK74u!" Liam called, running into the Pool Room.

Jess ducked under a Screecher's swipe and jumped over its head, kicking off of its back and shot an arrow in its face, causing it to explode violently. Jax began firing his Ray Gun, obliterating the hordes of Zombie's coming in from every direction. Andrew ran out of ammo for his Commando, so he ran into the Bathroom and grabbed an M16 off of the wall.

"You know the Box was right there, right?" Jess asked Liam and Andrew as they ran back into the room.

"CRAP!" Liam and Andrew yelled as they began to fight once more.

"OK Judith, looked at each of the boxes with you rifle. Do you see anything?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah…a switch on each one. It's flickering on and off" Judith said.

"Shoot the one on the far left" Nicholas said, and Judith fired a picture perfect shot.

The lens on each of the Projectors was covered with a special coloring and design. The ones on either end had three different colors on them, each one representing different parts of the color model. One was cyan, magenta, and yellow, while the other lens was blue, red, and green. The middle one was just white and black.

The color of theA7X design was weird; it was reddish and had streaks of blue across the top part of the skull and wings.

When Judith fired her shot at the Projector on the ceiling, the color of the skull changed as the lens rotated. It was now green and blue.

"Now fire at the one on the far right" Nicholas said, shooting at some of the Zombie's coming up the stairs.

Judith took aim and fired at the Projector, causing the color of the A7X symbol to change again, but this time, to black and white.

"Yes! Nice job Judith!" Nicholas laughed, and Judith grinned.

The skull image on the back wall of the ball rooming began to move, it looked as though it were laughing. The image then began to burn through the wall, and to everyone's surprise, a new room was revealed.

It was a small room with no distinguishing features. It was all white and eerily clean, and the Pack-A-Punch Machine stood in the hidden room.

watch?v=xuT2mQaTno0

Suddenly music began to play, and Nicholas laughed as he blasted a Zombie's face off. It was one of his favorite songs!

(Round 16)

"All right guys, get ready!" as the round ended and a mist enveloped everyone.

"_**FETCH ME THEIR SOULS!"**_ Samantha bellowed.

Dogs began to spawn around them, crashing down in bolts of lightning. Jess spun around and kicked in a dog's face and fired an arrow into its back. Jess then did a handspring backwards, just before the dog exploded. Joe readied his SPAZ-24 and got ready to fire at an approaching dog that was bounding at him.

"Kaboom!" Joe yelled as he fired a shot, killing the dog with an awesome headshot.

"Fetch the arrow!" Jess yelled as she fired an arrow at a dog, which stuck into its ribcage and exploded violently, splattering the ground with blood and fur. Joe sidestepped a Hellhound as it charged at him and blasted it in the side, causing it to flip over on it's side and whimper slightly before dying, again.

_SKULL!_

Liam and Judith stood back to back, fending off the Dogs from either direction. Jess dashed over to the Pack-A-Punch Machine and put in her Explosive Tipped Crossbow and her MP5K to get the Awful Lawton and the MP115 Kollider.

"DIE PUPPIES!" Jess yelled as she fired her MP115 Kollider at a trio of flaming Zombie dogs.

Liam ran up to the Pack-A-Punch Machine, with Judith giving him cover fire from the dog's, and he Pack-A-Punched his MP40, transforming the SMG into The Afterburner. He then turned around and started firing at the Zombies.

"YEAH! TAKE THAT YA SLIMEY MEAT EATING FLESH JUNKIES!" Liam yelled in a Dempsey-like way.

Judith switched her L96A1 and got her L115 Isolator back, and began sniping Zombie's skulls off again. The group continued to Pack-A-Punch their guns while the others protected the person Pack-A-Punching their weapons. Joe powered up his SPAZ-12 to the SPAZ-24 and his Galil to the Lamentation. Nicholas Pack-A-Punched his Stakeout to the Raid, his single Python to the Dual-Wield Cobra's, and his AUG to the AUG-50M3.

"My turn!" Nick yelled putting his Dual-Wield C275's in the Pack-A-Punch Machine and getting the Calamity and Jane.

"Any chance I can Pack-A-Punch you C.N.?" Nick asked.

"**No"**

"Really?"

"**Yes."**

"…you sure?" Nick said.

"**Do it, and I found myself another chosen one"** C.N. said shortly.

"…meanie"

Jax Pack-A-Punched both of his Wonder Weapons, and he walked away from the Pack-A-Punch with the two best weapons in the Box, the Porter's X2 Ray Gun and the Zeus Cannon. Andrew Pack-A-Punched his M16, which became the powerful Skullcrusher. He upgraded his Sickle to the Reaper, but because he didn't have Mule Kick he had to give up his Commando to get the scythe.

The group used teamwork to survive the round, utilizing their Pack-A-Punched Weapons to good effect. As the round ended, there was a slight quake that shook the house.

(Round 17)

Nicholas aimed his AUG-5OM3 and began aimed only for the Zombie's heads, as this was the easiest way to kill a Zombie. The laser-bullets soared through the air, killing Nazi Zombie, Crawler, and Screecher alike.

Red lasers flew through the air as Jax protected their left side from the Zombies, using the Zeus Cannon when the Zombies began to swarm him. Jax let out a yell of triumph as he blasted a Screecher's skull off with the PX2RG and blasted the legs off a Nazi Zombie.

_(They all know, they all know! )_

_Sorry, did I wake your dreams?  
>Some questions run too deep.<br>We only (only) wake up when we sleep.  
>Led by the lunar light, trouble's all we find<br>Lost our way tonight  
><em> 

Judith went back up to the top of the stairs and began sniping at Zombie from afar, utilizing her L115 Isolator and her Deadshot Daiquiri to perfect, and each shot she fired was a death kneel for the Zombies who were attacking them. Liam was crouching down next to Judith, blasting anything that tried to come near her back to hell.

Joe was going to town with his SPAZ-24 blasting away nonstop at the Zombie's coming at him. When he needed to reload, he popped in the 24 shot shell in and went back to work, slaughtering Zombies with EXTREME PREJUDICE.

_Is it something we said?  
>Is it something we said to them?<br>Is it something we said!_

Andrew was going to town on the Zombie hordes, now coming from the ceiling. Andrew slashed left, right, downwards, upwards, and diagonally, slaughtering dozen's of Zombie's with the 115 charged scythe. Andrew saw a Screecher charging at Nick, and aimed the end of Reaper at the Screecher and fired his hookshot. The spike imbedded into the Screecher's back, and with a powerful yank Andrew hurled the Screecher backwards and into the wall, breaking its neck.

_(Save me)  
>Trapped in a vile world,<br>(Save me)  
>Where the end games all the same as every other.<br>We're only here to die.  
>(Save me)<br>I'm losing my only dream.  
>(Save me)<br>I can use some guiding light, some place to go.  
>If you hear me, let me know.<br>_

"Thanks!" Nick said as he fired his twin Pack-A-Punched pistols at the hordes coming from the foyer.

Nick was blasting at the many Zombies' coming at the group through the foyer, though he was hesitant to use C.N. Ever since they had escaped from Richtofen, C.N. had slowly but surely began to chip away. Part of his hat and his left knuckle had broken off.

_They all know, They all know!_

"_I may just have to keep using him, things are getting harder for us, so I'll just have to deal with it and hope he remains intact"_ Nick thought as he dashed under a Zombie's arm and ran through a floating skull that was glowing green.

_Ever since the day you left my fate's been set unknown.  
>How many years to walk this path alone?<br>So much to see tonight, so why'd you close your eyes?  
>Why can't I shut mine?<em>

"_**INSTA-KILL!"**_ Samantha screamed.

"**I'll be fine. Focus on killing Zombies"** C.N. said to Nick, who nodded.

"KNIFE!" Nicholas yelled as he began slashing wildly at the Zombies coming from all sides with his Bowie Knife.

_Is it something we did?  
>Is it something we did to them?<br>Is it something we did!_

The group was able to subdue the rest of the horde, Andrew in particular killing the most, since Reaper still counted as a melee weapon and was, after all, a Pack-A-Punched Sickle.

(Round 18)

_(Save me)  
>Trapped in a vile world,<br>(Save me)  
>Where the end games all the same as every other.<br>We're only here to die.  
>(Save me)<br>I'm losing my only dream.  
>(Save me)<br>I can use some guiding light, some place to go.  
>If you hear me, let me know.<br>If you hear me, let me know.  
><em> 

"We're nearly there, stay tight and watch out!" Nicholas said reloading the AUG-5OM3.

"Bow Chicka Bow Wow" Joe laughed.

"Joe. Pull out a grenade and hold it up to your face for about five seconds" Liam said in an annoyed tone.

"Oh shut up, you can't handle my level of amazing humor" Joe said as he bashed a Zombie in the skull three times with the SPAZ-24, killing it.

"Joe, you're idea of amazing humor was throwing my Dr. Pepper in my face" Nicholas pointed out.

"Oh come on, you had it coming" Joe complained as he fired repeatedly with his SPAZ-24.

"Guys, we're literally being attacked by hordes of Zombies. Can't we save stupid conversations like this for later!?" Jess yelled as she ran from five Screecher's on her tail.

"NOW JAX!" Jess yelled as she fired an arrow from her Awful Lawton.

About twenty Zombies, as well as the five Screecher's, went to the spot where the arrow was fired. After standing there for three seconds, the arrow exploded, killing some Zombies and causing others to lose their legs. Jax pulled out his Zeus Cannon and fired at the blown up horde, sending them flying with a huge burst of air.

"Thanks!" Jess said, saluting Jax, who saluted her back.

Andrew beheaded a Zombie with Reaper and killed a Crawler with Reaper's hookshot. Liam and Judith continued to kill Zombies in the same fashion as before, with Judith sniping and Liam protecting her from the Zombie's coming up the stairs trying to kill the talented sniper. Not a single Zombie even made it halfway up the stairs.

Joe and Nicholas were standing back to back, in the middle of the ballroom, surrounded on all side by Zombies.

"Heh, what a way to go out" Nicholas laughed under his breath.

"Maybe, but whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" Joe replied with a smirk.

"Remind me to throttle you when this is over and done with then" Nicholas replied as he switched to his AUG-5OMB3's shotgun mod and got ready.

"GO!" Nicholas and Joe yelled as they fired at the Zombies coming at them.

"**PULSATION CANNON!" **C.N. yelled as a wicked blue wave of energy shot out of his hat and killed over forty Zombie's at once.

"Nice one C.N.!" Nick said putting C.N. back on his back and firing at a group of crawlers with his Calamity and Jane.

"Hey Jess, why don't you get a train going so I can blast them?" Jax yelled.

"A train?" Jess asked.

"Yeah, get a bunch of Zombies to chase you. A Rave Train, as it's called by a certain author of fanfiction. You get a bunch of Zombies to chase you and then you shoot them while keeping ahead of them" Jax said.

"Yeah, hold on!" Jess said tossing a monkey ahead of her as she ran to the front of the Ballroom. The Zombie's began to chase the monkey. As the monkey exploded, they all looked at Jess, who was standing nearby, ten feet away.

"Hi there." Jess said with a grin, pulling out her HK21.

And with that, Jess was running for her life as about 70 Zombies began to chase her throughout the house. Jess dashed to the door of the Dining room and began firing her HK21, getting points by the hundreds. Her shots weren't as effective as they would have been 10 rounds ago, but they were still putting a dent into the Train.

Jess leapt down the stairs and pulled out her MP115 Kollider and opened fire on the incoming horde. When they got close enough, Jess sprinted through the garden, ducked under a Zombie swiping at her, and ran into the pool area.

Jess jumped over the eerily clear water and fired another arrow, grouping the Zombies together and making them go boom. Jess ran through the door to the Ball room and shouted "NOW JAX!"

"With pleasure" Jax said, aiming his Zeus Cannon at the door.

As the Zombies burst through the room, Jax waited until the horde was three feet away before unleashing his Zeus Cannon, killing 40 Zombies at once.

"Missed a few" Jax muttered as reloaded and fired again, killing a few Crawlers and a few of the slower Zombies.

(Round 19)

"Guys, bunker down and get ready to fight" Nicholas said, reloading his Raid.

The Mansion shook violently, but no one took notice of this because four Juggernauts crashed in through the ceiling, dressed in torn tuxedos and dresses.

"OK. Two people to each Juggernaut!" Liam yelled.

"Joe, come on!" Nicholas yelled taking the lead one.

"Judith!" Liam yelled as he fired his Afterburner at a Juggernaut.

"Jax!" Jess yelled as she fired an arrow at the Juggernaut's chest, doing no visible damage as it exploded violently.

"Come on shorty, let's take this thing down" Andrew said spinning Reaper in a circle.

With two people to each Juggernaut, the round went by somewhat easily. Nicholas and Joe were able to best theirs with combined Pack-A-Punched gunfire and a few blasts from Joe's China Lake.

Which is still a terrible gun, just worth mentioning.

Judith and Liam were able to double-team their Juggernaut, eventually killing him when Judith shot his skull for the 8th time and sent him crashing down onto the ground.

Nick and Andrew were able to take theirs down with a combination of several hits with C.N. and Andrew slamming the blade of Reaper into the spine of the Juggernaut.

Jess and Jax were able to take down their Juggernaut by firing several Awful Lawton shots into his face and hitting him a few dozen times with the PX2RG.

_So, help me find my way  
>I said help me find my way, yeah<em>

(Round 20)

Suddenly the Ballroom's walls exploded violently, hurtling everyone into the walls. When they looked up, they saw a new kind of Zombie, and it was without a doubt a Richtofen experiment.

"What the heck is that?" Nick asked, readying his Calamity and Jane.

_No pulse inside of me,  
>Stone cold lips and heresy.<br>All lies and to a degree,  
>Losing who I want to be.<em>

_(Find out, right now.)  
><em> 

"…Big" Andrew decided.

The creature before them was about forty feet tall, and looked like what would happen if you Zombified a Komodo dragon. It's scales were blood-red with a black strip going down it's back. The creature had three long tentacles coming from its head, and its eyes narrowed as it looked at each of them.

_He may be out of his mind, but someday you will find,  
>That sanity left us all blind, and dragged us all behind,<br>A moment seen through those eyes, crystal blue disguise,  
>They say that all beauty must die, I say it just moves on<em>...

I hereby dub this Zombie, the Salamander!" Jess yelled loudly.

"OK, what's the plan Nicholas?" Nick asked.

"Hmmm…run" Nicholas said.

"Run?" Jess asked.

"Yeah…RUN!" Nicholas yelled as he fired his AUG-5OM3 and began backing up.

The group hightailed it through the pool area while the Salamander hissed loudly. The crew quickly made their way into the garden, panting slightly.

_If you'd only open your mind, then some day you will find,  
>Insanity left us behind, and walked right through the door.<br>I can see the picture's clear as yesterday, pictures all my own  
>I can hear the voices begging you to stay, but know you're not alone.<em>

"What was that thing!?" Joe asked.

"Big!" Andrew insisted.

Com on, let's take it-" Nicholas began to say before the lizard's head broke through the side of the house and roared, breathing a burst of flames.

"OH COME ON!" Joe yelled.

"FIRE!" Jax yelled, and everyone opened fire on the Salamander, who was blasted in the face by several Pack-A-Punched guns and still seemed ready to fight. The creature shot a burst of flames at Jax, who shot his Zeus Cannon at the flame, obliterating them.

_(Save me)  
>Trapped in a vile world,<br>(Save me)  
>Where the end games all the same as every other.<br>We're only here to die.  
>(Save me)<br>I'm losing my only dream.  
>(Save me)<br>I can use some guiding light, some place to go.  
>If you hear me, let me know.<br>If you hear me, let me know.  
><em> 

"Come on!" Jess yelled, jumping up the stairs and into the dining room.

The group quickly ran back into the Lobby, trying to catch their breath. The mansion shook violently several times and the Salamander roared loudly.

"Jeez, Sam! What's with that thing!?" Joe asked.

"_**I don't know! That was not supposed to be there!" **_Samantha said worriedly.

"Nice spot for a Zombie Map Sam. Fire-breathing Zombie Lizards. Nice" Andrew said sarcastically.

"_**YOU PICKED THE LOCATION! NOT ME!"**_ Samantha's voice yelled from within the walls.

"She's got point" Jax admitted.

"_**Thank you. By the way, duck"**_ Samantha said.

Suddenly a huge burst of flames shot through the wall and nearly incinerated Nick.

"Yikes" Nick said mildly as the flames shot by him.

"RUN!" Nicholas yelled as the Lizard's head broke through the walls and lunged at them.

The Lizard Zombie's neck could apparently stretch to incredible lengths, because its neck stretched out and its head chased the group up the stairs.

"FIRE!" Andrew yelled, and everyone unloaded everything they had at the Lizard Zombie, which roared and blasted them with flames. The torrent came out from its maw and broke through the wall of the house. Strangely enough, the flames didn't burn the walls.

_Tonight we all die young.  
><em> 

Jax pulled out his PX2RG and fired several shots at the Lizard's eyes. The monster roared and snapped at Jax, who jumped to the side to avoid it. Jess fired an arrow into the creature's eye, and when it exploded, the Lizard Zombie hissed in agony.

_Tonight we all die young.  
><em> 

"Nice one!" Judith yelled with a grin.

Jess laughed and fired another arrow, but the Lizard shot a blast of fire at Jess, who had nowhere to go.

"OH CRAP!" Jess yelled, covering her face.

BOOM!

The flames were blasted to nothingness and the Salamander's head was blasted into a wall. Jess ran by the head while it was stunned and hurled a Symtex grenade into its face, which exploded.

_Tonight we all die young.  
><em> 

"Let's see how you like that!" Jess yelled.

"REAAAAH!"

"RUN!" Jess yelled as she ran back down the hallway.

"This thing is tough!" Nicholas yelled as he fired a few shots at the Lizard with the Raid.

Andrew dashed down the hallway, and flung Reaper at the Salamander. The scythe flipped over and over through the air and embedded itself into the Salamander's nose.

_Tonight we all die young.  
><em> 

"YEAH! Ten points you scaly son of a-" Andrew began to say before the Salamander stuck its tongue out and hurled the scythe right back at Andrew, who rolled to the side to dodge it.

"Jeez, talk about cutting it close" Andrew muttered as he pulled his scythe out of the wall.

_Tonight we all die young.  
><em> 

"Guys, let's get out of here!" Jax yelled as the Salamander inhaled deeply.

The group quickly ran into the study and hid behind the wall as a mighty inferno shot by them and out through the window, shattering the glass instantly.

Nicholas aimed his AUG-5OM3 at the Salamander and fired at it, causing it to snarl in displeasure and shot another blast of fire at him.

_Tonight we all die young.  
><em> 

"Guys, run!" Nicholas yelled.

Suddenly the Salamander's head burst through the Study's wall and roared at Jess, who roared back and jumped onto its head.

"Jess! What are you doing!?" Nicholas yelled.

"Distracting it!" Jess yelled as she held onto the Salamander's horns.

_Tonight we all die young._

The Salamander's head retreated back through its hole and the rest of the group went through the hole, back into the ball room, where Jess was being hurled around.

"I'M…GOING…TO…THROW…UP!" Jess yelled.

"Come on, how can we kill this thing?" Nicholas asked the others.

"I've got an idea" Judith said, pointing to the chandelier and pulling out her L115 Isolator.

_Tonight we all die._

"Jess, get off of that thing!" Nicholas yelled.

Jess let go of the Lizard Zombie's horns and was hurled fifty feet into the air. She landed on the railing of one of the fancy staircases and slid down it. The second Jess landed, Judith fired at the chain holding the chandelier up and broke it, sending it crashing down on the Lizard Zombie's skull. The creature fell to the ground and went limp. A Max Ammo appeared next to the creature's skull. Everyone reloaded their guns and Liam walked through the perk.

"_**MAX AMMO!"**_ Samantha screamed.

"Well, I think we're done here, right Sam?" Jax asked.

"_**Yes. You all did very well. Hold on one moment"**_ the specter said.

Suddenly a ball of blue lightning appeared in the middle of the ballroom and split into eight, striking each one of them. Each one of them was enveloped in the lightning and were teleported out of the house.

_Tonight we all die young!_

**Outside of the Mansion:**

The group reappeared in a flash of blue lightning outside of the mansion. Samantha appeared out of the ground, grinning broadly.

"_**Much better this time. I didn't think a monster like that would be in the mansion. Talk about rotten luck!"**_ Samantha said with a laugh.

"So, what now?" Andrew asked.

"I think-" Nicholas began to say before a loud roar pierced the night, and there was a huge thud.

"Doesn't that thing ever quit!?" Joe yelled, looking upwards.

Suddenly the nearby woods erupted in flames. The monster howled loudly, and everyone took a step back when they saw what the creature really was. It was now illuminated by the fire that wasn't just surrounding it, but was coming from it.

Samantha was starring at the monster, open-mouthed and in shock. A tear rolled down her face, and everyone looked at the specter, and was surprised by her reaction.

"Samantha, what is that thing?" Joe asked nervously.

Silence.

"Samantha. What are we dealing with, please!? We need to know!" Nicholas asked, aiming his AUG-5OM3 skywards.

But Samantha remained silent, still looking at the creature sadly. Finally she whispered one word, something that sent a thrill of horror down each of the teen's spines.

"_**Fluffy…" **_

End of Chapter:

Hope the chapter went all right. And yes, it's that Fluffy. Anyway, what will the Zombie-slayers do now? Can they defeat the very first Hellhound!?Stay tuned and find out, chapter 14 shouldn't take to long. And as always, let me know what you thought of the chapter, please review and vote on my poll. Until next time, FlygonN out!


	14. Inferno

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead **

_ANA: Author Notes of Awesomeness__: (That's what I'm calling them from now on. Because I say the word awesome…A LOT)_

_OK, first off, I'd like to say thank you to my ever so awesome regular reviewers, mybrosdrivemecrazy, Trapinchh, SoxxyMoxxyFanfics, and Uig50, as well as a new reviewer, Task Force Metal. As well as my good pal JC785 (AKA Joe, who is apparently Sarge not Tucker according to his recent review of the story. There you go you big baby), as well as a guest reviewer known as "Love this" (or that may have been the subject of the review. If so, may bad). Your constant feedback helps me keeps me going._

_That said, and I hate to say it, but I may have to stop working on one of my two fanfics that I'm working on now, due to school and me trying to get a job. I may not have enough free time to work on two things at once, as well as co-writing another fanfic. I'm not at that point yet, but If I get to that point where I don't have time for two, I'll keep working on this one, seeing as it's the more popular of the two, and stop working on my other fanfiction for the moment. I'll keep you updated. Also, due to time constraints, I may not be able to personally message everyone anymore when you review. So I'll only be able to do it for new reviewers. Those who are constant reviewers, always giving me much needed feedback, you already know how awesome you all are. Thank you._

_Also, as mybrosdrivemecrazy suggested, I contacted the Xalec, who is the creator of the FWM(Fourth Wall Mafia). Well, I messaged him and got a reply back. So I am now a member of the FWM. Strangely, enough, I will not break the fourth wall for several chapters because I don't want to be a one trick pony, but when I do it next…oh yes, it'll be epic. Also, you should check out Xalec's stories too._

_Also, special shoutout to the Call of Duty wikia page for helping me get some of the dialogue for this chapter. It's so much easier than listening to the radio over and over again. That said, I had to do that anyway. (You'll find out what I'm talking about soon)_

_Also, the results of the favorite character poll are now up. Its Samantha Maxis in first, followed by Nicholas (Me) in second, and then Judith, Nick, Jess, and C.N. in a tie for third. That's more than the last poll, but still, I need more votes._

_Anyway, after I update the next chapter, the contest is over. At the end of next chapter, I'll tell you all who won, so you can expect a customized Zombie coming in the near future from the very people who review the story. The next contest, we'll, I'm not sure when it'll be. But feel free to offer suggestions that you think would make the story better. I'm always looking for new ideas, and I'm always up to suggestions. Remember, no matter how crazy it seems, it could give the story an extra twist, and I like extra twists. So just message me if you've got an idea, and I'll try to make it happen. _

_So here's the chapter! Enjoy._

**Chapter 14: Inferno**

"_**Fluffy…"**_ Samantha whispered.

The enormous Hellhound howled loudly, shattering every window in the Mansion at once. It was even bigger than the Hellwolf from the Police Shooting Range, and the flames radiating off of it were an unnatural shade of red, almost crimson. Porter was standing on top of the Hellhound, grinning broadly.

"Hello Samantha. I thought you'd be happy. After all, it's been many years since you last saw your dear Fluffy" Porter said with mirth in his voice.

"_**YOU EVIL SNAKE! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!"**_ Samantha yelled in her demonic voice.

"Doubtful" Porter replied with an evil chuckle.

Samantha starred at her old dog, which was now a monster. She had always regretted the events that occurred because of Group 935, but her dog being turned into an abomination was the worst, next to the death of her father.

"Sam..." Judith said quietly.

"_**Well…what are you all waiting for?"**_ Samantha muttered to the others.

"What?" Joe asked.

"_**RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"**_ Samantha bellowed, and the group darted into the nearby forest as fast as they could.

"Sick em" Porter said from atop Fluffy, who growled and began to slowly padded into the woods.

"AWOOOOOOO!' Fluffy howled again, sending a sharp spike of fear through each of the young Zombie-slayers.

"Guys! We've got to get back to the RV!" Nick yelled.

"AWW! REALLY!? NO DIP SHERLOCK!" Liam yelled as he jumped over a log.

The group began to run downhill, tripping and stumbling, but still trying to outrun the original Hellhound. Meanwhile Samantha flew down the hill beside them, casting backwards glances behind at Fluffy.

"_**I'm…I'm sorry Fluffy"**_ Samantha whispered as a tear rolled down her face.

**Flashback:**

A dog rushed out of its cage and began to run happily around the room. Dr. Maxis growled in annoyance. Samantha was peeking through the crack in the heavy metal door. She saw her daddy, looking frustrated and impatient. She also saw several cages stacked on the wall, with dogs all in them. But what held her attention was the teleporter. It was big, shiny, and looked fun. It was metal all the way around and had several tubes connecting it to power supplies, some of them with glowing rocks in them.

"Edward, tie the damn thing down. We can't have it running around during the test."Dr. Maxis ordered angrily.

Edward Richtofen walked towards the dog and put a muzzle on it, and then tied a rope around its muzzle. He then ushered it into the large teleporter.

"It's tied down now, Doctor Maxis."Richtofen said quietly as the dog whined through its muzzle.

"Initiating test number 5. Subject is within the test chamber. Activate power."Dr. Maxis said calmly to Richtofen, who pulled a lever, enveloping the dog inside in a massive burst of blue electricity.

The two men closed their eyes from the glare, but when they looked back at the mainframe, they saw that the dog was gone.

"Searching for vitals. No reading Doctor. The subject has... disappeared. Doctor Maxis, we've done it!"Richtofen said with quiet enthusiasm.

Dr. Maxis yelled "Don't be foolish! Test number five is unsuccessful. Subject has vanished, yes," Maxis said in an annoyed tone, "but has not _reappeared_ at the mainframe. Recalibrate the damn system now!" Dr. Maxis ordered.

Richtofen began setting up the machine once more, and Samantha quietly ducked away. Se waited for a few minutes before she looked back inside of the testing room, where a familiar looking dog was inside of the teleporter.

"Initiating test number six. Subject is within test chamber. Activate power."Dr. Maxis ordered, and Richtofen nodded and turned on the power to the machine.

The dog inside became engulfed in a ball of blue lightning and vanished, but there was still a ball if lightning surging inside of the test chamber.

"Damn it, Edward! Did you set up the device correctly?!"Dr. Maxis yelled at Richtofen, who nodded.

"Yes Doctor. As per your specifications."Richtofen said softly.

"If you _had _done it to my specifications then it would have worked, wouldn't it!? As usual your incompetence has... What?"Dr. Maxis trailed off from his yelling when he noticed something peculiar.

The surge in the teleporter was now pulsating wildly. There was now something in the chamber, cloaked by the lightning.

"Do you hear that, Doctor?"Richtofen asked softly.

"Quiet, you fool! Test number six is a failure, but the experiment has caused some kind of electrical force to energize within the chamber. Well, open the door."Dr. Maxis ordered.

"Doctor, I don't think..."Richtofen said hesitantly.

"Open the door NOW!" Dr. Maxis ordered.

Richtofen opened the cage door and stepped back. A large dog stepped out of the teleporter. It looked somewhat skeletal and was larger than a full grown wolf. Wicked flames were radiating off of the dog, which had a burnt pink collar with a heart around its neck that read "Fluffy"

Samantha opened the door and fearfully looked at her dog, which was examining its surroundings.

"Daddy, what are you doing with Fluffy?"Samantha asked timidly as she walked into the room

Dr. Maxis looked at Samantha and said "Damn it, Samantha. I told you never to come in here. Edward, get her out of here."

"Yes Doctor."Edward said as Samantha looked closer at the dog, which roared loudly causing Samantha to scream.

"What's wrong with her? Daddy, what did you do? Fluffy!"Samantha cried.

"Come back here! Samantha. Stop her! Easy. Come here Samantha." Dr. Maxis said softly as the demon dog tore apart a bag of supplies on the side of the room. Samantha slowly walked over to her father. "Good girl. Gently Samantha. That's not Fluffy anymore. We must get out of here."

Edward quietly crept towards the large iron door and slipped out of the room. He then slammed the thick iron bar into place and locked it. Dr. Maxis looked at the closed door fearfully, and then at Fluffy. He ran over to the door and began pounding on it.

"What? Edward what are you doing!? Open the door. Edward. Open this door now!"Dr. Maxis yelled as Fluffy snarled at them.

"Dad… I'm scared."Samantha said softly as Fluffy drew closer to them, flames frothing at her mouth.

"Damn you...Stay by me, Samantha."Dr. Maxis held out his arms, shielding Samantha.

"Goodbye, Doctor Maxis."Edward said with a hidden smile

Dr. Maxis grabbed Samantha and ran past Fluffy, pulling the power switch as he did. The teleporter fired up again and Samantha and Dr. Maxis vanished in the bolt of lightning that appeared. Fluffy snarled in displeasure, as her prey had gotten away. Richtofen began laughing manically as the lightning in the test chamber faded.

**Present:**

"We're coming to a clearing!" Nicholas yelled as he jumped off of a rock and landed on the gravel of a road.

They were now on a lonely road that led to a huge bridge, filled with abandoned cars. The group hid behind a car, and waited for the Hellhound.

"Samantha, are you sure that's Fluffy?" Nicholas asked.

"_**Positive. She still has the collar I picked out for her…we have to save her" **_Samantha muttered.

"Samantha, I know that Fluffy was once your pet, but she's not the same anymore. She's a Hellhound…THE Hellhound" Nicholas said to the ghost, trying to talk some sense into her.

"_**I know that…"**_ Samantha muttered.

"Then help us. How do we kill it?" Joe asked.

"_**...I don't know" Samantha replied sadly.**_

"Then how are we supposed to-" Andrew began to say before the tree-line exploded, revealing the Hellhound, snarling at them. Porter stood on top of its head, looking happy as could be.

"Destroy" Porter commanded.

"AWOOO!" Fluffy howled as it padded over to the group, which was aimed their guns skyward.

"Steady…aim…fire!" Nicholas yelled.

"GET THEM!" Porter ordered.

Fluffy lowered its head and took a deep breath. The group waited, wondering what the Hellhound was about to do. Suddenly Fluffy extended its head and a huge burst of crimson flames shot out of its mouth.

"TAKE COVER!" Liam yelled, hiding behind one of the support beams to the bridge.

The others took cover behind the support beams as the flames raced across the bridge. Luckily the flames didn't affect the cars that were stationary on the bridge, though that was probably just luck.

"Guys, wait until it stops, then send this dog back to hell!" Andrew yelled, as he pulled out Skullcrusher.

"Sounds good" Liam agreed as he reloaded the Afterburner.

"Ready…GO!" Nicholas yelled as he jumped from his cover and unloaded onto the giant Hellhound.

Fluffy snarled in pain from the Pack-A-Punched gunfire, and brought down a flaming paw next to Jess, who jumped back and fired an arrow from her Awful Lawton.

The arrow soared through the air, but was stopped short and sent flying back at Jess, who yelped and jumped back to avoid the explosion.

"You cannot stop Fluffy. She was the first of her kind, and since her creation, she's undergone many modifications. Within the past year, we've experienced leaps and bound with our Hellhound Advancement Projects. The Cerberus and the Hellwolf Projects respectively were overwhelming successes. And now that success will be your downfall" Porter laughed.

"_**RAAAAH!"**_ Samantha screamed as she flew at Porter.

"What are you-!?" Porter yelled before Samantha flew into him.

Porter than began to twitch and writhe. Fluffy remained still, though it was clear that without Porter in control she was not an immediate threat.

"Get out of me you meddling brat!" Porter yelled as he clutched his head in agony.

"_**JUDITH!"**_ Samantha yelled.

"On it!" Judith said aiming skyward and firing a shot at Porter.

The bullet soared through the air and hit Porter in the skull. Porter stumbled off of Fluffy's head and fell 60 feet to the ground, where he crashed down hard.

"_**B**_E_**G**_O_**N**_E!" Porter and Samantha yelled at the same time as Porter's eyes flashed red.

Samantha was hurled from Porter's body and landed on the ground, where she remained still. The others looked worriedly at the ghost, and then looked at Porter.

"It seems Master Richtofen didn't take ALL of her powers. I would assume she has that influence on the rest of us who are touched by 115." Porter muttered.

"Thanks for the info Porter!" Jess laughed.

"Oh, you're very welcome. You see, I don't care if you know anything, because you'll be dead before you put that information to use" Porter said lifting a hand upwards.

A car next to Porter began to float up from the ground and as it rose ten feet into the air, it hurled itself at the teens. The car was blasted out of the air and was sent flying back at Porter, who burst into a cloud of particles.

"Where is he?" Jax asked, holding the Zeus Cannon that had blasted the car away.

"Samantha! Are you OK?" Judith asked.

The ghost didn't reply, and the others reloaded their guns as Fluffy snarled at them and began slowly padding towards them.

"OK, any ideas on how to take this thing down?" Nicholas asked the others.

"None whatsoever!" Jess said immediately.

"Nope" Joe said.

"Negative" Jax replied

"Nada" Nick

"Not a one" Liam said.

"**I've got nothin'"** C.N. said.

"Not a clue" Judith replied.

"I DO not know" Andrew said.

"Well, we'll do this the good old-fashioned way!" Nicholas yelled reloading his AUG-5OM3 and opening fire.

Fluffy then howled.

The howl echoed…and echoed…and echoed…

The cloudy sky above them crackled with blue lightning. The sky flashed violently, blinding the group. As Fluffy continued to howl, the lightning bolts struck down all around them. And in the middle of each of the lightning bolts was a skeletal dog, snarling and growling.

"Evil puppies" Jess said, aiming her HK21 at the Hellhounds circling them.

"Hellhounds" Nicholas muttered as he switched to his Raid and got ready for the fight.

"Nicholas, we need to split up. Some of us have to focus on Fluffy and the others on the Hellhounds." Joe said.

"Good idea. Jax, you Judith, Nick, and Liam. Get the Hellhounds. Me, Andrew, Joe, and Jess will get Fluffy" Nicholas said.

"How the hell are we going to do that?" Joe asked.

"I'll get back to you on that" Nicholas replied, hurling a Symtex grenade at Fluffy.

The grenade flew into Fluffy's face, which snarled in displeasure as the explosive went off. The group unloaded on the giant Hellhound, but were getting dismayed as they realized that they weren't doing any serious damage. They had Pack-A-Punched weapons and they weren't even _hurting_ the Hellhound. How would they put this dog down?

"Jax, on your left!" Nick yelled.

Jax spun around and blasted apart a trio of dogs with the Zeus Cannon. Lightning bolts were continuing to crash down all around them. Fluffy howled at least once a minute, and with every howl brought fifty Hellhounds. The group found themselves being pushed back, further away from escape. Porter reappeared in a flash and began hurling objects at them from time to time, but it seemed he was content to let his Hellhounds kill his enemies.

Andrew ducked under another burst of flame and aimed his Skullcrusher skyward, towards Fluffy. He realized in the Mansion that the Skullcrusher had an under-mounted grenade launcher. Andrew fired a grenade at Fluffy, which snarled in rage. Andrew fired shot after shot at Fluffy, drawing the Hellhound's attention. Andrew went to put another clip in for his grenade launcher when he realized he was out of ammo for it.

"HOLY CRAP!" Andrew yelled as he ducked out of the way of a huge burst of flames.

Liam whirled around and stabbed a Hellhound through the side with his Bowie Knife while Judith fired at them with her Famas. Nick and Jax handled the bulk of the Hellhounds, the Wonder Weapons Jax had and the amazing power of Chuck Norris that Nick had were too much for the hordes of Zombie dogs.

Fluffy snarled and snapped at Nicholas who jumped out of range of the Hellhound, whose teeth tore through a Hummer like it was paper.

Everyone continued to fight off the Hellhounds and Fluffy for several minutes, but it was clear that the battle itself was pointless. For every dog killed, another took its place.

Porter hurled a car towards Andrew who growled and hurled Reaper at the 935 Scientist. The scythe sliced clean through the car and imbedded itself into the shoulder of Porter, who was knocked back several yards and yelled in pain.

"Agh! Good…shot!" Porter grunted as he yanked the scythe out of his shoulder and threw the scythe back at Andrew, who jumped back as the scythe struck the ground.

"Thanks!" Andrew grinned fiercely, snatching the scythe up and taking careful aim, he shot his hookshot at Porter, only for a Hellhound to get in the away.

Andrew pulled in the hookshot and hurled the dog's corpse over the side of the bridge, where it fell 200 feet below.

Judith continued to fire with her Famas, and when that ran out of ammo she switched to her L115 Isolator. While she aimed at Hellhounds, Liam was at her side, fighting off the evil dogs while she took aim.

Jess back-flipped off of a car and fired another arrow into Fluffy's snout, causing Fluffy's face to explode violently. The Hellhound roared and Jess only had time to yell out before she was engulfed in a mighty burst of flames.

"JESS!" Judith yelled out.

As the flames subsided, Jess looked to her side and saw Nick pointing C.N. at Fluffy. A blue shield of energy was around them, and Nick looked very strained.

"**I can only do so many of these Special Attacks on my own. I've reached my limit. So the energy must now come from your own body"** C.N. warned Nick, who was now panting slightly from the effort of using C.N.

"Thanks" Jess said with a smile at Nick, who gave her a tired grin.

Fluffy then lifted up her paw and brought it down on the force field, cracking it. Nick let out a yell of pain as before Fluffy did it again. Jess was staring at C.N. though, as another piece of his hat fell off. Nick let out another yell of pain as Fluffy's paw crashed down on the force field, which was beginning to shatter. Jess looked up as Fluffy raised her paw again, and she saw Porter smirk evilly.

"Look out!" Jess said tackling Nick, knocking them both out of range of Fluffy and getting rid of the force field.

The Hellhounds were beginning to swarm the group now. There were over a hundred of them circling the group. Strangely enough though, Fluffy seemed to not be able to tear them to bits like they thought it would be able to. It seemed only to be able to move very slowly and shoot flames, as well at try and bite them if they came within twenty feet of her.

Nicholas glanced over at Samantha, who had just sat up. Nicholas quickly ran over to her and said "Sam? You OK?"

"_**Dazed…Fluffy…what happened?"**_ the ghost asked weakly.

"You attacked Porter and he knocked you out. There's Hellhounds everywhere and we can't seem to do any damage to Fluffy" Nicholas quickly explained.

"_**You can't damage her. She's invincible"**_ Samantha said softly.

"No. There has to be a way" Nicholas insisted, but the ghost shook her head.

"_**I was there when she was created. She's too powerful. She's so powerful that she cannot move as much as she used to be able to. But at that price, she is utterly unstoppable. She's the perfect Hellhound. Nothing can defeat her"**_ Samantha said.

Nicholas looked at the others, and saw they were faring badly. Each of them was covered in small burns and scratches. Nick was barely able to stand because of using so many power attacks, but he kept fighting like the others. The group kept fighting though, even though they knew they were far too outnumbered. Hellhounds continued to spawn all around them, born of lightning bolts with flames of crimson in their coats.

Nicholas felt a spike of fear go through him. What more could they do? If they failed, the whole world would have to bow to Richtofen. And that couldn't happen, no matter what.

Nicholas spotted a pile of cars on top of each other. The gasoline that made the ground slick had yet to be caught a light from the Hellhounds unnatural flames, but when it did…

"Nick" Nicholas said running over to the short teen and slashing at a nearby dog with his Bowie Knife.

"Yeah?" Nick asked.

"I need you to do one last Special Attack. Clear all of the dogs from the path when I give the word. Everyone needs to run to the other end of the bridge. We're running for it" Nicholas said louder.

"OK. I think I can do it" Nick said tiredly.

"You can't run child. You're only prolonging the inevitable" Porter said as he reappeared on top of Fluffy's head.

"Everyone, when I saw now. Run" Nicholas said.

"You sure man?" Joe panted.

"Positive. Nick, you ready?" Nicholas asked.

"Ready!" Nick said, sounding determined.

Nicholas pulled out an object from the small satchel he had on him. Something he had found in Richtofen's lab. It was a small rod, with a flaming Hellhound's skull emblem on each end. He had a feeling he would need it, and he was right.

"Here goes nothing!" Nicholas said activating the device and hurling it at Fluffy.

Every single Hellhound was staring at the device as it flew through the air and lodged itself into Fluffy's neck. The Hellhound began to circle Fluffy, who looked confused and was snapping at the device with her snout.

"Stay still you stupid beast and I'll remove it!" Porter snapped as Fluffy twisted and snarled in displeasure.

"NICK!" Nicholas bellowed.

"**CONCUSSION SHOCKWAVE!"** C.N. bellowed as Nick slammed C.N.'s head onto the ground.

A huge wave of raw energy blasted from C.N. sending each of the Hellhounds flying away and causing them to explode. Fluffy was even knocked down to her side, tough she slowly got back up. Nick fell to his knees, panting from the effort. Jax picked him up and carried him piggy-back style.

"RUN NOW!" Nicholas bellowed.

The ground turned towards the other end of the bridge and ran for their lives. They looked back, but saw Nicholas staying behind, reloading his AUG-5OM3.

"Hey! Come on man!" Liam yelled.

"Keep going, I'll catch up!" Nicholas yelled as more Hellhounds began to spawn around them.

Nicholas began leading Fluffy away from the others by running in the opposite direction. Nicholas was firing at the Hellhound with his AUG-5OM3, which then ran out off ammo. Fluffy inhaled and Nicholas jumped to the side to avoid a blast of fire shooting from the Hellhound's maw.

Nicholas dropped his AUG-5OM3 on the ground as he rolled and pulled out his Dual-Cobra's and began firing at Fluffy, who roared in pain and snarled at Nicholas.

"Nicholas, what are you doing!?" Liam yelled, but Nicholas frantically jumped to the side to avoid another blast of fire.

"RUN! SAVE YOURSELVES!" Nicholas yelled as he jumped onto a car and continued to fire at the Hellhound.

"We've got to help him!" Jax said, reloading his Zeus Cannon which only had 4 shots left, which he readied for use against the waves of Hellhounds, snarling and ready to pounce on them.

"How!?" Nick asked getting to his feet with a wince.

"I'll get back to you on that" Jax admitted as he fired at the wave of dogs.

Nicholas jumped off of the car he was on and onto another car. Nicholas tossed a Symtex grenade at Fluffy, which exploded on contact with the Hellhounds flaming skin.

"AWOOOOOO!" the Hellhound roared as it swiped at Nicholas with one of its paws.

Nicholas barely was able to get out of the way and jumped back onto the pavement on the road and sprinted towards the other end of the bridge. Nicholas looked at the other end of the road, about two hundred yards away, and saw his friends, wanting to help him. But if they were to help him, they would get hurt, or worse. Fluffy was the biggest challenge they had faced as a team. He wasn't willing to let someone else that he cared about end up like John.

Nicholas pulled out his walkie-talkie and turned it on as Fluffy slowly took steps towards him. The spawning Hellhounds growled in fury and slowly approached him.

"Hey guys, can you hear me?" Nicholas asked calmly.

"Nicholas!? Get out of there; try to make us a path or something so we can help you!" Joe yelled.

"Joe, can everyone hear me on this?" Nicholas asked.

"Y-yeah, why?" Joe asked worriedly.

Nicholas sighed and said "Guys…it looks like this is the end of the road for me"

"What!?" Judith yelled.

"I'm sorry guys…I know you can stop Richtofen. I know you can…just do one thing for me. Stay safe" Nicholas said softly, putting away one of his Cobra's and aiming the other one at the pile of cars, now positioned directly under Fluffy and spewing gasoline.

"_**Nicholas…don't do it" **_Samantha said softly.

"Guys…good luck…and I'm sorry" Nicholas said pulling out his Cobra and shooting the bottom car's gas tank with a sad smile.

"_**NO!"**_ Samantha yelled out, and group was prepared to rush forward when-

BOOOOOOM!

A huge explosion consumed the bridge, engulfing the entire area in a massive inferno. The bridge broke in half from the force of the explosion, and everything that was on the bridge was now falling into the freezing cold water 200 feet below. Fluffy roared in pain as the flames on its body were finally extinguished as it fell into the icy cold river. Even Porter fell towards the river, though he warped before he even got close to the water.

The group had managed to get off of the bridge before it collapsed. As the group stood at the edge of the bridge, still in flames, one question remained.

"Nicholas? Are you there?" Joe asked.

"…"

"Nicholas. Come on man, this isn't funny" Joe said angrily.

"Joe…" Jess said quietly.

"Nicholas, stop playing around and answer!" Joe yelled.

"_**Joe…stop it…he's gone"**_ Samantha whispered.

The group stood there, watching the flames of the explosion slowly die down. They stood there, even though the chill of the night was making their bodies go numb. Nothing could move them from that spot. So they stood there, rooted in the sorrow of losing yet another friend to Richtofen's evil.

End of Chapter:

Hmmm…how will this play out? Find out next chapter, when you'll also find out who the next member of the team will be. That's right, when I update the chapter next, the contest will officially be over.

I'm sorry about the shortness of the chapter, but as I've said before, this chapter was pretty much fight scenes, and it's hard to do fight scenes all the time, Trapinchh can back me up on this. Also, for the flashback, the dialogue and stuff is from a few radios that can be found on Der Reise. Just a cool tidbit, as not everyone has the Der Reise Map (heck, even I don't have it). Please, leave a review and tell me what you think, and be sure to leave a guess towards the identity of the new team member as this'll be your last chance to guess! Until next time, FlygonN out!


	15. Revelations Part I

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead **

ANA:

_OK, so the contest is officially done. This chapter will reveal who the new member of the team is, as well as some other plot twists... I'd like to say thank you to everyone who participated in the contest and to all of my readers in general. I love you all…no homo. The winners, who I'll mention at the end of the chapter, will get their own customized Zombie Boss or regular Zombie put into the story in a chapter later on._

_Also, I've been dabbling into some side stories, and I'm wondering what kind of stories you all would be interested in reading after I get to like, chapter 25 or something. I'll let you know what they are when I've got some more of my current one done. _

_Also, I'm sorry if this chapter wasn't up sooner than I wanted it to be. I had the urge to replay infamous and inFamous 2 and try to finish some stuff on Skyrim. I have yet to find any Daedric Weapons on my current file and I'm at like, 54 now, so 'm kinda getting annoyed. On one of my other files, I found a freaking Daedric Bow at like, 42! WTF!? School's gotten in the way too, like I predicted. I've also done a lot of writing for my friend's fanfic this past week, but I'm done with it for now so I can focus on this. Also, shoutout to Uig50 and mybrosdrivemecrazy for reviewing. Thanks a bunch you two!_

_This chapter is one I've been looking forward to for a while! I really hope you enjoy it!_

**Chapter 15: Revelations Part 1: New Heroes Emerge**

"Guys…good luck…and I'm sorry" Nicholas said pulling out his Cobra and shooting the gas tank with a smile.

"_**NO!"**_ Samantha yelled out, and group was prepared to rush forward when-

BOOOOOOOOOM!

A fiery explosion rang out in the night and consumed the entire bridge. Nicholas ran toward the other end of the bridge, desperately trying to outrun the explosion. Suddenly the ground underneath him heaved and cracked open, sending him falling onto the ground, banging his head and cracking his skull wide open. His Raid went flying out of his hands and into the flames. Nicholas gasped as flames literally soared right above him, drenching him in heat and fire.

The section of the bridge underneath Nicholas collapsed, sending him flying towards the river 200 feet below. Blood streamed down Nicholas's face, and his face was literally a crimson mask.

"AWOOOOOOO! Fluffy howled from somewhere above him.

"There's no way I'm going to die like this!" Nicholas yelled as he plunged into the frigid waters 200 feet below.

Fluffy roared in pain from the force of the explosion and stumbled off of the bridge too, sending an enormous wave of water over Nicholas, who was struggling to stay afloat. Nicholas finally clung onto a piece of debris from the bridge and got on top of it.

"_Losing…consciousness…"_ Nicholas thought as his vision became fuzzy.

Nicholas slipped off of the debris and fell into the icy cold water once more, and struggled to swim to the surface, his entire body screaming in protest as the icy cold slowly froze him.

Suddenly, just when Nicholas's lungs we're about to scream in agony, a strong arm grabbed Nicholas's hand and pulled him out of the water, sending him back into the light.

"Don't worry! I've got you! Hang on!" someone yelled as the water carried them downstream.

Nicholas coughed violently and before he could get a breath to replenish his lungs, his skull banged again against the concrete from the bridge debris, and he lost consciousness.

**Sometime Later:**

The first thing Nicholas was aware of was that his head hurt…a lot.

The second, he was dressed in a pair of cargo pants slightly too big for him with no shirt. There was also a thick blanket that covered him, keeping him warm.

The third, he was freezing cold. He felt feverish and sick, though his face was warm, due to a warm wet cloth being on his forehead. There were several hot water bottles placed around him, keeping his freezing limbs warm.

The fourth, there was a beautiful girl sitting down in the chair next to him.

Nicholas felt his face warm up even more. She was extremely pretty, with her long blond hair in pigtails and her blue-green eyes looking at him with obvious concern. She was dressed in a dark green tight tank and a pair of loose camo-cargo pants. She looked like she was around his age, about 18 or 19. She got out of her chair and walked over to him as he tried to sit up and pushed him forcefully backward with a grin.

"Good. You're alive. I was really worried about you; you've got mild hypothermia and a concussion. You've been sleeping for about 8 hours. I wasn't sure whether or not you'd make it. I helped clean the gash on your head and I've had to keep you warm to help treat your hypothermia. The worst of it should be over now" the girl said walking over to a nearby table, which had a bowl of hot soup on it.

Nicholas took a look at his surroundings and found himself in a rickety old shack; he could see a warm fire going outside through the door, all of his clothes hanging over it, drying.

"Where…where am I?" Nicholas asked.

"About 10 miles from that explosion that rocked that bridge. Were you on it?" the girl asked, and Nicholas nodded.

"Wow! I've gotta give you props. Not many guys can survive that. I pulled you out of the river and was able to drive you to this safe house I found a few days ago. Luckily no one messes with us here!" the girl said bringing Nicholas a bowl of soup and a spoon.

"Here, eat up. You're pretty banged up from that explosion, you're going to need to rest" the girl said, concern evident in her voice.

Nicholas nodded, knowing it was best not to argue. He took a sip of the soup, which was Chicken Noodle, his favorite.

"My name's Nicholas. Who're you?" Nicholas asked.

"Me? That not that important right now!" the blond said winking at him with a grin.

"You look familiar for some reason, where are you from?" Nicholas asked.

"California. And you?" the girl asked sitting down by Nicholas.

"Bradburn County, in Florida" Nicholas said, sill wondering where he had seen her before.

"Oooh! I've always wanted to live in Florida. So much sunshine, and the amusement parks!" the blond-headed girl gushed excitedly.

"_Well, that gets rid of that theory that I've seen her in Florida. Where do I know her from?"_ Nicholas thought.

"It's all right. What are you doing all the way in Georgia?" Nicholas asked.

"Well, my parents and I were heading east, to meet up with some friends who had…um, experience, with these kinds of things. Luckily I'm an expert fighter, because we got separated, and I've had to travel here by myself. It wasn't easy to get all the way here, especially the other day, when the first Zombie attacks happened around here. Fortunately for me, I was able to meet up with my parent's friends, and I've been staying with them for a few days, though Zombie slaying is second nature to me now" the girl said with a small frown.

"Wait, how can it be second nature to you? The Zombies only started attacking two days ago" Nicholas said.

"You might be surprised, but me and my family make a living off killing Zombies. They've been around for years, it's just they're hard to find. I had to fight off a lot of them on my way here, and I got separated from my parents and sisters in a big fight in Texas" the girl explained.

"Hey, if you want to, I can help you find your parents" Nicholas said.

"Really?" the young woman said hopefully.

"Yeah. We've got to meet up with the rest of my group. We're trying to stop these Zombie attacks. Maybe you could even join us when we go kill the guy responsible for this mess" Nicholas said with a smile.

"REAH!" screeched a voice outside.

Nicholas started to sit up, but the girl put a hand on his chest and pushed him back with a frown, and then a smile. Nicholas felt his face flush red as she grinned down at him and wagged her finger at him playfully.

"Damn, more Zombies. You stay here, I'll handle them" the young women said winking at him as she grabbed a double-barreled shotgun and walked outside.

Nicholas listened as she fired two shots and yelled "TAKE THIS YOU ZOMBIFIED A-HOLE!"

THUD! THUD! THUD! BAM!...THUD!...THUD…THUD THUD THUD!...Thud.

"Wow… just last week I was playing Skyrim. Now I'm sitting in an abandoned shack being protected by a beautiful Zombie fighting girl …man, I am-THUD- having an awesome week" Nicholas grinned.

Said Zombie-fighting chick walked back into the shack, with not a scratch on her flawless body but holding a blood drenched shotgun. She cleaned it off with a wet towel and said "I heard that by the way, and thank you. Anyway, we've got to get back to the town. Your clothes are dry now, and your weapons are over there"

She pointed to Nicholas's Bowie Knife and a single Cobra lying on a old wooden dresser. The young woman walked out of the room and handed Nicholas his clothes and walked out again, giving him some privacy.

After Nicholas got dressed he clipped his Bowie Knife to his belt and grabbed his Cobra and said "I've got to find the others"

Nicholas walked outside and found the woman groaning in frustration, kicking the car in an annoyed way.

"What's wrong?" Nicholas asked.

"The car I hotwired only had enough gas for me to drive you here. We're going to have to walk about ten miles to the safe-house now" she groaned as the sun began to rise.

Nicholas ignored her for a moment and watched the sun as it rose through the sky. Orange, blue, pink…it was magical. An everyday phenomena that most took for granted, but he was not one of them. It was one of things in life he felt was an element of pure beauty. The woman looked towards the sky and smiled.

"Wow…I haven't watch the sunrise in a while…it's beautiful" the woman said.

"Yep. When you've slaughtered Zombies nonstop for two days, you kind of start to appreciate the little things" Nicholas said.

"Good point…but that doesn't help the fact that the car is out of gas!" the girl pouted as she kicked the car hard, leaving a huge dent in the side.

"Oh well, it can't be helped…thanks, by the way, for saving me" Nicholas said with a smile.

The woman grinned and said "It was nothing"

"All right, so you want to get going?" Nicholas said.

"Do you think you can fight right now? You're still banged up from that explosion" the young woman said worriedly as Nicholas zipped up his trench coat to keep warm.

Nicholas rubbed the back of his head, which was covered in bandages and said "I'm fine, let's go. Besides, I've survived this long, I'm not ready to die yet."

The woman grinned and extended her arm playfully, which Nicholas took with a grin, and the newly formed duo skipped down the dirt road, ready to tackle the undead hordes together.

"So, do you have a name? You look really familiar" Nicholas asked with a laugh.

"Yeah, and you probably know it. My name's Juliet Starling" the girl said with a wide grin as Nicholas's jaw dropped.

**Meanwhile:**

"OK, so let's recap. OK?" Andrew said.

"I'd like a large pizza, with stuffed crust and breadsticks." Nick said.

"FOR THE LAST TIME WE ARE NOT ORDERING PIZZA!" Andrew yelled pushing Nick down the hill.

"Owowowowowowowowowow…ow!" Nick yelled as he crashed into a rock.

"Moron. Anyway, where do you think Nicholas went?" Judith asked.

"Well, we've been looking for hours, and I'm exhausted. I say we get in the RV and stop by a hotel" Liam said with a yawn.

"As much as I hate to admit it, and I REALLY hate to admit it, but I think Liam's right. I'm worn out, and we've been looking around here for Nicholas for hours." Joe said sleepily as the sun began to rise once more.

"He could be dead" Nick pointed out as he climbed the very steep hill.

Liam growled in annoyance and kicked Nick back down the hill, causing him to hit his head on the same rock again.

"Dude, stop doing that. You're killing what few brain cells he has left" Joe sniggered.

"_**He'll be fine, we must keep moving, and hope he meets up with us"**_ Samantha said ignoring Joe's smart comment.

"So, where should we go?" Andrew asked.

"There's another hospital a few miles down the road, but it's probably filled with Zombies." Joe said.

"Well, that's as good as it's going to get. Maybe we'll meet some survivors" Jess said.

"OK everyone, load up and get ready to go" Jax said.

"So, are you acting leader?" Joe asked.

"Why?" Jax asked.

"Well, seeing as that I'm Nicholas's best friend, I say that I lead" Joe said smugly.

"How about we co-lead?" Jax said.

"Fine" Joe grumbled.

"Um, I'm his best friend too" Judith pointed out.

"OK, who gives a crap? Shouldn't we just go to the hospital?" Nick asked.

"For once the midget makes sense. Nicholas could already be on his way there to meet up with us" Jess said.

"_**She has a point. Let's go, and pray he still lives" **_Samantha muttered.

And with that, the group limped over to the RV, which Liam had retrieved and had driven to the other side of the bridge. The group hopped in and began driving again, casting glances behind them towards the destroyed bridge.

The group kept driving, silently mourning their friend. They knew that the chances of finding Nicholas alive were slim. They silently prayed that he was somehow still alive, and that he could find them again.

"We should stick around here for a little bit, just in case Nicholas comes by. If there are survivors at the hospital, we need to help them" Judith said, breaking the silence.

"There, up ahead. It looks like there's some commotion up there" Jax said pointing to the entrance of the hospital.

The commotion, as it turned out, was a group of survivors, surrounded by Zombies. The group was outnumbered ten to one, but they were still fighting for their lives fiercely.

"Joe, activated the side guns on give them a hand!" Liam yelled.

Joe ran up to the front seat and said "This one's for Nicholas and John you slimy flesh eating freakbags!"

Machine guns emerged from the side of the RV and began firing at the Zombies. The turrets were being controlled by Joe too, as none of the bullets were hitting ay of the survivors. The bullets tore through the Zombies easily and Liam pulled the RV close to the curb, allowing the others to get out and aid the survivors, who were being pushed back into the hospital.

"Jess, distract them!" Liam yelled.

"Got it!" Jess replied aiming her Awful Lawton and firing an arrow about thirty yards away from the survivors.

The Zombies all went towards the arrow while the survivors reloaded and fired at the Zombies. Liam pulled the RV to a stop and let the others out.

"Give them hell!" Joe yelled, firing his Lamentation at the horde.

"Hold on everyone!" Jax yelled as he pulled out his Zeus Cannon and blasted apart the Zombies.

The small group of survivors let out a sigh of relief and walked over to the RV. It was obvious that they had gotten some action before. A man in his twenties walked up to the RV and took of his cap. He was a muscular man holding an AK-47 and had short brown hair.

"Hey, thanks for the assist. I'm Kevin. It's good to see some other survivors. Where're you from?" the man asked.

"Bradburn County, in Florida" Joe replied.

"I've heard that's where the outbreak started. Do you guys have any idea where they came from?" Kevin asked.

Joe glanced back at the others, and Jax shook his head slightly to the side, and Joe said "Not a clue, we're just as in the dark as you"

"Well, we'll figure something out. We're in your debt for saving us. We're running low on ammo and supplies, and we probably wouldn't have been able to fend off that horde without you all" Kevin said.

"Why are you staying here?" Liam asked.

"Some of our group got attacked by…I can't believe I'm saying this, Hellhounds. Just like the ones in Black Ops Zombies. It sounds crazy but-" Kevin began to say.

"It's not crazy, we've seen them too. We lost one of our best friends to a huge one about an hour ago" Joe said somewhat bitterly.

"He sacrificed himself to save us" Judith said quietly.

"I would've liked to meet him. The world could use a few more heroes. I've lost a lot of good friends already, when they were trying to save some kids from the first few waves of Zombies" Kevin said with a sigh.

"He may have lived, so we're sticking around here for a bit to wait and see if he's here" Liam explained to Kevin who nodded.

"If you'll want to come in and rest for a bit, that's fine. We could use the extra help. In fact, if you all are up to it, we could sure use some help getting some more supplies from the stories back in town a few miles away. You seem to have all sort of weapons on our RV there that could protect us on the way there" Kevin said.

"Sure, we'll help you. Heck, I'll even help you guys get some weapons on your cars too" Joe said.

"All right then. Half of you can stay here and help out however you can. The rest of you can help us get some more supplies. Less of them seem to come during the day, so we'll have to head out now" Kevin said.

"OK. I'll stay here with Nick and Jax. Liam, you, Jess, Andrew, and Judith go along with Kevin and the others" Joe said.

"Got it. Come on everyone!" Liam called, hopping back in the RV.

"All right. You five come with me. You four get in the RV. We'll be back in a few hours" Kevin said giving orders to the groups.

"Joe, don't you want to lead the other team?" Jax asked.

"No. I've got to finish up my…project" Joe said walking into the hospital with his bag.

"What is he working on that's so important?" Jax asked Jess, who shrugged.

The two groups split up, one going to get more supplies while the others went to help out the other survivors. Luckily no Zombies came to attack them in the morning, so they were able to get fresh food, water, and ammunition for the survivors. Everyone at the hospital began to make fortifications to protect themselves from the Zombies. Joe built an electrical fence, as well several other defensive fortifications.

The group spent rest of the day making fortifications to the hospital and getting to know the other survivors. Jax in particular had befriended a teen who had an older sister who was injured in a freak accident, leaving her in a coma. With Samantha possessing him, Jax walked into the room where the teen, whose name was Jacob, said "And this is my sister, Sarah"

Jax, with Samantha possessing him, saw a girl in her late teens, maybe early twenties, lying in the bed, with tubes connected to her body. She had pale skin and long flowing black hair that went down to her waist. It was a very sad sight, seeing someone like that.

"It's been horrible ever since her accident. Our parents died a few years ago, and it's been just me and her since then…now I'm all alone" Jacob said sadly.

"Wouldn't it be a kinder fate to let her…pass on?" Jax asked.

"Maybe…I just wish I knew what she wanted me to do" Jacob said with a heavy sigh as he walked over to his sister and sat down in the chair by the bedside.

"_**Poor girl…unable to see or move, or be aware of her surroundings" **_Samantha said quietly in Jax's mind.

"They say that people in comas can hear you if you talk to them" Jax said to Jacob, who sighed again.

"Maybe, but I can't hear her. I don't know what she wants. Whether or not she wants me to keep her hooked up to these machines or to let her pass on into the next life" Jacob said with a sigh.

"Well, you can't stay here forever. You all are barely fending off the undead hordes now. You'll run out of supplies at some point" Jax pointed out.

"Maybe…" Jacob muttered.

"You should let her go. She's probably just suffering right now" Jax said.

"ZOMBIES!" came a shout from the hallway.

"Crap. Come on, we've got to protect the injured people in the hospital" Jax said.

"Well, they're probably evacuating them to the less dangerous areas of the hospital already" Jacob said as he and Jax left the room and closed the door.

The two ran down the hallway, weapons drawn, and entered the nurse's workstations. The others were there, as well as about 40 survivors.

"Jax, get ready!" Joe yelled.

"Let's send them back to hell" Jax said quietly reloading his Porter's X2 Ray Gun.

The Zombies finally broke through the front door and the group fired nonstop at the hundreds of Zombies now pouring in.

Judith took aim and began blasting Zombies skulls off of their heads while crouching behind a small barrier. Jess stood right by her with her HK21, and the duo unloaded onto the horde.

Nick was at the front with Andrew and Liam, along with 5 other survivors, slashing and killing Zombies with their melee weapons.

Joe and Jax were blasting apart the Zombies in the west wing of the hospital, along with Kevin and about five other fighters. About seven Screecher's burst in through the windows and screamed loudly, causing everyone to flinch.

Jax aimed his Zeus Cannon at three of them and blasted them through the wall. Kevin aimed his Colt Python and fired five times at the Screecher, earning three direct headshots. When the Screecher charged up to him, Kevin grabbed a hunting knife and jammed it into the Screecher's face, causing it to groan in pain before collapsing onto the ground.

"Juggernaut in the hallway!" Nick yelled as he ran around the corner.

A huge Juggernaut, who appeared to be in a prisoner's uniform, came storming down the hallway, littered with bullet holes. The Juggernaut lashed at one of the survivors, who was slammed into the wall with incredible force, and didn't get back up.

"What is that thing!?" Kevin yelled firing several shots at the Zombie, who kept coming.

"Juggernauts! Aim for the head! That's how we killed the New York Giants!" Joe yelled.

"What did you say!?" Kevin asked.

"Nothing!" Jax, Joe, and Nick replied.

"No seriously, did you say you all killed the New York Giants?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah, but they were Zombies. It doesn't count as murder" Nick said.

"Yeah, if it did, we'd all be serial killers at this point because we've all killed hundreds of Zombies" Joe pointed out as he blasted at the Juggernaut, which was still charging down the hallway.

Jax reloaded his Zeus Cannon and fired at the Juggernaut, causing it to fall onto the ground. Joe and the other survivors opened fire on the downed Juggernaut, which roared in pain. At this point the Zombie was utterly ridden with bullet holes, which continued to spread across its body. Nick then ran up to the Juggernaut and bashed it over the head with C.N., finally killing the Zombie.

"What the hell was that?" Kevin asked the teens.

"A Juggernaut. It's an incredible durable Zombie with crazy strength. It's hard as hell to put down on your own, but when you fight together it's much easier to kill one" Jax explained.

Meanwhile, Judith and Liam were helping a few of the nurses, who were moving some of the sick and wounded. Judith picked off the Zombies that were coming at them from afar while Liam blasted apart nearby Zombies with his Afterburner.

Liam ducked underneath a Nazi Zombie swipe and beheaded a Zombie viciously with his Bowie Knife. Liam with aimed his Afterburner and began blasting a few strangler's heads off while the other survivors cheered them on.

After eliminating the few small hordes heading towards them, Judith ad Liam helped lead the injured into a safer wing of the hospital.

A Screecher lunged at Nick, who swung C.N. at its face, causing its head to fly from its body. Nick then pulled out his Spectre and opened fire on a few Nazi Zombies straggling down the hallway. Jax walked up to Nick and said "The group in the north hallway could use some help. Go help them out; I'll deal with these guys"

Nick nodded and ran towards the north hallway while Jax calmly walked towards the huge horde of Zombies making their way towards him. Jax pulled out his Porter's X2 Ray Gun and began firing over and over into the crowd of Zombies, which was still making its way towards him. As the Zombie fell to the ground about a foot away, Jax grinned and put away his Porter's X2 Ray Gun.

Joe pulled out his Lamentation and opened fire on a group of Nazi Zombies, with several injured patients of the hospital cowering behind him. Joe was hell-bent on making sure no one else got hurt.

Joe pulled out a Symtex grenade and hurled it. As the grenade soared through the air, a bullet flew through the air and hit the grenade as it flew into the middle of the Zombie horde, making them all blow up. Joe looked to his side and saw Judith with her L115 Isolator, grinning.

"Thanks" Joe said.

"You owe me one now" Judith grinned as she walked back down the hallway, where Liam was fighting off a few Nazi Zombies.

Joe scowled and replied by firing at a Screecher's face until it exploded.

"Jess! Watch out!" Andrew yelled, aiming his hookshot into the horde and firing.

Jess jumped back as the spike shot past her head and yelled "You almost killed me!"

"Did not" Andrew said as the hookshot slammed into a Zombie's skull. Andrew then tore the Zombie's head off with a powerful swing, sending it rolling onto the ground in a crimson spray of blood.

"Did so" Jess said firing into the Zombie horde with her HK21, blasting whole row of Zombies into Oblivion.

"Did not" Andrew said as she slashed and hacked through another row of Zombies, dismembering them with extreme prejudice.

Did so" Jess said ducking under a Zombie's swipe and throwing a Symtex grenade at a Screecher, which died in the explosion.

"Did not" Andrew yelled as he pulled out Skullcrusher and blasted at a row of Zombies.

"Did not" Jess said as she switched to her MP115 Kollider and began firing at a row of Nazi Zombies, blasting them in the upper chest and in the neck.

"Did so" Andrew replied as he slashed and hacked apart a Screecher, avoiding its razor sharp claws and dismembering it.

"Did not!" Jess yelled as she fired at the skulls of a few Nazi Zombies, killing them all with the laser bullets that flew from her gun.

"I did so!" Andrew yelled as he beheaded the last Zombie.

"AHA! I knew it! Now you're going to prison for attempted murder!" Jess yelled triumphantly.

"Yeah, and there's not a da…wait…what happened here?" Andrew asked, sounding confused.

"She just Bugs Bunny'ed you" Nick said as he walked around the corner.

"Is that the last of them?" Andrew asked.

"Yep" Joe said walking with his bag slung over his shoulders, heading towards his work station in his temporary room.

"All right everyone, the sun's going down. Try to get some sleep…we're going to need it" Jax said to everyone, who split up and did their own thing.

Joe walked down the hallway, deep in thought.

"I don't know how I'm going to finish this thing by myself. But I have to now, especially after Nicholas's sacrifice…I wish I could find someone as good with technology as me" Joe thought in despair as he walked down to the room he had picked out for himself.

Jax stood there though, as he could sense that Samantha was dealing with some sort of dilemma. After a few minutes, she finally spoke.

"_**Jax"**_

"Yeah Sam?" Jax asked.

"_**I…I have an idea…I may need your help for this**_" Samantha spoke to him within his mind.

"What…kind of idea?" Jax asked.

"_**Well, I'm not sure it'll work. If it doesn't work, then we gain nothing…"**_

"But if it does...?" Jax questioned.

"_**Then it'll help me...help all of us…please, just…trust me on this"**_ Samantha said.

"OK. Where're we going?" Jax asked after a moment.

"_**Not far. In fact, it's in this building"**_ Samantha said.

"Then lead the way" Jax said as he allowed Sam control over his body.

Jax then began his walk to a familiar part of the hospital, and Jax found himself thinking "_What does she have planned?"_

**Meanwhile:**

"Watch out!" Nicholas yelled firing his Cobra and scoring a picture perfect headshot. The Zombie's skull exploded and it fell to the ground with a thud.

"Nice one! Now watch this!" Juliet said with a grin as she grabbed her shotgun and placed the tip of it in an approaching Zombie mouth. She then grinned and pulled the trigger, blowing its brains out with an awesomely effective shot. Juliet whirled around kicked a Zombie's skull off of its head, sending it flying onto the ground.

"Nice one!" Nicholas said with a laugh as he slashed a Zombie's throat out with his Bowie Knife and kicked it in the chest, sending it crashing onto the ground.

"You handle yourself pretty well" Juliet grinned as she round-housed kicked a Zombie in the skull and bashed another Zombie in the face with her double-barreled shotgun.

"Shotgun to face?" Nicholas asked.

"Hey, it's my contingency plan!" Juliet grinned.

"Me too!" Nicholas laughed.

"Hahahaha!" Juliet laughed as she swung her shotgun like a club and crushed a Zombie's skull.

The duo made quick work of this batch of Zombies. So Nicholas decided to ask her the question.

"OK, so what you're telling me is that you're the badass chick in the Lollipop Chainsaw trailer?" Nicholas asked.

"Uhh…kind of. I'm the girl they based the character in that game off of. They used my name, and they were inspired to do the game after they learned of my family's past as well. You see, in this day and age, Zombies are the biggest draw for video games, which the popularity of Black Ops proves. Me and my family were contacted by a game industry, who had found out about my grandfather and what he had to do with the Zombies…" Juliet said.

"Who is he?" Nicholas asked.

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain…and you wouldn't believe me if I told you" Juliet sighed.

"That Black Ops is real and these Zombies are attacking because of Richtofen?" Nicholas said.

"H-how…did you know!?" Juliet said taking a step back and tightening her grip on her shotgun.

"Because me and my friends are friends of Samantha Maxis. We tried to stop Richtofen in Florida, but we failed. Now we're chasing him down to D.C" Nicholas said.

"Wow. My grandpa helped Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo way back after they came back from the moon. I don't know what you know, but I'm Jeff Crossbranch's granddaughter" Juliet explained with a grin.

"You mean the guy who went with Dempsey, Nikolai and Takeo to meet with the Leaders in the Pentagon?" Nicholas asked.

"You know my grandpa? RAD! Oh, and if you're wondering, my chainsaw is back at my parent's friend's place. I'm making some…_modifications _to it" Juliet grinned, and Nicholas sighed, causing her to frown.

"Let's hope your chainsaw can cut through giant Hellhounds that are five stories tall" Nicholas sighed.

"Then, that thing on the bridge…" Juliet muttered.

"Fluffy. The first Hellhound." Nicholas said and Juliet's eyes widened.

"Fluffy…OK, I need to get you back to the others, ASAP" Juliet said as she reloaded her shotgun.

"Others?" Nicholas asked.

"Yes, my friends. They can explain better than I can. You see-" Juliet began to say.

Suddenly a Screecher Zombie jumped from the rooftops and landed right on top of Juliet, who yelled in pain as the Zombie slashed the front of her shirt open with its razor-sharp claws.

"Juliet!" Nicholas yelled, firing a shot at the Screecher's spine.

"Get the hell off of me you zombie douchebag!" Juliet yelled kicking the full grown Zombie off of her.

The Screecher landed on its feet and charged again, but Nicholas shot it in the skull three times. Juliet walked over to the Screecher and shot it in the crotch with her shotgun, though it was already dead.

"Awesome. It ruined my outfit" Juliet growled in an annoyed way as she reloaded her shotgun.

"You want to borrow my coat?" Nicholas asked.

"That's sweet, but you're used to fighting in that, and you're still recovering. You're warmth is more important than mine right now. I'll be all right." Juliet said tugging at her torn and now bloody tank top and unintentionally ripping it off.

"I like to travel light, but not like this!" Juliet said shaking her head, not even sounding remotely annoyed.

"Ummm…" Nicholas said blushing dark red.

Juliet seemed to realize that Nicholas was there and the awkwardness of the situation. Juliet scratched the back of her head and said "Oh…um, whoops! Totally forgot I've got company. I'm not used to having people with me when I'm fighting Zombies. Um, care to make a side-trip to that department store over there?"

"Uh, sure Juliet, whatever you want" Nicholas said, trying to tear his eyes off of her chest, which was only covered in a lacy black bra.

"Ahem!" Juliet coughed.

"Oh, s-sorry" Nicholas said he looked up at her smiling face as his face turned red.

"It's fine, don't worry about it! Come on, I'm freezing" Juliet said walking over to the clothes shop, which was empty.

"I'll keep watch" Nicholas said reloading his Cobra.

"Right, I'll be a few minutes" Juliet said walking down the aisles.

"Man…the others are never going to believe this" Nicholas said with a small sigh.

About twenty minutes and thirty dead Zombies later, Nicholas peeked his head inside and yelled "Juliet, you done yet?" (Hey, that rhymed.)

"Nearly, you'd be surprised how long it takes me to decide on something. This is actually good time for me, there was so much choice. I've just got to get dressed and I'll be ready to go" Juliet's voice said from behind the changing room door.

"You're not even dressed yet!?" Nicholas said in surprise.

Juliet opened the door and stuck her head out and yelled "Are you asking in shock, or because you want to see!?"

"Never mind, get back to what you were doing!" Nicholas called with a shy smile.

Juliet giggled and said "You're lucky you're cute, otherwise I'd walk out there, gouge out your eyes, shove them up your a$$, just so you can watch me beat the $hit out of you"

"Sorry, sorry" Nicholas said as he turned away and began walking back to the door.

"It's fine, just give me a minute to get dressed, then we can keep going" Juliet smiled as her head ducked back inside of the changing room.

"She's…wow" Nicholas said, a little stunned.

"_She thinks I'm cute"_ Nicholas thought, and he smiled inwardly as he walked back outside.

A few minutes later Juliet emerged from the changing room and said "OK, I'm ready to go!"

Nicholas was nowhere in sight. Juliet grabbed her shotgun and quietly walked through the store. She stealthily crept to the front of the store and gasped at what she saw.

Nicholas was surrounded by a horde of 20 Zombies all around him, armed with a knife and his pistol. A Nazi Zombie came at him and he ducked under its swipe and sliced its head from its neck with no problem. Nicholas fired three shots into the horde, killing 2 Zombies and blowing another Zombie's arm off. Nicholas sidestepped another Zombie and slashed at its chest before kicking it in the chest, sending it sprawling backwards.

"You're not getting to her, freakbags!" Nicholas snarled as he fired into the undead horde.

Juliet smiled. Though they had just met, she could tell that this guy was pretty special. Even after knowing her for roughly thirty minutes, he was willing to die protecting her while she got new clothes. Not many guys she knew would do that.

"_He's something special"_ Juliet thought with a smile.

Nicholas rolled to the side and blasted a Nazi Zombie's head off with his Cobra. In no time at all, Nicholas had eliminated the wave of Zombies single-handedly.

"Phew…" Nicholas exhaled with a tired grin.

Suddenly Nicholas heard clapping from behind him and saw Juliet standing there, grinning at him.

"Wow" was all Nicholas could say.

Juliet was in a short billowy black skirt that went down to her knees with a pair of black boots on, complete with a long butcher's knife in the knife sheath in the boot. She had a thick leather jacket on that had a swirling pink design on the front and back and she had a pink knapsack slung over her shoulder. Nicholas blushed red again and said "So, you're done?"

"Yep! Come on hotshot, we've got to meet up with my friends." Juliet grinned.

"Y-yeah. Sure" Nicholas said reloading his Cobra, still blushing.

Juliet and Nicholas continued to make their way through the abandoned town. Nicholas realized he was nearly out of ammo and said "I'll need to get another weapon. Otherwise I'll be using my Bowie Knife."

"Hmmm…I know! There's a store over there. Let's see if we can find something that can be used as a weapon" Juliet suggested.

"Good idea, let's go" Nicholas said walking towards the store entrance.

Suddenly a Nazi Zombie burst out of an alleyway and tried to attack Juliet. Juliet leaned all the way back and wrapped her legs around the Zombies head. Juliet flipped the Zombie over and hurled it 15 feet away, where it landed on the ground. Juliet walked over to the Zombie and roundhouse-kicked the Zombie's head right off of its shoulders.

Juliet grinned and said "Much better. I need an outfit I can fight in, not that camo crap Kara likes"

"I think I'm in love" Nicholas said under his breath as he stared in amazement at the beautiful blond walking towards him.

"What's wrong?" Juliet asked curiously.

"Nothing, nothing. Come on, we should be able to get something useful in here." Nicholas said walking through the sliding glass doors.

The store seemed to be a dollar store, and Nicholas and Juliet began to search the place for any supplies that could be useful. Nicholas ripped off the handle of a metal broom and spun it around, like a staff. Eyeing the sharp tip at the end Nicholas said "I think this will work"

Juliet walked around the corner, filling a backpack she had with supplies. Juliet ripped open a candy bar and said "Finally! I haven't eaten in hours!"

"Hmm…do they have any Blow Pops in here?" Nicholas asked walking through the store.

"Um, you want a what now?" Juliet asked, confused.

"What!? No! Blow Pops. The lollipop with gum inside of them?" Nicholas said.

"OH!" Juliet said as she realized what he was talking about, and she blushed pink at her mistake.

"I haven't had one of those since I was a kid!" Juliet said with an embarrassed grin as Nicholas showed her a box of them. Juliet grabbed a strawberry flavored one and popped it in her mouth.

"YUM!" Juliet cheered happily, and Nicholas smiled.

"That's my favorite flavor too. If I die, at least I'll die with my favorite childhood candy" Nicholas said dumping the box into the bag.

"Um, we have some guests" Juliet said pointing her shotgun out of the window.

About two dozen Zombies were coming towards the store. Nicholas glanced around and saw that there was a rear exit nearby.

"Come on Juliet!" Nicholas said grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door.

The two dashed through the back part of the store and emerged outside again. Juliet spotted a motorcycle nearby and pointed it out to Nicholas.

The two noticed a nearby group of Zombies heading for them, so they got ready to fight again. Nicholas swung his improvised staff like a club and ran a Zombie through with it, before ripping it free and bashing another Zombie in the skull five times.

Juliet ducked under a Zombie's swipe and dropkicked the Zombie's face off. She got back to her feet and fired her double-barreled shotgun at a Zombie tourist and ended up killing two Zombies at once. Nicholas jabbed at a Zombie with the improvised staff and tore it's head from its shoulder's and brought the end of the pole down on a Screecher. Juliet fired at the Screecher and blew a hole through its chest, and it feel to the ground.

"On your left! On your left!" Juliet yelled as Nicholas sidestepped a shotgun blast, killing a Screecher in one shot. Nicholas laughed and Juliet giggled. They were a perfect team. Nicholas spun his staff and bashed a Zombie in the skull and then ran him through with it. Nicholas then kicked the Zombie in the chest, sending it crashing onto the ground.

"Juliet! Duck!" Nicholas yelled.

Juliet ducked to avoid a Zombie's swipe and Nicholas delivered a picture perfect headshot with his Cobra, killing the final Zombie who had appeared from nowhere.

As the Zombie groaned and fell to the ground with a thud, Nicholas and Juliet looked at each other for a moment and the both of them grinned and blushed at the same time.

"So…wanna drive a motorcycle?" Juliet asked with a grin.

"Hell yeah! Hey, the owner's nearby" Nicholas said walking over to the motorcycle, reloading his Cobra with his last few remaining bullets.

"Yeah, his corpse." Juliet said.

"Still, a stroke of luck for us" Nicholas said grabbing the keys out of the man's pocket and tossing them towards Juliet.

"Why are you handing them to me for?" Juliet asked.

"I can't drive a motorcycle. Can you?" Nicholas asked.

"No, sorry" Juliet said with a sad frown.

"Hey, it's fine. Just give me a second" Nicholas said starting up the motorcycle.

"Hey, look!" Juliet said cheerfully pointing to a nearby Harley Davidson shop.

Juliet dashed inside of the shop and came out with two helmets and some black gloves for both of them.

"Thanks" Nicholas said putting on the black leather fingerless gloves.

Nicholas and Juliet put on their helmets and Juliet got on the motorcycle and wrapped her arms around Nicholas's waist.

"Ready!" Juliet said cheerfully.

"Alright, just tell me where to go, OK?" Nicholas asked.

"You've got it!" Juliet said with a smile as Nicholas revved up the motorcycle.

Juliet looked back and noticed a Zombie getting close and pulled out her shotgun and blasted its skull right off its body. Nicholas chuckled before driving away smoothly.

"You know, there _are_ a few bright sides to a Zombie apocalypse" Juliet said with a wide smile.

"Such as?" Nicholas asked as he tried to get a feel for the controls of the motorcycle.

"Well, you can go shopping and get whatever you want, for free! I mean, it's not that I like stealing; it's just that I can pick whatever I want. Plus, look at the awesome stuff you get to do! We just stole a motorcycle!" Juliet laughed.

"You've got a point. If you had told me I'd be riding a stolen motorcycle with a beautiful Zombie fighting cheerleader, I would've told them to lay off the weed" Nicholas laughed.

"I'm a whaaaaaat kind of Zombie fighting cheerleader?" Juliet asked Nicholas playfully, and Nicholas blushed dark red and cursed himself silently.

"Nothing, nothing. How do I get to this place anyway? I've been driving in circle for five minutes" Nicholas said.

"Oh my god! Sorry about that. Take a left and then keep going until you hit the McDonald's" Juliet said.

"Gotcha" Nicholas said.

"So, what's your story?" Juliet asked.

"Well, I'm a senior at Bradburn High School, in Bradburn County. I'm in the Marching Band at our school, I play trumpet" Nicholas began.

"Ooh, so you're saying that you're good at-?" Juliet began to say.

"Hey, I'm all for band humor, but let's lay off of the sex jokes until I'm back with my friends, we make plenty of them. You'll fit right in" Nicholas chuckled, and Juliet nodded with a smile.

"Anyway, me and my friends were at our school's last football game of the year, and our team was losing. All of a sudden, we felt a tremor and the next thing we know, Zombies start attacking us" Nicholas said.

Nicholas explained what had happened over the course of the past few days, how they had finally met up with Jess, and then Jax and Sam. He spoke of Group 935 and Illuzio's unclear motives. He also spoke of how they had failed to kill Richtofen, and of John's ultimate sacrifice.

"Oh my god…Nicholas…I'm so sorry" Juliet said gently.

"Don't be. He died the way he would've wanted to. Like a hero" Nicholas said shaking his head sadly.

"Hey, take a right here and keep going until it dead ends, OK?" Juliet said softly.

"Yeah…OK" Nicholas muttered turning the bike.

"So tell me, what happened next?" Juliet asked after a few minutes.

Nicholas told Juliet how they went to the car dealership and destroyed 126 cars in less than 18 hours. Juliet laughed for a full minute when Nicholas described Jax and Nick's stupid bet about which car would be the last one standing. Nicholas also described Samantha's story, and how they survived the haunted Mansion training scenario. Then he told her of how he and the others fought Fluffy, the first Hellhound, on the bridge, and how he had sacrificed himself in order to put the creature down for good.

"Wow! You're a bit of a bada$$, aren't you?" Juliet said with a grin.

"That means a lot coming from the girl who has a game based off of her where she dismembers Zombies with a bedazzled chainsaw" Nicholas remarked.

"I'm guessing you're a fan?" Juliet asked.

"I'll be getting the game this summer" Nicholas laughed.

"Not many guys will admit that kind of thing" Juliet giggled.

"Well, I'm not like most guys. I'm an honest sort of person, and I'm kinda blunt" Nicholas said with a laugh.

"So, you wouldn't lie to me?" Juliet asked.

"No, I'd never lie to you" Nicholas promised.

"I'm soooo going to mess with you about this" Juliet said teasingly.

"Ugh, please don't make me regret saying that" Nicholas groaned.

"Hahaha! Don't worry, I won't totally embarrass you or anything like that!" Juliet laughed loudly.

"I have the weirdest feeling you're flirting with me" Nicholas said.

"Why would I ever do anything like that?" Juliet said cheerfully.

"Because you're doing it now!" Nicholas replied with reluctant amusement.

Juliet leaned closer to Nicholas and whispered in his ear "Am I?"

"Yes, you are" Nicholas replied with a grin.

"Oh, we just passed our stop by the way" Juliet said quickly.

"Crap!" Nicholas said turning around and heading towards a large two-story house.

Juliet pointed at the house and said "Hey look, one of my friends are outside waiting for me!"

"Your friends?" Nicholas asked.

"Well, yeah! That's what I just said, silly!" Juliet laughed.

Suddenly there was a gunshot and there was a bang that came from the front tire of the motorcycle. The motorcycle screeched and the motorcycle flipped over, and the duo crashed into a pile of bushes.

"Juliet?"

"Yeah?"

"You're friends are jerks" Nicholas said detangling himself from bushes.

"Well you think that because they shot your tire out. They're pretty cool when you get to know them" Juliet said getting up.

"HEY! A$$HOLES! Hands in the air!" a woman's voice yelled at him.

"…The one time I get a motorcycle, and my tires get shot out by a psycho with a shotgun…lovely" Nicholas sighed getting up.

"Kara, it's me, Juliet!" Juliet yelled.

The figure walked into the moonlight, which revealed rather pretty young woman who was about the same age as Nicholas and Juliet. She had long blond hair tied into a ponytail and she was wearing an army cap that said "USA FTW". She had on a dark green tank top, camo-cargo pants and had a knife in her boot. She was aiming a shotgun at Nicholas, but lowered it a little when she saw Juliet.

"Oh, hey. Who's that guy with you?" the woman asked.

"I'm Nicholas. Thanks for shooting out my motorcycle by the way" Nicholas grumbled.

"You're welcome. Juliet, why did you bring this guy to the safe house?" Kara asked.

"He's friends with Samantha" Juliet said.

"Or so he says. Iva, Chan! Get out here!" Kara barked.

The front door of the house swung open and two more young women about Juliet's age burst out of the house, armed to the teeth with guns, knives, and a shotgun each.

One of the girls was Asian, and had a pretty sort of face and long black hair. She wore a plain white T-shirt with a small red jacket and a pair of long jeans. After she realized that there were no Zombies, just a barely armed 18 year-old and Juliet, she relaxed. She looked pretty familiar with her weapons though, because she still had her hand on her pistol.

The other teen had long shaggy, dirty blond hair and was staring at Nicholas through her black glasses with her blue calculating eyes. She had on a thick fur jacket and a pair of torn jeans. She walked over to Kara and whispered something, and Kara grinned and muttered something back to her.

"Hey Juliet, is that your new boyfriend?" the shaggy-haired girl asked with a laugh.

"Um, he took down a 60 foot tall Hellhound with a single shot from a pistol" Juliet remarked, exchanging a glance with the blushing Nicholas.

"Really!?" the three girls yelled excitedly.

"Yeah, me and my friends were on…wait, who are you three? And how do you know Samantha?" Nicholas asked.

"We know all about Samantha. And Richtofen and Group 935" Chan said politely.

"How though? Seriously, can someone tell me what's going on?" Nicholas asked.

"Someone's getting testy. Papa! We have a guest!" Iva yelled.

The voice that responded shocked Nicholas so much he swore out loud in shock.

"Eh, Iva. Hold on just a moment, I'm trying to find our stash! I'm almost sober!" a man yelled from within the house.

"No…freaking…way…"Nicholas said with his mouth wide open.

"Well, I'm guessing you already figured it out, so come on in" Iva snickered as she walked back into the house.

"Juliet?" Nicholas said in shock.

"Yeah, I never got to finish my explanation, did I?" Juliet asked with a grin.

"No, but let's save that for when we get inside" Nicholas sighed as he walked towards the house.

Nicholas walked inside and Juliet, Chan, and Kara looked at each other and laughed.

"So Juliet, you like him?" Kara asked.

"Well, he's really sweet and kinda cute, but I want to see him really eff up some Zombies first! I'm going to join his group. They're going to go fight Richtofen" Juliet grinned.

"If he's half as bada$$ as you think he is, you two will be getting intimate by the end of the week" Kara chuckled.

"Oh, you can just go straight to the 9th circle of hell" Juliet replied, sticking her tongue out.

"I'll see you there" Kara laughed.

"Come on, let's head inside" Chan said with a smile as she walked back inside.

"Come on, let's see if your boyfriend is staring at our dad's in shock yet" Kara laughed.

"Probably, it IS pretty cool" Juliet giggled as she walked inside.

"You…have got…to be kidding me" Nicholas said in shock.

"Hey, who's the new kid?" a man with blond hair chilling on the couch asked.

"Chan, who is this you've brought into the safe house?" another man asked holding a sushi knife, while wearing a samurai robe.

"Hey guys, guess who just found some vodka!" another man said walking into the room.

"No way…that's…they're…" Nicholas sputtered.

"What's the matter kid? Cat got your tongue?" the man on the couch asked with a chuckle.

For in front of Nicholas were the three original Zombie slayers. Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki, fifty years later, and looking as though not a day had passed since they escaped from the Moon.

End of Chapter:

OK guys, that's the end of the contest! As you have probably guessed, Juliet Starling, the main character from the "Lollipop Chainsaw" is eventually going to become a regular character and is a member of the team!

So, this means that the winners of the contest are mybrosdrivemecrazy and uig50. You both will have your own customized Zombie featured in a later chapter for guessing the correct person. Also, for those of you who aren't familiar with Juliet, go to Google, and look her up. She's awesome, and I wish I had the game, because I just finished the walkthrough and it looked amazing. And yes, she's my love interest.

Anyway, what sort of awesomeness will happen now that Nicholas has met Juliet, Takeo, Dempsey, and Nikolai? Also, what is Samantha's Plan? And what the hell is Joe working on!? Well don't worry, that'll all be explained next chapter, maybe. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think. And thank you to everyone who participated in the contest, you are all awesome. Part 2 will be up soon, but until then, please review and let me know what you think! Until next time, FlygonN out!


	16. Revelations Part II

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead**

ANA:

_Howdy folks! _

_I hoped you enjoyed last chapter. I certainly enjoyed making it. Disclaimer as usual, I don't own anything from Black Ops, Lollipop Chainsaw, or Red vs. Blue. _

_Also, I'd like to apologize for the lateness of the chapter. It was longer than I thought it would be and college is getting in the way. Hopefully I can focus on my stories again and not have to worry about stupid projects and other annoying crap. Also, when I've worked on chapter for a while and stuff gets in the way, I kinda lose interest and it takes forever to finish. Sorry about that, and I hope the slightly longer chapter makes up for it._

_Also, if you any of you happen to read the Grim and Evil comics, or just watched the TV show "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy", you should check out the fanfic "Symbiote Part 1: Presents From Down Below" by Dragonrulz. It's an awesome fanfic that I recently started co-writing. You should check it out when you can; it's in my favorites on my profile._

_Also, just to bring up a point, I don't really care if any of you message me or or want my opinion on something. Don't feel like you're bothering me, seriously, I'm either on YouTube or working on my stories. lol. I actually like it when people message me, so if you have an idea for the story or just want me to shoutout your story or something, let me know._

_Superspecialawesome shoutout to mybrosdrivemecrazy (the song you suggested I should listen to is freaking amazing, thanks a ton), Uig50 (I WANT LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW!), TrapinchH (devolved but still awesome), as well as three new reviewers, DeltaG (Memory is the key), Justplainawesome (Indeed you are), and Thundermokey39 (Awesome name). Like always, thanks for the feedback and the support everyone, you guys rock!_

_Here's part 2 everyone!_

**Chapter 16: Revelations Part II: A Second Chance**

"Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski and Takeo Masaki" Nicholas said in awe.

"So Juliet, I'm guessing this is one of the survivors from the explosion at the bridge?" Tank said walking over to the group.

"Yeah, this guy's apparently a friend of Sam's" Kara said pointing her shotgun at Nicholas.

"Hmmm…hey, what's that gun you've got there?" the marine asked.

"A Cobra. Which as you probably know is a Pack-A-Punched Python" Nicholas said showing him the pistol.

"Let me see that"Tank said grabbing the gun.

"You have merit as a warrior young man" Takeo said with a smile as he walked over to his daughter.

"Thank you, that means a lot coming from you sir" Nicholas said with a grin.

Tank brought the gun up to his face and smelled it.

"Element 115. This is just like the weapons we fought with all those years ago" Tank said tossing the gun back to Nicholas, who caught it and clipped it to his hip.

"Thanks. I'm Nicholas by the way" Nicholas said sticking his hand out.

"Heh, you've got balls kid. I like that" Tank said shaking Nicholas's hand.

"Thank you sir. It's amazing to meet you all in person" Nicholas said.

"Hmph, Nikolai agrees, it is awesome to meet me" Nikolai grinned as he chugged down a bottle of his beloved vodka.

"So, how's our favorite demonic ghost girl doing?" Tank asked walking over to a worn couch and flopping down on it.

"Well, she's trying to fix things after what happened on the Moon. She's saved us a good few times and she's with my friends right now. Thing is, I have no clue where they are" Nicholas said with a shrug.

"Hmmm…Iva, any ideas?" Kara asked the other girl, who smirked.

"My guess is they probably looked around for a while for, Nicholas was it? Yeah, they probably stopped somewhere to sleep for the night. I was scouting out the area over by that bridge before it exploded and found a RV with machine gun turrets and all sorts of other things on it. I put a tracking clip on the roof. I'm guessing it was your group's ride?" Iva asked.

Nicholas nodded and said "We had a monster truck, but we drove that off a cliff"

"That's how I ended my last relationship" Juliet said with a laugh, causing everyone to look up.

"What? He lived…barely" Juliet added in an undertone.

"That means she single Nicholas, just so you know" Chan said with a giggle.

Nicholas flushed pink, but didn't reply; instead he said to Iva "So where are they?"

Iva pulled out a small cell phone and said "According to this tracker, they're at Mavenwood Hospital, it's about twenty miles from here, though the route takes us through dense Zombie territory"

"Wow, she's pretty smart if she can build something like that" Nicholas said, sounding impressed.

"Thanks. I've been trying to find someone as perceptive and tech-savvy as me, though I doubt I'll succeed" Iva remarked in a slightly cocky tone.

"By the way, if you're wondering how a retarded drunk like Nikolai has such a intelligent daughter, than you're just as confused as I am" Tank said with a grin.

"HEY!" Iva and Nikolai yelled.

"Actually, I'm not sure how it happened either. It must have been the vodka I've drunk for all these years" Nikolai chuckled while giving his daughter a bear hug.

"Papa! Put me down!" Iva laughed as Nikolai swirled her around.

"Papa? Wait…they're your kids!?" Nicholas yelled in surprise, gesturing towards Kara, Chan, and Iva.

"Yeah, I know. Crazy isn't it? We didn't even think we could have kids. You see, we were exposed, indirectly, to that 115 gas for so long, it began to affect us. We've only aged a little bit since we came back to Earth, all those years ago"

"Please, can you tell me what happened since you all escaped the Moon?" Nicholas asked as he sat down next to Juliet.

"Well, we were able to get to the Pentagon where we helped President Kennedy and the other 3 old farts, and they gave us all awards and stuff for helping save the world. Even though we kinda blew it up" Dempsey chuckled.

"So, what happened after that?" Nicholas asked.

"Well, we all agreed that Richtofen wouldn't just go away. He needed to be stopped. The thing is, we had no idea where the guy was" Tank admitted.

"We spent 10 years searching for him around the United States. But it was for naught. We encountered several hordes of Zombies in a few places in the southern area of the country and in a few places in the north, but other than that, nothing" Takeo explained.

"So, we decided to relax and let him come to us! We had a few connections in your pathetic government that allowed us to get whatever weapons we needed. So, we built safehouses all over your puny country and settled down" Nikolai said sitting down.

"It took us the better part of ten years to find a spot to serve as our main safehouse. We've been on the lookout for anything Zombie-related, anything that could help us find Richtofen. We realized at this point that we weren't aging. For some reason, Richtofen's experiments and the indirect exposure to Element 115…it had caused us to age really slowly" Dempsey explained.

"We're there any other side effects? Element 115 is pretty tricky and unpredictable" Nicholas asked.

"That is what we though too. We made sure to distance ourselves away from other people and laid low. We decided to stick together, you know, safety in numbers" Dempsey said.

"Over the years we've had a few run-ins with Group 935. Mainly Porter, though once we had a run-in with Richtofen himself. We barely managed to get away, though we ruined his laboratory in Tennessee. Besides that, we've mainly stayed in this location, with Samantha" Dempsey said.

"Why with Samantha?" Nicholas asked.

"She can sense the 115 to a degree, meaning she had a sense of where Richtofen is. So, we had to have her nearby. At first, we were a little…uncertain, that such a freaky spirit would be OK to have around. But she kind of grew on us" Nikolai said with a grin.

"Poor kid's been through hell and back. Watched her father die, and got turned into…whatever she is by Richtofen. Not surprised she tried to kill everyone in 935, even us" Dempsey said with a sigh.

"So we've spent the better part of time gathering supplies for when Richtofen finally did attack. When we heard about what happened in Bradburn, we evacuated everyone out of the town and told them to get out of the country. Richtofen's only got Zombies in the US, he has to expand his power here before he can go on to the rest of the world" Dempsey explained.

"Well, he has to activate each of his 115 Nodes at his laboratories if he wants to get to get the maximum power for his army. He's heading to D.C. now" Nicholas said.

"Then we'll meet him there" Iva said with a grin.

"Yeah! We can meet up with Nicholas's group and together we can kill Richtofen!" Kara said excitedly.

"We've been preparing for a very long time for this day" Takeo said quietly, though he was smiling widely.

"Show him Tak" Dempsey said with a grin.

Takeo flipped a switch on the wall, and a bookcase on the wall opened up, revealing an enormous hallway, lined with every sort of gun imaginable, every kind of grenade and rocket launcher invented, and an array of melee weapons that would make any marine worth his brass start dancing from sheer awesomeness.

"No words…so…awesome…" Nicholas said breathlessly.

"We were also rewarded heavily by the President for helping save the world" Nikolai said with a laugh.

"Yeah, it gives me a warm feeling knowing we could level a third world country if we felt like it" Dempsey said with a happy sigh.

"I've got a candidate!" Nikolai said excitedly.

"America isn't a third world country, we've been over this" Dempsey said immediately.

"You are always killing my joy Dempsey" Nikolai grumbled.

"So, what's with them?" Nicholas asked jerking a finger towards Iva, Chan, and Kara.

Kara pulled out her shotgun and said "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Hold on there, kiddo. The guy wants an explanation" Dempsey said with a chuckle.

"Well, after about 30 years of watching out for Richtofen, we decided to go back to our countries for a bit, I just stayed in the good old U.S.A. We agreed to meet here in five years, with more weapons and more info. Samantha stayed with me occasionally, but she went and did her own thing. I met a woman one day who seemed…perfect. Marine, awesome body, and she loved big guns. We naturally got married a year later, and after a few months of being married, we eventually wanted something…more"

Dempsey looked at Kara and said "I was really worried at first. I knew I was experimented on, and I knew there were going to be some side-effects passed onto my kids. But, my wife was dead set on it. Kara was born a year after we decided to take the risk. Same story for Takeo and Nikolai. We all came back here with our wives, or um…Nikolai's 17th wife"

"17TH!" Nicholas said exasperatedly.

"What? It's been 50 years, are you honestly surprised I haven't stayed with just one wife?" Nikolai said.

"And you're OK with this?" Nicholas asked Iva, who shrugged.

"Mama is Papa's current wife, so he wouldn't even dare think of doing anything to her…RIGHT PAPA?" Iva asked harshly.

Nikolai flinched and said "Eh…right, what she said"

"Yeah, Nikolai's been pretty good about that. Hasn't killed Iva's mom yet, thank God" Dempsey muttered the last part under his breath.

"So, Juliet, how do you know them?" Nicholas asked.

"My grandpa, Jeff Crossbranch, kept in contact with them and he even went with them a few times on trips to kill Zombies. Eventually my grandpa settled down in California, and we set up a training business" Juliet explained.

"Wait, how is your last name Starling?" Nicholas asked.

"Name change. My grandpa was kinda well known after because he saved a few groups of people from Zombie attacks, so he had to change his last name" Juliet said.

"Ah. So, what's the plan now?" Nicholas asked.

"Well, Juliet's parents have been gone for a while. They actually contacted me while Juliet snuck out" Dempsey said sternly, causing Juliet to wince at the change in tone.

"I was worried someone got hurt…and I was right" Juliet said casting a shy glance at Nicholas, who grinned.

"Yeah, she saved my life. Porter and Fluffy nearly killed us all" Nicholas said.

"Anyway, they said they're happy you got here safe and sound, and that you need to be careful. They'll meet up with you soon, hugs and kisses, blah blah blah" Dempsey said.

"Thank God they're alright" Juliet said with a sigh of relief.

"I think it is about time you tell us what has been going on, young man" Takeo said quietly.

Nicholas sighed and said "You better sit down, it's a long story"

Nicholas explained what had happened since the night of the attack. Nick finding C.N, the Hellwolf attack and Samantha revealing the truth. He spoke of Samantha testing them and Illuzio's riddles and schemes. He spoke of Jess's friend Marcus and how they rigged a missile to fire at Richtofen's lab in Tallahassee.

"Kid, I had a feeling you were special. Now you're telling me you sent a missile at Richtofen? How would you like to marry Kara?" Dempsey joked.

"HEY!" Kara and to everyone's surprise Juliet yelled.

When everyone looked at her she blushed and said "What? That's unfair to everyone involved"

"Get back to your tale" Takeo said to Nicholas, who nodded.

With a heavy heart, Nicholas told of the attack on the Lab in Tallahassee, the revelation that Porter was alive, and of his and Richtofen's powers. Then Nicholas spoke of John's sacrifice.

"Man…that sucks kid. Sorry to hear about that" Dempsey said seriously.

"Hey, it's…we'll make sure to take down Richtofen for him, right?" Nicholas said with a sigh.

"We'll make that evil Nazi pay for what he's done!" Chan said angrily.

Kara, Iva, and Juliet all nodded and agree with Chan. Nicholas then explained how they got the RV, surviving the Haunted Mansion Training Scenario, and their fight against Fluffy. Nicholas told off how he sacrificed himself to put down Fluffy, and all three Zombie slayers nodded and smiled in approval.

"Semper Fi" Dempsey said with a smile.

"Always loyal, once a marine always a marine. Me and my friends have been through hell these past few days, and we've stuck together through it all" Nicholas said with a grin.

"Alright everyone, here's the game plan. We need to rest up for the night; it's been a long one. Tomorrow we'll start loading up supplies and get ready to move out. We'll meet your friends at Mavenwood Hospital in a few days and together we'll put down Richtofen. Well…we'll probably head towards the lab together once we meet up with them, but we'll probably get there first. And just so we're clear, we're not joining your group" Dempsey said.

"That'll disappoint everyone" Nicholas said with a sigh.

"I'll join you guys" Juliet said with a grin.

"Thanks Juliet" Nicholas replied with a grin.

"Keep it in your pants you two, you can get familiar with each other later" Dempsey said with obvious amusement, and the two young adults blushed.

"Everyone should rest up. Kara and Chan, you take first watch. Then its Iva and Nikolai's turn" Dempsey said.

"It was our turn last night!" Nikolai complained.

"True, but I have to pay a crapload of money to get vodka for you and Iva, so you get more watch duties. Unless you want to give up vodka for a little while?" Dempsey asked evilly.

Nikolai blinked and said "You…are an twisted and evil man Tank Dempsey"

Dempsey snorted and said "That's what my wife told me on our honeymoon"

"GROSS DAD!" Kara yelled.

"Oh, sorry. Well, not really... Anyway, Nicholas can sleep on this couch" Dempsey said getting up from it.

"Thanks for keeping it warm" Nicholas said dryly.

"Do you want guard duty?" Dempsey asked.

"No, the only duty he wants to guard is Juliet's-"Chan began to say before Takeo said "Enough!"

Nicholas walked over to the couch and flopped down on it, using his trench coat as a blanket. As the lights turned off and everyone set off for bed, Nicholas found that even after an hour, he couldn't sleep. His mind was racing at what had happened over the past few hours.

His entire world had been turned upside down in a matter of days. He had met all 4 of his favorite Zombie slayers, and now he was teaming up with 3 of them to kill the 4th. He was living out his dream of killing Zombies with his friends…

But the second he started smiling to himself…he thought of what they had lost too...the peace of mind that the world as a whole was safe…their families were in danger…probably dead at this point…and they had lost one of their best friends…

"Damn it…" Nicholas muttered under his breath.

"Hey…are you OK?" a voice came from the darkness.

Juliet walked out of the shadows and into the moonlight spilling in from the window, clad in a tank top and a worn pair of jeans. She looked sincerely worried, and Nicholas sat up from the couch and she sat down next to him.

"Yeah, I'm all right. How about you? Can't sleep?" Nicholas asked quietly.

"I don't get much sleep these days. Zombies have a preference to shadows and darkness, so I'm used to being awake at night. Luckily Chan and Kara are on guard duty, so we can all at least try to sleep" Juliet replied.

"But sunlight won't actually stop Zombies from attacking though" Nicholas said to Juliet.

"Yep, they'll attack whenever. It's just that that we've killed enough of them to where it'll take a while for more to get to our position. So for now, we're safe" Juliet said with a smile.

Nicholas shook his head and said "I doubt we'll ever be safe"

Juliet looked at him and got off of the couch.

"Get up. We're going outside" Juliet said.

"Why?" Nicholas asked.

"Because, I want to show you something" Juliet said with a smile, which basically sealed the deal.

"Sure" Nicholas said quietly, with a reluctant smile as he slipped his trench coat on.

The two of them quietly walked past Iva, who was sleeping soundly in the other room, and they silently walked up the stairs. Juliet opened a window and leapt through it, and Nicholas followed. The two walked out onto the roof, which was thankfully not steep. Juliet laid down on the rooftop and said "Come on, lay down and watch the stars with me"

Nicholas smiled slightly and did as she asked. The stars were bright out tonight, shining and shimmering in the dark sky. It was kind of nice, just sitting in cool night and just watching the stars twinkle in the sky.

"Hey…Juliet?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah?" Juliet said turning to face Nicholas.

"You ever wonder why we're here?" Nicholas asked.

"What do you mean? Like, metaphysically or like, the human race in general?" Juliet asked.

"Wow, smart, beautiful and deadly. How in the hell are you single?" Nicholas asked in amazement.

"Well, if you feel like changing that, be my guest" Juliet said scooting closer to Nicholas, who flushed pink.

"Someone's a little forward" Nicholas said with a chuckle.

"It's a Zombie apocalypse, and you're the bravest person I've met in a long, long time. Plus, you're loyal, capable at killing Zombies, and for some reason…I trust you" Juliet said softly with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Thanks" Nicholas said quietly with a smile.

"So, back to the question" Nicholas said after a few moments.

"Well…I think we all have a purpose in this world. We all have unlimited potential and can achieve anything if we set our mind to it. Just look at me and you. We're two awesome Zombie killers, and after we meet up with your group, we're going to kill Richtofen and save the world. And we'll avenge everyone we've lost along the way" Juliet replied.

"You make it seem so easy. We fought Richtofen and Group 935 with everything we had, and look at where we are now. John's dead, I would've died if it wasn't for you, and God knows who else from Group 935 survived into the present. I have a feeling Porter is just the tip of the iceberg" Nicholas said sorrowfully.

"Nicholas, you've got to have hope. Things will get better, I'm sure of it!" Juliet said cheerfully.

"What makes you so sure?" Nicholas asked.

"Because things got better today. You woke up and we got back to the Safehouse safely. Plus, you turned out to be a really great guy" Juliet said with a smile.

"You were…really that worried about me?" Nicholas asked curiously.

Juliet nodded and scooted closer to Nicholas, shivering slightly as she put her head on his chest. Nicholas flushed pink again and Juliet said "Well, I've kinda been on my own for a while. I've had to fight off hordes of Zombies by myself on my way here…I was hoping you'd be nice, you know?"

Nicholas wrapped an arm around Juliet and wrapped her up partway in his trench coat. Juliet grinned at Nicholas and said "I'm glad I was right"

"I still owe you for saving me. I plan on repaying you somehow" Nicholas said.

"Give me some more of that coat, its cold out here!" Juliet laughed, and Nicholas obliged.

"Wow…the stars are amazing out here" Nicholas said after a few minutes.

"You have no idea. I travelled through some forests and stuff on my way here, and without all of the light pollution, you can see so many stars. You can see a lot of them from here though" Juliet said quietly, moving closer to Nicholas to stay warm.

"They're amazing" Nicholas said again, putting an arm around Juliet, who snuggled closer.

After a few minutes Nicholas began to drowse. Juliet had already fallen asleep, snoring slightly on top of him. It was really nice, just laying there under the stars with Juliet. It helped him get his mind off of the dark thoughts he had been dwelling on. Today had been pretty rough for him, and he was really glad that someone like Juliet had been the one to find him instead of Illuzio or Porter. Nicholas dozed for a little bit and he woke up a few hours later to find Juliet looking up at the stars.

"Hey, did you just wake up?" Nicholas asked.

"Nope! I've been awake for about an hour. I like watching the stars with a friend, even when they're sleeping like a lump" Juliet grinned.

"Oh wow, thanks" Nicholas said with a little bit of sarcasm.

"No problem! I do what I can!" Juliet laughed.

The two lay there, watching the stars. Nicholas was in deep thought the whole time though. What more could they do? Even with Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo at their backs, Group 935 was just too powerful.

"Hey…you OK?" Juliet asked quietly.

"I'm worried…worried that we can't stop him…" Nicholas muttered.

"You have got to have some hope. If you don't, then there's no point in living and you might as well jump into a Zombie horde now" Juliet said seriously.

"Hope huh?" Nicholas asked.

"Hope" Juliet grinned.

Nicholas then smiled and said "Thanks"

Juliet winked at him and was about to respond when someone yelled "Oh get a room you two!"

Nicholas and Juliet started and looked to the side of the roof, where Kara and Chan were watching them with huge grins. Nicholas and Juliet both flushed red and separated from each other.

"Jeez, you two are getting along fine. But if you plan on doing the horizontal happy dance, at least don't do it on the roof, you'll wake our dads up" Kara said with a grin.

"Um, maybe we should continue this some other time" Nicholas said with a grin, though embarrassed.

"I concur" Juliet giggled.

The two got up and headed back downstairs, but as Kara and Chan passed them to swap guard with Nikolai and Iva, Juliet kissed him on the cheek. Nicholas flushed red and looked at her, and she winked and walked to her room.

"…if I wake up and this is a dream, I'll be really pissed" Nicholas said with a smile as he walked over to the couch and fell into the most comfortable sleep he had since before the outbreak.

**Four Days Later:**

"OK, to the left!" Takeo yelled.

"Wait a second…my left or your left?" Nikolai asked.

"Yours!" Takeo yelled.

"OK…BAM!"

"You honorless idiot! You could have blown us all to smithereens!" Takeo yelled as Nikolai dropped the crate of explosives roughly on the floor of the truck.

"Oh cry me a river Takeo. Last time I did it, I killed that Zombie that knocked you out in North Dakota" Nikolai said pulling out a bottle of vodka and taking a swig.

"This is different! We have been gathering these supplies for years you buffoon! And I don't want to die at your clumsy hands!" Takeo yelled back.

"Just another day in paradise" Kara sighed.

"I didn't know we're in Shangri-La. Where're the evil moneys and Zombies that are on fire for no good reason?" Nicholas asked.

The young Zombie slayers burst out laughing as they watched Nikolai and Takeo argue. Dempsey walked out of the house and said "Don't joke about those things kid. I've got scorch marks in places I didn't know you could get em thanks to those things!"

The others laughed as the three original Zombie-slayers helped load up the truck. The truck was filled with guns, supplies, ammo, and a lot of other things. It was a huge Big Rig that had been immensely modified. It had 8 windows on the back part, allowing those inside of the truck to fire their weapons while having adequate cover. There was a mounted machine gun turret on the top of the truck, where Takeo was going to be sitting.

The group continued to prepare for the trip, Nicholas and the girls helped when they could, but spent most of the time talking and sharing past experiences. Apparently the girls had grown up listening to their fathers/grandfathers stories about Zombies, and had been training all their lives for the day when Richtofen would come back. Nicholas listened to their stories and even told them a few of his own, about fighting Richtofen and how he and his friends at Bradburn had always dreamed of fighting Zombies. Nicholas wondered who else from their school had made it out of Florida alive. Wherever they were, he hoped they were OK.

By the time preparations were complete, the sun was beginning to sink below the sky once more. The three original Zombie slayers took a short break after loading the last of the cargo and making sure that the big rig was fortified.

"Everybody, it is time to enter the fight. Get onboard" Takeo said as he climbed a small ladder onto the top of the big rig.

Nicholas hopped into the back part of the big rig and admired the crates full of machine guns, shotguns, grenades, and other stuff. Nicholas heard a loud revving sound and turned around to see Juliet walking out of the house holding her trademark bedazzled chainsaw. Juliet walked over to the truck and jumped in. She had an MP40 in a thigh gun holster and a hunting knife in each boot.

Kara, Iva, and Chan all hopped into the truck similarly equipped. Nicholas wondered when he'd get a weapon when Dempsey walked over to the back of the truck.

"All right kid, let's see how you roll with the big boys" Dempsey said with a smirk as he tossed Nicholas a Galil.

"I think I can keep up" Nicholas replied with a grin.

The back of the truck was to remain open, just in the case they needed to get out and deal with the Zombies up close. The truck began to move with Dempsey driving, Nikolai in shotgun seat, and Takeo manning the turret. Nicholas and the girls would aim their guns through the openings in the back part of the big rig and fend off the oncoming waves of Zombies.

After about five minutes, the group began to pass through another small town, and they could tell it was crawling with Zombies. The Zombies ran at the truck as it turned into the town.

"Open fire!" Nicholas yelled out before firing at a group of Nazi Zombies coming from the side.

Nicholas was able to kill them with a good amount of headshots, leaving their skulls looking somewhat obliterated. Nicholas quickly reloaded, thanks to the still-active effects of Speed Cola.

Juliet grinned and yelled "Awesome!"

"Awesome?" Nicholas said as blasted more Zombies.

"Well…yeah" Juliet said with a blush.

"You know what, I get the feeling this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship Juliet" Nicholas said with a smile.

"Ditto, now kill some more Zombies!" Juliet said cheerfully.

"Yes Ma'am!" Nicholas yelled, opening fire on another cluster of Zombies.

Iva pulled out an AK-47 and walked over to Nicholas and began firing at the Zombies too. Not to be outdone, Juliet, Kara, and Chan all grabbed assault rifles and began firing at the hordes of Zombies while Tank drove the truck quickly through the town.

Nicholas caught sight of a larger Zombie barreling right towards them. It was a Juggernaut, dressed in large overalls, hillbilly-style.

"Juggernaut at 9 'o clock!" Nicholas yelled.

"I've got it!" Takeo said mounting the machine gun turret and opening fire.

The bullets slammed into the charging Zombie, but the Juggernaut continued to charge. Nicholas, Kara, Juliet, Chan, and Iva all added their gunfire to Takeo's, and were able to take down the Juggernaut Zombie together.

"Well done, all of you. But there is more on the way" Takeo said aiming the turret down the street, where more Zombies were coming down.

"Get ready!" Nicholas yelled, reloading again and taking aim.

"TAKE THIS EVIL HELL DOGS!" Nikolai yelled, aiming a M72 Anarchy at the horde and firing over and over again.

"Where in the hell did you get that!?" Nicholas asked as a missile flew by and blew up a CVS.

"Sam let us make as many Pack-A-Punched Weapons as we needed to before she left to look for that psychotic Nazi. Hold on everyone!" Tank yelled as he took a hard right.

Juliet lost her balance and crashed right into Nicholas, sending them both crashing in top of each other on the bed of the truck. Nicholas's face was mere centimeters from Juliet's face, and the both of them were flushing dark red. Kara laughed as they got to their feet and said "Graceful as a gazelle there, you two"

"Shut up" Juliet and Nicholas said as they picked up their guns.

The group took a slight breather as Dempsey turned the truck again. There was a wicked flash of green light in the middle of the road, and the group heard Dempsey yell "GET OUT OF THE ROAD!"

There was an unnaturally loud snapping sound and the truck slowed to a stop, despite Dempsey yelling at the truck.

"Hey! Who do you think you are!?" Dempsey yelled as he and Nikolai got out and aimed their guns at the newcomer.

Nicholas, Takeo, and the girls got out of the truck and saw the person who had stopped them. Nicholas let out a growl of annoyance and pulled out his Cobra and fired at the man, who caught the bullet and flicked it to the ground, bored.

"So…you lived" Illuzio said looking right at Nicholas.

"Yeah. Tell Porter that the next time I see him, I'm going to rip out his spine" Nicholas said with loathing.

"Oh? And why is that?" Illuzio asked.

"Because he nearly killed my friends, and I'll be damned if I let anyone else die because of you all" Nicholas said softly, but in a tone so serious everyone could hear what he said.

"A brave sentiment, but death is inevitable. As for Porter, be my guest. His death would only bring me happiness" Illuzio said.

"Nicholas, who is he?" Juliet whispered to the Zombie-slayer.

"I am Illuzio, Master of Magic, super-solider of Group 935, and the one who will kill Edward Richtofen, at your service" Illuzio said with an elegant bow.

"If you want to kill that Kraut so bad, why are you a member of group 935?" Dempsey asked.

"Because I don't have enough power to destroy him. He has preformed many experiments on himself since you all escaped his grasp, and by the time I realized that he was the one behind my misery, he was too strong. So I must observe from the shadows, at least until the time is right" Illuzio said softly.

"Where are my friends!?" Nicholas demanded.

"Holed up in some run down hospital, though they're fighting a losing battle. Unless you all can get there within the next hour, they'll all be dead because of Porter's forces" Illuzio said with a small smile.

"As for you three, you should've finished the job years ago. Otherwise none of us would be in this mess. And these children of yours…they seem to be even more powerful than you all. Indirect 115 exposures seem to be very beneficial to one's offspring. I'll make a mental note of it in the future" Illuzio said with chuckle.

"You leave them out of this!" Dempsey snarled at Illuzio, and Takeo and Nikolai growled angrily.

"I suppose it is about time I take my leave. Farewell" Illuzio said snapping his fingers, disappearing in a wicked green flash.

"Who was that guy Nicholas?" Juliet asked.

"He's a magical jester who wants to kill Richtofen. He's sort of been helping us from time to time, but I don't know why he wants to kill Richtofen. He's…a mystery" Nicholas admitted.

"Come. We must keep moving" Takeo said.

"Yeah, he may come back with help" Nikolai agreed.

The group got back into the truck and started heading towards the hospital, where things were getting serious…

**At the Hospital:**

"NO LIAM! THIS IS MY POT PIE!" Nick yelled running down the hallway.

"You guys are dumb" Jess said as she continued to draw in a notebook.

"I've been saying that ever since marching season" Andrew said with a sigh as he walked the hallway with Reaper slung over his shoulder.

The four were patrolling the hallways, making sure that nothing came to attack them during the night. Jax, Joe, and Judith were all resting while they patrolled the hallways with a few other survivors.

Liam caught Nick and had him in a neck-lock while he snatched the pot pie from him. Nick struggled and squirmed before Liam pushed Nick to the side. Nick fell to the ground and Liam triumphantly held the pot-pie in the air.

"Victory!" Liam yelled.

Nick pulled out C.N. and threw him at Liam. The statue knocked the pot-pie flying into the air and crashing onto Liam's head, sending chicken, vegetables, and gravy everywhere. C.N. bounced off of the wall and flew back into Nick's hand.

"**Yep…I'm pretty awesome"** C.N. said.

"...you…I…my anger…it's broken…" Liam said with his eye twitching.

"Just go get a pop tart from the vending machine Liam" Jess suggested.

"Yeah…I'll do that" Liam muttered as he walked down the hallway.

Jax stood there in the hallway, thinking. He wasn't really watching the other's shenanigans. He was worried about Samantha, and her so-called "plan"…

"It could work" Jax admitted.

"_**I know it will work"**_ Samantha said confidently.

"Yes, but you know what this means right?" Jax asked.

"_**Of course I do...I've waited long enough. I've suffered enough…"**_ Samantha sighed in Jax's mind and said in a whispered _**"I've been through so much Jax…I've been alone for so long. I've only known you all for a few days, and I…I don't want anyone else to die Jax…I don't…"**_

"We won't" Jax said, though images of Nicholas being engulfed in the inferno and seeing John's makeshift grave flashed through his mind.

"_**You don't believe that. And I don't believe that. It's only been a few days, and John is dead and Nicholas is nowhere to be found. This fight could take months or even years to finish. I can't stand losing the only friends I've ever really had"**_ Samantha whispered.

Jax felt nothing but sympathy for the spirit. She had her childhood stolen from her, and was nothing more than a spirit separated from her body. She had severed the connection to her real body and had connected to Jax, who served as her host. Jax was quicker and stronger than a regular teen, and could handle Wonder Weapons with no trouble. He knew the spirit better than most, and after a while he decided that this was the best course of action.

"All right Sam…I'll ask him, but it won't be pretty" Jax said before heading down the hallway.

Joe sighed.

"Man, I've been working on this thing for days, and even with C.N. unlocking my true potential, I still can't get it to work!" Joe growled in anger.

Joe flung down his tools and began to pace the room in an annoyed way. Things had been going downhill ever since they went to the Air Force Base. John was dead, Richtofen had expanded his power, and now Nicholas was gone. He was starting to get skeptical that they could actually stop Richtofen, now that they were down two friends.

He could barely think straight through due to grief. He and John had never exactly acted like best buddies, but Joe actually did care about him and considered him a close friend. As for Nicholas, he was his best friend, and was always someone he could talk to if he needed something. Losing both of them hurt him bad.

"I've got to finish this thing…and with it…kill Richtofen" Joe decided, gaining a little bit of drive to finish his project.

Joe walked back over to his makeshift workbench and began to tinker with his…project. He had added several of the things he had gathered in the group's travels to it, but what he really needed was a second opinion. Someone with serious skill in technology like him. An assistant or something.

Jess walked out to the cafeteria of the hospital and sat down at a table. Nick and Liam were now fighting like little kids, and she had wanted to get some peace and quiet for once. She pulled out an old radio she kept in her backpack and began messing with the frequencies. She had gotten into a habit of doing this ever since she met Marcus at the other hospital. There was a special frequency on the radio she had that would allow her to talk to Marcus, who kept a similar radio on him as well. If she could just find the right frequency…

After about an hour, she heard a voice.

"-damn near killed us all. Thank God you came when you did man"

"Yeah, you saved our hides. Seriously though, how the hell did you survive? I heard that hospital near you burst into flames" another male voice said.

"Believe it or not I met a cute girl and a group of other survivors. We all went to the hospital and when we were attacked by Zombies, we were able to escape. Believe it or not, that girl, Jess, and me jumped off a five story ledge into a giant fish tank to escape the flames…I hope she's OK" a familiar voice said.

Jess grinned happily as the trio kept talking over the radio.

"I wonder how she's doing now?" Marcus asked himself.

"Who's this cute girl you're talking about Marcus?" Jess asked with a laugh as she spoke into the microphone piece.

"Jess!?" Marcus said in surprise.

"Yep! What's up?" Jess asked cheerfully.

"Dude, who is that?" another guy asked.

"That's the girl! Jess, what's up?" Marcus asked.

"We're holed up in another hospital. A lot's happened since we saw you last Marcus" Jess said, becoming sad when she thought back on her two fallen friends.

"What happened?" Marcus's friend asked.

"Well…I have to confess something to you" Jess said.

Jess explained everything Samantha had told them, how Black Ops Zombies was real and that Richtofen  
>was behind everything that had happened.<p>

"…that's amazing" Marcus said with a grin.

"I always knew there was something odd about some of the Zombies. They were in Nazi uniforms and looked really familiar" Marcus's friend said.

"Seem legit" Marcus's other friend said.

"So, you guys are still trying to track down Richtofen?" Marcus said.

"Yeah, we're in Georgia right now, we're heading to D.C." Jess said.

"We just made it out of Florida. We'll try to meet up with you guys in D.C if we can make it there" Marcus promised.

Jess talked about the rest o their adventures, including John's sacrifice and Nicholas being consumed in an explosion.

"Man…that's rough…" Marcus's friend Steven said.

"You'll find him. I know you guys will" Marcus said confidently.

"I hope so…" Jess said with a frown.

She heard people yelling and heard glass shattering from another floor. A feral roar could be heard, echoing throughout the building.

"What was that?" Marcus asked.

"I'll have to call you back. Stay safe" Jess said.

"You too" Marcus said before Jess turned off her radio.

Jess stuffed the radio in her backpack and reloaded her HK21, Awful Lawton, and her M115 Kollider. Jess dashed up the stairway and onto the 3rd floor, where she saw the others talking with Kevin.

"Hey, what's going on?" Jess asked.

Kevin was about to answer when a very loud screech came from the window beside them. A Screecher burst into the room through the window and grabbed Kevin by the throat and tried to bite into his neck. Kevin jabbed it in the neck with his elbow as hard as he could, stunning it, before jabbing two knives into its skull. Kevin jumped back and blasted the Screecher in the skull with his colt.

Kevin looked at the group as the Screecher fell to the ground and said "Battle positions"

"OK, Jax and Nick down there. Judith and Jess down there. Andrew and Liam and me, this way" Joe said, and everyone nodded.

The group split up and began to help the other survivors. Judith took cover behind a fallen medical cart and took aim with her L115 Isolator and began sniping at the Zombies. Jess jumped into the fray, blasting at Zombies all around her with her HK21. When the Zombies began to swarm her, she backed up and let Judith's accurate sniping take care of any troublesome Zombies. The two teens fired away at the Zombies, and were joined a few moments later by a few of the survivors, who began firing at the Zombies as well. The Zombie poured in from the windows, and it was apparent that the front door defenses that Joe made wouldn't last much longer. Zombies were trying to break the door down and they'd breach it any minute.

Nick jumped over a fallen survivor and unloaded on a group of Nazi Zombies while Jax blasted apart a horde of Screecher's that had come in from the windows.

"They're everywhere" Nick said as he reloaded his Spectre.

Jax didn't respond but reloaded his Porter's X2 Ray Gun and opened fire once more onto the undead hordes coming from all directions.

Nick put away his Spectre and lashed out at the horde with C.N, reducing the numbers attacking them sharply by using the scared power of Chuck Norris.

Several Screecher's came charging down the hallway and Jax grabbed his Zeus Cannon and fired it, sending a huge wave of air at the Screecher's and sending them flying backwards, killing them all at the same time.

Jax then ducked as a Screecher lunged at him from behind and soared over his head. The Screecher landed and turned around to face Jax, snarling loudly. Jax reloaded the Zeus Cannon and said "Bring it!"

The Screecher lunged at Jax once more and Jax swung the Zeus Cannon at the Screecher, bashing it in the head. Jax then brought down the Wonder Weapon onto the Screecher's skull, crushing it.

"SHOTGUN TO THE FACE MOTHEREFFERS!" Joe yelled bashing a Nazi Zombie in the skull with his SPAZ-24.

Joe ducked under a woman Zombie's swipe and blasted her skull off with his Pack-A-Punched shotgun. Joe turned around and saw to his dismay Zombies coming from every window. Several of the survivors had been overwhelmed and had been killed. Blood flowed like water down the hallway, and the waves of Zombies just didn't seem to end. Joe fired nonstop, unloaded 24 shots into the Zombies streaming into the hallway.

Andrew fired Reaper's hookshot several times into the horde, killing two or three Zombies at a time. Whenever anything tried to come closer to him, he slashed the attacker to bits and pieces. Andrew dashed in and out of the horde, slaughtering Zombies left and right with his scythe. No matter how many Zombies he disemboweled, for every Zombie he killed, two more took its place.

Liam blasted apart Zombies from every direction with his Afterburner, killing Zombies that were coming from every direction. His Afterburner ran out of ammo and Liam had to slash apart Zombies with his Bowie Knife while shooting at them with his C275. Liam began to get pushed back by the oncoming hordes.

"_Why didn't I Pack-A-Punch this thing!?"_ Liam thought angrily as he fired at the heads of the Zombies with his C275.

Joe then ran up behind Liam and blasted apart the few Zombies that were giving him trouble. Joe and Liam looked at each other for a moment, and Liam nodded in thanks and ran back to the others. Joe eliminated the whole horde of Zombies, and ducked inside of a room for a moment.

"_How much longer can we hold out?"_ Joe wondered before reloading and jumping back into the fray.

**Meanwhile At The Part People Care About…Just Kidding:**

"Juliet!" Nicholas yelled.

"You've got it!" Juliet grinned as she disemboweled a Zombie with her bedazzled chainsaw, running it through the chest.

Juliet danced in and out of the horde of Zombies, mowing them down with her powerful chainsaw. Nicholas laughed and unloaded onto a group of Nazi Zombies, which were trying to attack the vehicle. Kara, Chan, and Iva blasted apart hordes of the undead, protecting the truck from all sides as the hordes of the undead attacked.

Meanwhile, Dempsey was going off.

"You stupid drunk! Why in the hell did you put vodka into the engines before we left!?" Dempsey yelled.

"I thought it would make it go faster!" Nikolai grunted as he rummaged in his bag for something.

"To be honest Papa, I'm not sure why you thought that" Iva replied.

"Because vodka makes everything better!" Nikolai proclaimed, tossing Iva a bottle of said alcoholic.

"Hmm…can't argue with that Papa!" Iva laughed before taking a swig of the drink.

"Wow, like father like daughter" Nicholas said.

"Yeah, pretty much" Kara said.

"It's crazy that they can shove so much vodka down their throats" Juliet said as the father and daughter shared a drink.

"Not really. They're both Russian, so they're naturally huge drunks" Chan said with a grin.

"Man ain't that the truth" Dempsey sighed as he took another look at the engine.

Juliet walked over to the back of the truck and sat down on the ground. The others joined her while Dempsey and Takeo tried to figure out how to fix the truck. Meanwhile Nikolai and Iva were sitting down, drinking merrily and singing loudly.

"Is this just a regular day for you all?" Nicholas asked Chan and Kara, who chuckled and nodded.

"Iva's been drinking vodka for years, though Nikolai's been drinking it for like…forever" Kara said as she fired her semi-automatic shotgun at a Nazi Zombie, blowing its head off.

"Seriously? What the hell…?" Nicholas said in amazement.

"I don't drink" Juliet laughed.

"Why?" Nicholas asked curiously.

"Well the last time I got drunk…and I ended up naked in the middle of the woods with my chainsaw, surrounded by a horde of dead Zombies. Getting back to town was a pain, and I've been sober since then" Juliet said.

Everyone burst out laughing and Dempsey let out a yell of triumph as the truck started up.

"All right girls-and Nicholas- let's get out of here! Tak should be back soon with the extra supplies. Kara, get Iva and Nikolai back into the truck and give them the cure" Dempsey ordered.

"On it daddy!" Kara said hopping to her feet and walking over to the group's food supply in the truck.

Kara rummaged through all of the supplies and found a large bottle. She brought it over to Iva and Nikolai, who took a draught from it and winced.

"I hate that stuff. So bitter" Iva groaned as she got to her feet and shook her head.

"Deal with it. It's your fault for getting wasted during a Zombie attack" Kara said as she helped Takeo load supplies.

"Instant Drunk Relief. Sobers you up, but it tastes horrible" Juliet whispered to Nicholas, who laughed under his breath.

"This is all I could find. The shops were half raided and there were a few…creatures, that had to be eliminated" Takeo said shouldering his Stakeout and dropping down few trash bags filled with supplies.

"Good Job. Everyone, back onboard. We've got to get to that hospital" Dempsey said.

Everyone loaded up and everyone reloaded and prepared themselves for the next run. Juliet pressed a switch on her chainsaw, which shuddered slightly. It began to morph into large cannon.

"Chainsaw Blaster!" Juliet grinned as she aimed and fired at a Screecher charging at the truck, whose head was blown clean off of its body.

"Nice shot!" Nicholas yelled as he fired his Galil at a small crowd of Zombies.

"Iva! Molotov on your right!" Chan yelled, moving out of the way.

Iva walked up to the window and lit a Molotov Cocktail, which she hurled at a group of Screecher Zombies charging at the group. The ten Zombies were caught in the small explosion and fell to the ground with a loud screech.

"There's nothing cooler than a Russian with explosives!" Iva yelled out as she pulled out and lit another Molotov and hurled it at a crowd of Crawler Zombies, which crumpled up like roaches and burned in the intense flames.

"Damn skippy there isn't!" Kara yelled as she reloaded her machine gun and fired onto the oncoming hordes.

The group continued to slowly make its way towards the hospital, where the Zombies had broken through the front doors and were attacking everyone in sight.

**Hospital:**

"JAX! Where are you!?" Joe bellowed as he put away his empty Lamentation and pulled out his SPAZ-24 and began firing nonstop at the hordes of Zombies making their way down the hallway.

"Jess! Arrow!" Judith called as she emptied another clip from her Famas into the Zombies.

"You've got it!" Jess said carefully aiming an arrow and firing it into the horde, drawing them away for a few moments. Nick ran up to the horde and aimed C.N. at them and said "C.N, Get em!"

"**ANNIHILATOR GUN!"** C.N. yelled as red flaming bullets shot from the tip of C.N.'s hat.

The bullets flew into the Zombie horde and within moments, the horde was set ablaze. The Zombie screeched and growled in agony before crumpling to the ground and dying for good. Nick's onslaught continued for another thirty seconds, and he was able to singlehandedly eliminate a hallway filled with Zombies by himself.

Nick shouldered C.N. and said "I don't like that I have to keep using those power attack things"

"**Well deal with it. You've still got a lot of proving to do and a whole lot more Zombie killing that needs to be done. So get to it"** C.N. replied

"Fine" Nick said walking down the hallway.

Andrew tightened his grip on Reaper and brought it down, beheading another Nazi Zombie. Andrew then turned around and aimed Reaper at a Screecher tearing apart a survivor. At wicked spike slammed into the Screecher's skull and Andrew gave the chain a yank and pulled the Screecher away from the survivor. Andrew walked over to the fallen fighter, who was an old man in his sixties.

The man beckoned Andrew closer, and Andrew knelt down to him. Andrew quickly pulled out his Quick Revive Syringes and jabbed it into the man's chest. As blue fluid filled the wound, it began to mend itself. The man began to breathe easier and as his horrible wound healed to a minor scratch, the man looked up in awe at Andrew.

"T-T-thank you…" the old man said with shiny eyes as he got to his feet.

"No problem" Andrew said with a smile before turning around and beheading a Nazi Zombie.

"Come on, we need to get back to the other survivors" Andrew said, giving the old man an old-fashioned colt that he had found while rummaging through the survivor's supplies.

"Thank you son" the old man said gratefully, taking the gun and walking with Andrew back down the hallway.

Andrew rejoined Joe and Liam, who were getting pushed back further and further and further into the hospital.

The old man Andrew saved rejoined the other survivors and began to push back the Zombies streaming down the hallway.

"Where the hell is Jax?" Joe asked the others, who shrugged.

Jax ducked under a Screecher's swipe and blasted it with the Porter's X2 Ray Gun. Jax ducked inside of a room for a breather and to reload his Porter's X2 Ray Gun, when he heard a rasping sound. Jax whirled around and saw Jacob on the ground, bleeding badly from his neck, chest, and arm. A Nazi Zombie lay dead on the floor, covered in bullet holes. Jacob's sister continued to sleep in her bed, not moving, barely breathing, and unspeaking.

"Jacob. Come on man, you've got to get up" Jax muttered, pulling out a Quick Revive syringe and injecting it into the wound.

The wound on his arm sealed up and the skin sealed back together flawlessly. Jax pulled out another syringe to help heal the other wounds, but Jacob shook his head though, and gasped "I'm done for Jax…please…just let me rest"

"_**Jax. Ask him. Please, there's not much time for him left"**_ Samantha asked.

"Jacob. I would like you to meet a friend of mine. Samantha" Jax said.

Samantha left Jax's body and looked at the dying teen. Jacob's eyes flew open in shook and he chuckled, sending out a spray of blood.

"Samantha Maxis from Black Ops…it's an honor to meet you" Jacob croaked.

"_**Likewise"**_ Samantha said.

"You're not surprised?" Jax asked.

Jacob shook his head and said "No…not by anything anymore…"

"Do you have any regrets?" Jax asked softly as his friend's life began to fade.

"Not being able to say goodbye…to my sister…to talk to her one last time" Jacob said.

Samantha smiled and said _**"Jacob…I would like to show you something…"**_

**Meanwhile:**

"Everyone out!" Dempsey barked, jumping out of the truck and kicking in a Nazi Zombie's chest, tearing a huge hole through it.

"You all shall fall before our honor!" Takeo yelled as he pulled out a Katana and charged at the horde.

"Filthy Capitalist Pig Dogs. You shall die!" Nikolai snarled as he pulled out a bottle of vodka and took a swing before pulling out a Gatling gun out of the truck and unloading into the horde.

"They've already broken through the front doors!" Juliet said as she slashed and hacked at Zombies coming from every direction.

"All right! Nicholas! Chan! Kara! Iva! We'll distract them! You take out everything inside!" Dempsey yelled, pulling out an Awful Lawton from the truck and firing an arrow a hundred yards away.

The Zombies slowly began to follow them, and Nicholas dashed towards the broken down doors and began shooting at the Zombies in the hospital.

A Screecher appeared out of nowhere and slashed at him, causing him to jump back and slash at it with his Bowie Knife. Before the Screecher could retaliate, Juliet soared over Nicholas and beheaded the Screecher with her chainsaw revving loudly.

"Thanks" Nicholas said with a grin.

"Now you owe me two" Juliet winked as she walked ahead.

A Juggernaut suddenly burst through the ceiling and landed on the ground, cracking the marble floor badly. It stood up and glared at the Zombie-slayers.

"RAAAAAH!" the Juggernaut roared.

"Get ready!" Nicholas said reloading his Galil with lightning quick speed.

"All right. Juliet, stay hidden until we give you the signal. You'll know what to do" Chan said quietly, aiming her Commando and opening fire on the Juggernaut while running to the side.

Nicholas sprinted up to the Juggernaut and began firing into his upper chest and face. The Juggernaut took a swing at him, but Nicholas jumped back and threw a Symtex grenade at its feet, causing it to fall to the ground with a roar.

The four Zombie slayers opened fire onto the Juggernaut while Juliet waited for the right moment. Nicholas slid underneath the Juggernaut's punch and slashed it in the face with his Bowie Knife, causing it to cover its face in pain.

"NOW!" Iva yelled as Nicholas jumped out of range.

Juliet dashed forward, chainsaw raised and revving loudly. Juliet brought it down on the back of the Juggernaut, which roared in pain and swung a fist at Juliet who jumped backwards with a wicked flip.

"Go to hell you undead douchebag!" Juliet yelled, charging in again.

The Juggernaut got to its feet and roared angrily. Juliet jumped into the air and spin-kicked the Zombie in the face and slashed the underside of its arm with her chainsaw, causing the arm to drop to the ground. Nicholas saw the Juggernaut grin though, and the severed arm came alive on its own and slowly moved towards Juliet, whose attention was on the Juggernaut.

"Juliet!"Nicholas yelled out, running towards her.

The arm grabbed Juliet by the legs, causing her to yell out in pain as she struggled to break free. The Juggernaut closed in, and the girls all opened fire on the Zombie. Nicholas ran up from behind and jumped into the air and jammed his Bowie Knife into the Juggernaut's neck.

"RAAAH!" the Juggernaut roared as it swung an arm at Nicholas, who was caught in the chest and sent flying backwards into the air.

Nicholas crashed hard into a wall and fell to the ground with a yell, clutching his chest. Juliet slashed the arm holding her in half with an angry yell and rolled to the side to avoid a mighty punch from the powerful Zombie. The girls looked at Nicholas for a moment in worry before returning their attention to the Juggernaut, which was laughing harshly.

"I'm sending each one of ya to the ER!" the Juggernaut roared as it lunged at Chan, who jumped back and unloaded a full clip into the Juggernaut's face.

Kara ran up to the Juggernaut and kicked the knife in deeper, causing the Juggernaut to roared in agony. Nicholas slowly got up on all fours and Juliet ran over to him.

"You OK?" Juliet asked worriedly.

"Y-yeah…just give me a sec" Nicholas muttered as he sat on the ground, clutching his chest.

Juliet pressed down on a spot on Nicholas's chest and he yelped in pain.

"Broken ribs…feels like there's at least 3 broken. Stay here, we'll handle the Juggernaut" Juliet said getting up and revving her chainsaw loudly.

Juliet turned around and yelled "OK A-hole! You're going down…_hard!"_

Juliet sprinted at the Juggernaut and leapt over its head as it swung a fist at her, corkscrewing in the air three times. Juliet landed lightly and swung her chainsaw and it connected with the back of the Juggernaut's leg, dismembering it from the Zombie with a spray of crimson.

The Juggernaut fell to one knee, but swung a fist at Juliet, who leapt to the side to dodge. All three of the other girls opened fire on the Juggernaut, causing it to roar in rage. The Juggernaut's dismembered leg slowly moved towards Juliet, who walked towards it and drove her chainsaw into the knee cap, ensuring that it would remain still.

The Juggernaut grabbed a nearby medical cart and hurled it a Chan, who did a baseball slide under it and hurled a Symtex grenade at the Zombie's head, which exploded a few moments later. The Juggernaut snarled in anger and roared loudly at the girls. The Juggernaut was now bleeding all over and was missing two limbs, but was still standing. Juliet realized with a grin what she would have to do.

"Girls…stand back" Juliet said as she ran at the Juggernaut head-on.

"Juliet!" Kara yelled out.

Juliet ignored her friend and charged forward, dodging a swing from the Juggernaut, and swung the chainsaw at the creature's neck. The chainsaw slowly began slicing through the thick and powerful skin of the Juggernaut. The Juggernaut tried to grab at Juliet, but by the time its remaining hand had even reached towards Juliet, the juggernaut's head flew from its neck and landed on the floor, spilling blood everywhere.

Juliet jumped backwards as the Juggernaut's body crashed onto the ground and when she landed, she stabbed her chainsaw in the ground and popped a strawberry lollipop in her mouth.

Juliet walked over to Nicholas, who was now standing. Nicholas grabbed her by the shoulder and said "You're crazy as hell"

"And?" Juliet grinned.

"I like crazy" Nicholas laughed before clutching his chest with a gasp of pain.

"No laughing for you, we've got to get you patched up" Juliet said.

"Did any of your friends happen to get a bottle of Quick Revive by any chance?" Iva asked.

"Yeah, why?" Nicholas asked.

"It can be used to heal all sorts of Zombie inflicted wounds. We can use it on your ribs" the Russian girl explained.

"Andrew and Jax both bought a bottle of it when we went to that mansion. We've got to find them" Nicholas said quietly as he limped down the hallway with the girls.

**Meanwhile:**

"They're overrunning the west wing!" Joe yelled.

"And the east wing!" Judith yelled as she hurled a frag grenade down the hallway, blowing the legs off three Nazi Zombies.

"There's no end to these things!" Liam yelled as he unloaded onto the hordes with his Afterburner, which was low on ammo. The Zombies had been coming nonstop at the hospital, and they were slowly being pushed back. The front doors were broken down and Joe's defenses had been destroyed by a rampaging Juggernaut, which took Nick, Joe, Liam, and Andrew to put down.

"JAX!" Joe bellowed down the hallway.

About thirty Screecher's burst through the boarded windows and landed in the hallways. The group aimed their guns, ready to shoot when a huge blast of wind consumed the Screecher's and slammed them all into the wall.

"Sorry I'm late!" Jax said walking into the room with his Zeus Cannon.

"Where were you!?" Joe demanded.

"Where did you go earlier?" Jax asked.

Joe blinked, realizing that they had noticed him disappearing to work on his project, and said "That's different. We're getting overrun and you're off doing who knows what!"

Jax smiled and said "Don't worry. We've got this"

"Really? We're down forty fighters and we've got Zombies everywhere, we're low on ammo, and Nick's unconscious!"

"How?"

"Liam bashed him in the face with his Afterburner, your point?" Joe said.

"Why?"

"Do you _really _want to know?" Joe asked.

"Good point" Jax said reloading the Zeus Cannon.

Jax aimed it at Nick, who was lying unconscious in a nearby room and blasted him with the Zeus Cannon, sending him crashing into a wall. As he fell to the ground, he stirred and opened his eyes.

"…Um…ouch?" Nick said getting to his feet and walking out of the room.

"Juggernaut downstairs! Take care of it!" Kevin yelled as he took a few steps back to avoid being killed by a Screecher.

Judith aimed her L115 Isolator and blew the Screecher's skull right off of its neck. The group ran downstairs to deal with the Juggernaut. The group emerged in the hallway to find the Juggernaut slaughtered and an old face looking at them in surprise.

"Hey guys. Good to see you again" Nicholas said with a grin.

The others stood there dumbfounded as a group of woman walked up behind Nicholas, armed to the teeth.

"Hey Andrew, give me a few injections with the Quick Revive syringes. I've got a few broken ribs from that Juggernaut" Nicholas said.

"Um…how did you…survive…?" Joe began to ask before Jess and Judith ran forward and hugged Nicholas, yelling loudly how glad they were that he was safe.

"AAAAAH! RIGHT IN THE BLOODY RIBS!" Nicholas yelled in agony as Jess bear-hugged him.

Finally they let Nicholas go and Andrew injected the syringes into Nicholas's ribs, mending them quickly. Nicholas's breathing eased and he sighed in relief.

"Thanks bro" Nicholas said as he got to his feet.

"No prob. Now can you explain who the hell they are?" Andrew said pointing to the four girls.

"OK, this is Juliet, Kara, Iva, and Chan" Nicholas said.

"Juliet looks familiar…" Liam said slowly.

"Well duh, she-" Nicholas began to say before a huge boom echoed throughout the building.

"Guys…get ready" Kara said aiming her gun around the room.

Suddenly the roof caved in and a huge figure burst through the ceiling. A enormous Juggernaut, even bigger than the New York Giants, was standing in the entryway, his arms covered in blood. He lumbered forward and his face was set in an evil snarl.

"Ready…" Nicholas said.

Everyone reloaded and aimed their guns at the Juggernaut, which chuckled darkly and cracked its knuckles menacingly.

"Aim…" Joe said aiming his China Lake at the huge Juggernaut

The Juggernaut sneered at the teens.

"FIR-!" Nicholas began to say.

"Not so fast!" a voice yelled out from behind the group.

A blur rushed by the group and towards the Juggernaut, which took one step towards the group before letting out a roar and charging at the figure racing towards it. The figure jumped right at the Juggernaut and punched it in the face, tearing it's skull from its neck with an insane amount of force. The group watched in silent amazement and horror as the figure knocked down the enormous Zombie with a simple kick. The body crashed onto the ground, leaving a huge crack in the marble floor.

The figure landed on the ground lightly, blood splashed across its face. The figure looked towards the others, who looked at it in shock. It was a girl about as old as Juliet, and was just as tall as her. She had long black hair and had very pale white skin, and had a strange beauty to her. The blood on her face evaporated into nothing and the girl chuckled softly. She was clad in only a small pale green patient's gown, which several male teens made note of.

"She's hot" Joe muttered to Nick, who nodded.

"Who is she?" Jess whispered to Jax, who smiled.

"Who are you?" Nicholas said to the woman.

The girl turned around and laughed, and her blue eyes flashed green for a moment. Everyone in the room felt a thrill of horror run down their spines as the girl's body became immersed in a green glow.

"Yes…" the girl said with a triumphant smile.

The girl then looked back at the Juggernaut and fired a blast of energy from her palms at the Zombie's body, incinerating it.

"This is perfect! Hahahaha!" the girl giggled happily.

The girl then walked up to the group who drew their weapons. The girl chuckled and said "Do not worry everyone, I'm a friend"

"Who are you?" Nicholas asked again.

"_**Can't you tell?"**_ the girl said in a harsh and demonic voice.

The group felt another thrill of horror go down their spines, as they all recognized that voice.

"Now in death…_**bring me life!"**_ Samantha sang in a clear voice as she became immersed in a sinister dark green glow.

End of Chapter:

Another chapter I enjoyed writing.

Side note, what Samantha sang is from the Moon Easter Egg Song "Coming Home" by Elena Siegmen. If you're unfamiliar with it, YouTube it. For it is awesome.

P.S. The day after I posted chapter 15, guess who got a Daedric Sword during a Companion's Quest? This guy.

Also, I have another poll set up. What's your favorite Easter Egg Song in Zombies? Go to my profile and vote now! My personal favorites are Beauty of Annihilation, Not Ready to Die, and Lullaby of a Dead Man, though Abracadvre is pretty awesome too. Vote and let me know what you all think. To those of you who someone already saw the poll and voted, you are insanely awesome.

So, how did Samantha get a body? And what sort of powers does she possess now that she is alive once more? Tune in guys and gals, and remember to review and let me know what you think! Until next time, FlygonN out!


	17. Playing With Fire

**Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead**

_Thanks for the support last chapter everyone; seriously, it means a ton to me. I love writing this story, and I'm excited as heck for Black Ops II. _

_Sidenote, sorry it took so long for this update, I'm busy with college and job hunting and I was going to use a song in this chapter, but I decided against it, so I had to think of something else to add to fill the gap. Also, if I do get a job, the update frequency will be every two-three weeks, and maybe even a month depending on the chapter length, which is still pretty good compared to some of the other stories I read where they update once every three months for chapters roughly as long as the ones I make._

_Fun fact, parts of this story are actually things I think are part of the storyline for Black Ops II, such as Samantha getting a new body, the kids of the other three Zombie-slayers being in the story, and Richtofen being the main villain (note in the Black Ops II Zombies trailer, the Zombie's eyes are blue...). Also, Black Ops II trailer and first Easter Egg song have been revealed and announced, "Carry On" by A7X, and the trailer is on YouTube. Looks epic. BTW, leave your thoughts on the Black Ops II Zombies in the review section. I'm interested in what you all think of it._

_I would also like to bring up something that came to my attention. There are many kinds of Zombies in Black Ops, and some I've made too. As of late, I've used the Juggernaut Zombie quite often, and have neglected to put some of the other Zombies in the story. There was a reason for this however. I only have Kino and Five on my PS3, I've played Ascension a few times, Call of the Dead a little bit more than Ascension, Shangri-La I've never played, and Moon maybe three times, but every time we died because everyone ran around in Area 51 like a pack of morons and let the Hellhounds tear us to shreds._

_Bottom line is it's a little hard to write about Zombies that I've had little experience fighting._

_However, I have considered ways to add the other Zombies to the story. So, special shoutout to Task Force Metal for that bit of er, advice I guess. Not sure what you'd call it, but it helped. And because of that, you'll be seeing some fresh faces soon. Not really fresh…more like rotting, mangled…you get the idea._

_OK, enough rambling. Disclaimer, I own nothing but my own characters, and own nothing from Black Ops, Lollipop Chainsaw, and Red vs. Blue. _

_I may start doing a thing where I respond to reviews on here. This chapter will be a beta run on this._

_So:_

_Thundermonkey39: I'm glad someone thinks I'm funny, though if you could, refrain from cursing in my reviews. (from your chapter 15 review). And 115 is awesome, I go right for it after about Round 15 on Kino if no one has activated it yet._

_Task Force Metal: Thanks for the review and comment, though I'm not sure if Zombies with guns will be very fair. I'll put it in the "maybe" category._

_Mybrosdrivemecrazy: Yeah, I figured if he was at like, 6 at the time of Zombies, he'd be at probably 17 50 years later, even if he was laying low for a long time. And the new name is freaking awesome btw._

_Uig50: You have good taste in Zombie songs, I actually named the last chapter "Now in Death, Bring Me Life", but I felt like it'd give the ending away, so I changed it._

_StaticBomb324: First double-reviewer! Yeah, I'm considering going back and editing some of the chapters to make them flow better and for the sake of grammar and spell-checking them. And yes, I watched the playthrough of Lollipop Chainsaw and it looked so much fun, I'd love to play the game. Also, you said that you want me to stop breaking the 4__th__ wall. Yeah…maybe you should just read the chapter and I'll get back to you on that. XD_

_Noskansho: I'm not saying your right or wrong about how Sam got a body…nuff said._

_Trapinchh: I was hoping someone would get that RvB reference, lol._

_Coolguyforever: Sweet, another regular reviewer! Booyah! As for Samantha becoming human again, you'll find out soon._

_deltastar 141: Thanks! And don't worry, I will._

_Sidenote,__ please refrain from swearing in the reviews, or if you can, tastefully bleep it out. Sorry, but I'm trying to keep it clean to a degree. Thanks._

_ENOUGH RANTING._

_Enjoy!_

**Chapter 17: Playing With Fire**

"S-Samantha!?" Nicholas asked in amazement.

"Oh yes…this body is perfect" the girl said with a grin as the glow faded.

"H-how is that possible?" Joe asked in amazement.

Samantha's palms became immersed in a glowing green aura again and she laughed lightly. She did a little twirl and said "Yes! I am so happy to be whole once more! And back in a female body this time!"

"Oh yeah, we can tell" Joe said with a perverted grin, earning a good-old-fashioned kick in the nuts, courtesy of Juliet.

"Perv. I'm guessing that's Joe?" Juliet asked.

"Yeah…that's Joe all right" Nicholas said with a sigh.

"Pain…so much pain…" Joe gasped while Liam, Nick, and Andrew snickered in the background.

"Hey Samantha, come with us for second. We've got some old clothes we can let you use. You're about our size" Kara said walking over to Samantha.

"I suppose I could do for a change in wardrobe. This is too…breezy for my liking" Samantha said with a smile as she walked off to the side with Kara.

"OK. Jax. What the hell!?" Nicholas explained.

"No. You explain what happened. Then I'll explain what happened here" Jax said.

"I survived the explosion, but I was hurt. Juliet found me and nursed me back to health. Me and her went to a safehouse where we met Kara, Chan, and Iva. And I also met-" Nicholas began to say before the front doors were kicked open.

"All right freakbags! Time to-wait, where the hell are they?" Dempsey asked, sounding disappointed that all of the Zombies on this floor were dead.

"…OK. Nicholas. What the hell?" Jax asked pointing at Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo.

"No. You explain what happened. Then I'll explain what happened here" Nicholas replied.

"**Talk about déjà vu"** C.N. said.

"I'm guessing these are your friends?" Dempsey asked.

"Yeah. Guys, I'd like you to meet Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki" Nicholas said, introducing the Zombie-slayers.

"Too…much…awesomeness" Liam said in amazement.

"How are they so…young?" Joe asked.

"Long story short, indirect exposure to 115 increases physical abilities and can slow the aging process" Nicholas said.

"Makes about as much sense as everything else going on. And why is Lollipop with you?" Joe asked.

"Who?" Nicholas asked.

"Her!" Joe said pointing at Juliet.

"I'm Juliet Starling, not 'Lollipop' you dodo brain" Juliet laughed.

"Hehe…dodo brain…hehe…numbnuts" Jess giggled.

"No one said it that time though" Nick said, sounding confused.

"I'm early for the next one" Jess replied.

"Oh that's such bullcrap" Nick said in an annoyed tone.

"Shut it numbnuts" Liam replied.

"Ha. Told ya so" Jess grinned triumphantly.

"BACK TO THE POINT. How did Sam get a body?" Nicholas asked.

"Well…" Jax trailed off.

**30 Minutes Earlier**

"_**Let me show you something…"**_ Samantha said as her spectral eyes flashed green.

Samantha looked at Sarah's immobile body, which began to shake violently.

"W-w-what…what are you doing?" Jacob asked.

"_**Now in death..."**_ Samantha whispered as she floated over to Sarah's body.

Sarah's eyes then opened suddenly flew open and a voice emitted from the girl. Her lips didn't move, but her voice was clear.

"_What's going on? Where am I?"_ the girl asked.

"S-sarah?" Jacob wheezed as blood came out of his mouth. Jax injected another one of his wounds with a Quick Revive syringe.

"_Jacob...you've kept me alive, all this time"_ Sarah said quietly.

"I…I didn't know what you wanted…I wanted you to get better sis" Jacob said as the wound on his throat sealed up.

"_Thank you. For everything brother. I won't ever wake up again though, you know that deep down" _Sarah said softly.

"Why?" Jacob asked.

"_I don't know…my body betrays my spirit. As does yours"_ Sarah said.

"_**He doesn't' have much time left"**_ Samantha said.

"_I see that…you got hurt trying to protect my body...I'm so sorry Jacob…you could've moved onto better things had you left me behind" _Sarah said softly.

"We're family…you'd do the same for me" Jacob said with a grin.

"_**Jacob…when you die, no one will be here to look after your sister. She will suffer a slow and painful death. She doesn't wish to live like this any longer. Lifeless, yet still attached to the world of the living. Is this true, Sarah?"**_ Samantha asked.

"_She's right Jacob…I've been trapped within my own body for so long…I just want to go home..."_ Sarah whispered.

"Me too…I…I see it now…" Jacob said as his eyes began to glaze over.

"_**Jax!"**_ Samantha yelled.

Jax pulled out two more syringes and put them in two more injured areas, giving the teen life once more.

"_**Jacob…I have a question to ask of you. If you let me do this, I can help avenge your death. And the deaths of all of those who have suffered at Richtofen's hands"**_ Samantha asked.

"I'm…listening…" Jacob whispered.

"_**Allow me to transfer my soul to Sarah's body"**_ Samantha said.

"_H-how is this done?"_ Sarah asked.

"_**I'm not exactly sure how I can do this…but it involves me and you switching places. Right now, I'm tethered to Jax's life force, as he is my host. I can exist on my own, if I must, and sever the tie to my host's body. What I'm saying is that I can release you from your body, Sarah. Jacob, I'm asking you if I can place myself inside of Sarah's body, and make it my own"**_ Samantha said.

"S-sarah…what do you think?" Jacob asked.

"_This will help those who have suffered because of the Zombies…if this works, me and you can go back to mom and dad in the next life…Jacob, only you can make the decision"_ Sarah said.

"Do it" Jacob said sitting further up.

Samantha floated over to Jax and said _**"Thank you…for everything Jax. You have given me so much in so little time. The only reason we have a chance now, is because you agreed to host my soul"**_ Samantha said softly.

"Anything for a friend" Jax said with a smile.

Samantha smiled and said _**"OK…this will feel very strange"**_

Jax suddenly felt his heart stop.

"Sam! W-what-" Jax choked out.

Samantha's face contorted in pain and she slowly faded away. Jax fell to the ground in agony and began writhing in pain. The pain ceased suddenly and Jax, with his heart beating wildly, looked up to see Samantha, floating slightly off of the ground, a shimmering red and green outline around her spirit.

"_**Jax, are you OK?"**_ Samantha asked.

"Never…better" Jax groaned as he sat up on the ground.

"_**Good. Sarah, I'm going to switch places with you. When I place myself inside of your body, you will be forced out. I can only do this if you're willing to let me have your body. OK?"**_ Samantha said.

"_Take my body, and make them pay for what they've done to my brother" _Sarah said.

"_**Very well"**_ Samantha said before floating over to Sarah's body and merging herself with it.

There was silence….

"Sarah?" Jacob said.

"Samantha?" Jax said.

Suddenly Sarah began floating in the air, though still seemingly lifeless. Her eyes were glowing green now and her hair was billowing out wildly. Wild green lights flashed around the room, and the two teens watched in amazement as Sarah's body floated back down to the bed.

"_Ah…free at last!"_ came a voice.

A ghostly version of Sarah appeared in front of Jax and Jacob, who starred in amazement at the newfound spirit.

"S-sarah…" Jacob said with a choking sound.

"_Sleep brother…"_ Sarah whispered with a smile.

Jacob's eyes turned to Jax, and then he smiled.

"T-thank you, Jax. And tell S-samantha thanks as well for me, could you?" Jacob asked.

"Sure" Jax said with a smile.

"Fare…well…" Jacob said as the life finally left his eyes and his body went limp.

Sarah turned to Jax and said _"I hope we can meet you again…in the next life. Thank you for your kindness, Jax and Samantha. I hope you all can stop the monsters that did this. Good luck" _

Sarah's spirit began to fade as she travelled to the next life to find her brother and parents. Jak wiped a tear from his eye and said "I hope you both find peace"

"Me too"

Jax's head turned to see Sarah looking at him triumphantly. She threw back the covers and stepped onto the floor, grinning madly.

"Yes…YES!" the girl laughed as she did a twirl around the room.

"So Samantha, how does it feel to have a new vessel?" Jax asked lightly as he got to his feet.

"Not a new vessel…I may have merged my soul with this body. I'm just as alive as you are" Samantha said with a grin.

"Seriously?" Jax said in amazement.

BOOM.

"What was that?" Jax said turning around.

"It sounds like the others are in trouble. Come on!" Samantha said to the teen, who nodded and sprinted out of the room.

Samantha walked over to Jacob's body and closed his eyes gently and said "Rest in peace…and thank you"

**End Flashback**

"Wow…" Judith said in amazement.

"OK, your turn" Jax said.

"I escaped the explosion, but I was hurt badly. I fell into the river and nearly drowned, but Juliet saved me" Nicholas said, glancing at Juliet, who grinned and waved.

"I teamed up with Juliet and she took me to a safehouse, where I met these bozos" Nicholas said jerking a thumb at the three original Zombie-Slayers.

"Watch who you call bozo kid" Dempsey snapped, though he had a grin on his face.

"It turns out that if you get exposed to small amounts of Element 115, it can increase physical abilities and can slow the aging process. They've barely aged at all" Nicholas continued.

"How did you know where we were?" Joe asked.

"That was me" Iva said walking back into the room, holding a small transmitter that was blinking.

She tossed it to Joe, who caught it and said "Holy crap…you made this?"

"Yep"

"…wow" was all Joe said.

"Joe's got a crush!" Jess sang under her breath, and Judith giggled quietly.

"Iva and Joe, sitting in a tree…" Nick sang quietly behind Joe's back, causing Joe to whirl around and bash him in the face with his SPAZ-24.

"What was that about?" Chan asked walking out from a hallway.

"Do you really care?" Kara asked with a chuckle, walking behind Chan.

"Not really" Chan confessed.

"Where's Samantha?" Juliet asked.

As if on cue, Samantha walked out from the hallway, a grin still on her face. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a black tank top, with a black leather jacket with a grinning skull on the front. Samantha brushed her hair out of her face and said "What?"

"Sorry, the thought that you've got your own body is going to take some getting used to" Nicholas said.

"Yeah, because the fact that Zombies are attacking everywhere, we end up blowing up nearly every place we got to, and meeting real life video game characters is considered normal" Nick replied.

"Hey Nick, look out the window" Joe said.

Nick glanced out the window and saw a nearby gas station, whose prices were averaging about $2.81 for a gallon of Unleaded.

"Good point" Nick sighed.

"Amazing how even in a Zombie Apocalypse, the gases prices still go up" Jess commented.

"Hey, we've got a problem kids" Dempsey said suddenly, looking out the window.

"What is it daddy?" Kara asked as Dempsey strode over to the front doors.

"That" Dempsey said kicking open the doors.

They all could see it clearly, standing by itself in the darkness of the night. It was a beacon in the darkness, and what a deadly beacon it was.

It was a Zombie, wrapped in a blanket of raging flames. This Zombie was skeletal, and its mouth was slightly slack as it starred down the Zombie slayers. The Zombie just stood there while the others looked at it in horror.

"Napalm Zombie" Joe said quietly.

"Well, that makes since. FlygonN's got to stop using the same 4 Zombies over and over again" Nick said.

"Nick! Stop that! Seriously! If you do that one more time, the whole thing could collapse" Nicholas warned Nick, who scoffed.

"Fine…66 reviews for the win" Nick said under his breath.

"So, how should we deal with this daddy?" Kara asked.

"Hmm…hey, you with the sniper rifle" Dempsey said to Judith.

"It's Judith, and yeah?" Judith asked.

"Kill the Napalm Zombie from afar. Get it in the head two or three times, and it should be enough to kill it" Dempsey ordered.

"OK" Judith said, aiming her L115 Isolator at the Napalm Zombie.

Judith hesitated and fired three times. The Zombie however sidestepped the bullets and grinned at Judith. Nikolai looked at his vodka bottle and said "OK, I know this thing has to be spiked. Because that was a perfect headshot"

"Why would your vodka be spiked?" Andrew asked.

"Well, let's just say I've pissed Takeo off many times over the years…and I have drunken many bottles of vodka...I'd rather not speak of it" Nikolai said cringing slightly.

"Um…was it supposed to do that?" Judith asked.

"No. Try once more" Takeo said.

Judith aimed her sniper rifle at the Zombie and fired again, but the Napalm Zombie sidestepped the bullet, and group heard a loud laugh.

_"This is too much fun to watch! Muahahahaha!"_

It was a man, but it wasn't Porter, or Illuzio, or even Richtofen. It was someone else, with a deeper and more sinister sounding voice. The group looked around, trying to find the source of the voice, but it didn't appear.

_"Oh? Trying to find me? Not going to happen, I'm afraid. You see, I can only be found when I WANT to be found. Not before, not after"_ the voice said tauntingly.

"Get out here now!" Dempsey yelled.

_"Sorry Dempsey, but we'll have to play some other time. Me and Porter have a few…surprises, to set up for you all. Oh, and Illuzio too"_ the voice said with mirth.

"Who are you?" Chan asked.

_"Wouldn't you like to know?"_ the voice asked with a chuckle.

"Samantha, any ideas?" Jax asked.

"I have no idea who that is" Samantha said with a confused look on her face.

"Ah, Samantha Maxis. I've been dying to meet you. All of you, actually…" the voice said with glee.

"_**Who are you!?"**_ Samantha yelled in her demon voice.

"In due time…in due time…" the voice said as it became fainter and fainter until it faded away.

"OK…what in the name of Stalin was that about?" Nikolai asked.

"Hell if I know" Dempsey said with a frown.

"We need to leave this place, right away. Demons are lurking around every corner" Takeo said.

"I'll deal with this" Jax said aiming his Zeus Cannon at the Napalm Zombie and firing three times.

The three blasts of air slammed into the Napalm Zombie, which yelled out before exploding violently in a huge burst of flames, which left a huge char mark in the middle of the parking lot.

"It seems as though Richtofen has been expanding his repertoire of Zombies" Iva said in an annoyed way.

"That's the first Napalm Zombie I've seen, I wonder what other kinds of Zombies Richtofen's unleashed" Liam said.

"I wonder why he's sending them out now?" Chan asked.

"Knowing FlygonN, it's probably a- ("Nick NO!" Nicholas shouted)-new plot twist for the story" Nick said.

CRACK.

"Um…what was that?" Juliet asked.

"Oh no…" Nicholas said looking up.

A wicked crack opened up in the sky. It was bright white and was glowing brighter. Everyone looked up in horror and saw the crack slowly getting bigger. Then, the sky opened up and the group could see a face looking down at them. He had pale white skin and a brown bowl cut, and looked exactly the same as the person who had caused this.

"Hey! It's me!" Nick yelled happily.

"Uh oh, I think I broke it" the Nick in the sky said with concerned look.

"Is that Nick!?" Jess yelled in amazement.

"Is Nick…God? I mean, it kinda makes sense you think about it. Sure would explain th out of everything" Andrew said, sounding annoyed.

"Yeah, this seems legit" Judith responded sarcastically.

"Well that's just great, Nick is God. I guess that makes me the first person in the history of the world that wants to go to hell…great job Nick, you find a way to make everything suck" Joe replied with a sigh as he fell to the ground in despair.

"Someone do me a favor and just shoot me now" Liam said, equally depressed.

"OK, I break the 4th wall all the time, but this is ridiculous" Dempsey said in awe.

"Uh…hi everyone. We're having some…er…technical, difficulties. Pay no attention to the extremely attractive and smart teen in the sky-" Nick in the sky said with a grin before a voice yelled at him.

"HEY HUMBNUTS! GET OFF THE COMPUTER! No backseat editing!"

"Hehe…numbnuts" Jess replied, as did another voice in the sky that sounded exactly like her.

Suddenly another version of Nicholas appeared in the sky and shoved Nick out of a chair. Another version of Jess popped into view and she looked through the computer.

"Wow…you really messed up this time, huh?" Jess said.

"Great, how in the name of Elena Siegmen are we going to fix this?" Nicholas asked.

"CTRL ALT DELETE MOFOS!" a new voice yelled.

Joe popped into view and said "Oh hey, guess we broke the fourth wall again"

"More like shattered it into a thousand pieces" both Nicholas's muttered in annoyance.

"So…how do we fix it?" both Jess's asked.

"Give me a minute…I'm thinking" Nicholas in the sky muttered.

"So…how're you guys doing?" Joe asked.

The hole in the sky widened even more and Nicholas in the sky punched Joe in the stomach.

"Stop! You're making it worse!" Nicholas snapped as Joe yelled in pain and fell out of view.

"To answer your question, I'm doing fine. Could be a little warmer, but I can't complain" Juliet replied.

"Juliet, please don't answer the annoying co-writer. Let me figure this out" Nicholas in the sky said.

The crack in the sky began to close and Nicholas in the sky said "OK…this should hold for the rest of the story"

The sky completely resealed itself and the group starred into the sky in utter silence.

"That was by far, the scariest thing ever" Juliet said.

"Of all time" Kara added.

"Yeah, Nick's face has that effect" Liam said.

"Let's never speak of this again, and for the love of all that is sacred, stop breaking the you-know-what!" Nicholas yelled as Nick, who grinned evilly.

"Oh don't worry, I won't…by the way, the next update for Jak IV: The Avenging Angels will be-" Nick began to say.

BAM! THUD!

Nicholas bashed Nick in head with his Galil while Juliet kicked Nick where it hurts the most. Nick fell onto the ground, rolling around sobbing in pain while Nicholas and Juliet looked at each other.

"Juliet?"

"Yeah?"" Juliet said.

"After this is over, you want to do something sometime?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah! Sounds awesome!" Juliet said with a grin.

"Not surprising the guy who's writing the story's character gets the zombie-fighting cheerleader. What's next, Jess gets blow up a building and Marcus pops out of it?" Nick said sarcastically.

"Yeah, FlygonN is really full of himself" Joe said with a sigh.

"Hey Juliet?" Nicholas said.

"On it" Juliet said turning towards Joe, revving her chainsaw

Juliet raised her chainsaw and took a few steps towards Joe, who yelled in fear and hid behind Iva, who gave him an amused smirk before Joe straightened up and said "Yeah, um…shut up"

"I didn't say anything" Iva laughed.

"Come on lovebirds, we've got a mission to complete. Follow us to D.C. South Carolina is just a few hours' drive from here. We'll meet up at the nuclear power plant in South Carolina" Dempsey said to the group.

"Why would we meet up there?" Andrew asked.

"Don't ask questions" Dempsey replied.

"OK" Andrew said, shutting up.

"What should we tell the other survivors?" Joe asked.

"They must leave this place. Staying on the move is imperative to survival" Takeo replied.

"Yeah, let's head inside and tell them the deal. They've got to clear out of here" Dempsey said.

The group headed back inside and met up with Kevin and explained everything. At first he was skeptical, but meeting the original Zombie slayers sort of erased any doubts as to the truth.

"You all need to get your supplies together and get out of here. Richtofen's control over the Zombies is growing every passing day, and soon nowhere will be safe in America" Dempsey said.

"We'll need some time before we can finish loading up. Any chance of you guys helping out? You obviously have some experience with this kind of thing" Kevin asked.

"OK, but only if you can give me some vodka" Nikolai said.

The group dispersed, with the three Zombie slayers going to help the other survivors.

"So…how does it feel to have a body Samantha?" Joe asked.

Samantha gave Joe an odd look and walked up to him and slapped him as hard as she could, sending Joe flying backwards ten feet.

"Wow…strong slap" Nick commented.

"It seems that I have enhanced strength and agility, as well as some control over concentrated Element 115 bursts" Samantha muttered.

"Why did you slap Joe?" Jess asked.

"Why didn't you slap Joe?" Judith asked.

"Touché" Liam replied.

"Because I've wanted to do that for about a week" Samantha replied.

"You've only known us for a week" Nicholas replied.

"I know" Samantha said with an evil grin.

"All right, I don't need this. I've got a project to work on!" Joe said storming off angrily.

The group watched Joe storm off angrily and gave a collective shrug. After about ten minutes of sharing information, the group split up to eat, sleep, or just mess around. Mainly the third option.

Iva, Chan, and Juliet let their dad's help the survivors, and mainly just chilled with the group, getting to know them better. Eventually Iva broke off from the rest of the group and began wandering around the hospital, bored. After about ten minutes, she found her dad walking down the hallway, looking very annoyed.

"They took all of my vodka! Said it would help keep the other survivors morale up. What kind of excuse it that!?" Nikolai growled angrily.

"Papa, be reasonable. You can't always have vodka all the time. It's just not practical. Besides, if you're always drinking it, you'll always run out" Iva reasoned, and Nikolai thought about it for a moment before nodding.

"You may have gotten my good looks, but you've got your mother's smarts" Nikolai said and Iva gave him smile.

"KEEP IT DOWN!"

The father and daughter looked down the hallway to see Joe, looking very annoyed.

Iva and Nikolai walked down the hallway and Iva said "What's with you?"

"Sorry, I'm working on something, and it needs my full attention" Joe said.

"Oooh, can I see it?" Nikolai asked.

"No" Joe said.

"Can I see it?" Iva asked.

"Nope" Joe replied.

"Too bad!" Iva said kicking in the door and sending Joe sprawling backwards.

Iva walked over to Joe's worktable and said "Jeez, think you could tidy up a bit?"

"Wait a sec…is that a-?" Iva began to asked before Joe said "Shhhh!"

"No one needs to know. I still need to make some adjustments to it, and I need someone to translate some of the German parts of the blueprint that I found" Joe muttered walking over to the desk.

"I haven't seen this in a while…did you make this yourself?" Nikolai asked.

"Yeah, I have crazy tech skills and I've been working on this over the past few days. I'm nearly done, but it still needs some adjustments. It's almost usable" Joe said.

"Wow, even if it doesn't work right now, that's really impressive" Iva said bending down and examining the device.

Iva picked up a screwdriver and began to tinker with it. After a few moments of standing there in shock that someone would just walk up to his project and mess with it, Joe scowled angrily. He was about to say something when the device began to spark wildly, and then it glowed white.

"Gotcha" Iva said softly, a wide grin on her face

"You got it to work…" Joe breathed out in amazement.

"It was a very small adjustment, easy to miss. It should work now, but be careful when you use it, all right?" Iva said to Joe, who nodded and walked over to his workbench and sat down.

"Yeah…hey, uh, Iva right?" Joe said.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks" Joe replied with a grin, and Iva winked.

Nikolai looked at the two of them and said "Two brainy teenagers? Ugh, I need a drink"

"Tell you what…" Joe said reaching into his bag and pulling out two bottles.

"You two keep quiet about my project, and you can each have one. Deal?" Joe said dangling the two bottles of cool, refreshing, and delicious-

"Vodka!" Nikolai yelled lunging for the bottle, but Joe pulled the bottles out of the drunk Russian's reach.

"Hey! I need your word. No one needs to know I'm making this. It's my secret weapon" Joe said.

"Deal" Nikolai replied taking the bottle.

"Deal" Iva replied as she took her bottle.

"You do know that in Russia, giving a girl vodka, is a way of proposing, yes?" Nikolai said before chugging his bottle.

"What!?" Joe yelled out.

Iva and Joe locked eyes, and Joe flushed red while Iva winked again and chugged her bottle down.

"I am just joking, you would have to defeat her father in a drinking contest, and no one can defeat Nikolai!" the Russian proclaimed walking out of the room.

"He likes to joke, don't mind him" Iva said with a grin, walking out of the room and letting Joe get back to work.

"She's…wow" Joe said with a grin.

Jess popped her head into the room and sang "Someone's got a crush!"

**Meanwhile:**

"And that's why I never drink Root Beer before going to a football game" Nick said, finishing his story.

"You are a strange, strange fellow" Chan said.

"Eh, whatever" Nick shrugged.

"So Samantha, how do you feel?" Juliet asked, patting Judith on the back as she hurled into a potted plant nearby.

"Great!" Samantha said with a grin, blasting apart another statue with a burst of energy.

"So, Samantha…I've been wondering something" Andrew said.

"Yes?"

"Now that you've got a body, how're you going to kill Richtofen?" Andrew asked.

"What?" Samantha asked.

"Richtofen and Porter were impervious to all attacks. Gunfire was useless against either one…until you possessed them. Then we could hurt them. Now that you're human, what're we going to do to kill them?" Andrew asked.

Samantha nodded and said "True…my presence counteracted some of their powers…maybe I can do something similar to that in this state"

Samantha smiled and said "I guess we'll find out when we get to D.C"

"Hey, what are those lights?" Juliet said suddenly.

"What lights?" Jax asked.

"All of the Lights!" Nicholas yelled out, causing everyone to look at him.

"Sorry, anytime someone says something about lights, I kinda have a habit of doing that" Nicholas shrugged.

"You're lucky I find weird guys cute" Juliet muttered, and Nicholas grinned sheepishly.

The group got up quickly got Takeo, Nikolai, and Dempsey's attention. Joe came walking into the room, with his backpack slung over his shoulder, looking annoyed.

"There's something going on out there" Liam explained to Joe, who nodded.

The group looked out the windows closely, and felt a chill run down their spines.

Where there was once one Napalm Zombie, there were about 80, standing about 300 yards from the front of the hospital. Each of them stood there, like the sentinels at the gates of Hell, watching the building closely.

"We've got to get out of here" Jess said quietly.

"This building doesn't stand a chance if those things get near it" Juliet said.

"The Doctor is trying to kill two birds with one stone. He must know our location, and wants to kill all of us at once" Takeo said quietly.

"All right! You kids follow us, the rest of you, get to the vehicles and get out of here. They only want us, so go! We'll lead them away from you!" Dempsey ordered the survivors.

Kevin nodded and said "Good luck"

"Come on, we've got the supplies ready, we need to move out now!" Kevin ordered the other survivors.

"So, what's the plan?" Juliet asked Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo.

"Haven't gotten that far yet" Dempsey muttered, looking out of the windows.

"If we can get to the Big Rig and the RV, we can escape, but we need a distraction" Dempsey muttered.

"I'll handle it" Samantha said.

"Jax, I'll need to borrow your Ray Gun" Samantha said.

Jax tossed it to her and she tapped the Porter's X2 Ray Gun, muttering _**"Max Ammo!"**_

Samantha walked outside and the others looked at each other for a moment before looking back at Samantha.

"I've been waiting for this" Samantha whispered before drawing the PX2RG and opening fire.

The Napalm Zombies converged on Samantha, who began firing nonstop. Napalm Zombie after Napalm Zombie exploded, leaving huge char marks on the pavement as Samantha blew them to pieces. However, some of the Napalm Zombies were heading towards the hospital. One of them placed both of its hands onto the building and exploded violently, sending a shockwave throughout the entire building.

"We need to get out of here! They're attacking the building!" Andrew yelled.

"Come on!" Nikolai yelled, bursting through the front doors and firing his M72 Anarchy and killing three of the flaming Zombies. The building began to catch on fire, and as the group fought its way to the vehicles, the building exploded violently and came tumbling down.

Liam and Takeo fought side-by-side as they fought their way to the vehicles, trying to secure a way out for the group. Takeo pulled out a Stakeout from his pack and hurled it to Liam, who caught the shotgun in midair and fired it into the face of a Napalm Zombie three times. Liam jumped back before the Zombie's explosion could hit him.

"Behind you!" Takeo yelled before pulling out a Ray Gun and blasting at a Napalm Zombie a few yards away, who had drawn its hand back to attack Liam, causing it to explode.

"Thanks!" Liam grinned at the old warrior, who gave him a thumbs up before continuing their run to the vehicles.

Kara and Chan were fighting back to back, trying their best to fend off the waves of flaming Zombies. The explosions that took place when one of the Napalm Zombies were killed was almost as deadly as the Zombie itself, causing the girls to have to jump back to avoid it.

"**PULSATOR CANNON!"**

A huge blast of blue energy came surging by and engulfed three Napalm Zombies. The girls looked to the side to see Nick, pointing C.N towards them.

"Yep…just going to stand here and keep being awesome" Nick grinned.

Andrew ducked under a blast and fired a grenade from Skullcrusher, causing a Napalm Zombie to explode violently. Andrew reloaded and ducked as Judith fired her L115 Isolator, this time scoring a picture perfect headshot. The Napalm Zombie snarled in agony and drew its hand back before getting shot in the face two more times, causing it to explode.

"Got you that time" Judith laughed under her breath as she reloaded.

"SHOTGUN TO THE FACE!" Joe yelled unloading shot after shot into the Napalm Zombies advancing on them.

Joe then felt a huge wave of heat wash over him and he turned around to see a Napalm Zombie grinning evilly at him from two feet away, flames radiating from him. Joe fell to the ground, nearly passing out from the intense heat of the flames. The Napalm Zombie advanced on him, but before it could do more than draw it's skeletal hand back, someone yelled "HEY A-HOLE!"

The Napalm Zombie looked to the left and someone yelled "HEADS UP!"

A large tomahawk came flying out of nowhere and slammed into the Napalm Zombies face, causing it to stumble backwards several steps. The figure, Joe couldn't tell who because he was blinded by the flames, pulled Joe away from the stunned Napalm Zombie. The Napalm Zombie roared angrily and took one step forward before someone else yelled "FROM RUSSIA WITH GREAT AFFECTION!"

BOOM!

The Napalm Zombie exploded violently and Joe and his savior just barely escaped the blast by jumping out of the way. Joe slowly got up and looked to his right. Joe's eyesight finally recovered enough to see a girl grinning at him from the ground.

"Hey Tech-genius, help me up?" Iva asked, and Joe smiled and helped her up.

"Enough flirting you two!" Nikolai said firing his M72 Anarchy again and again into the horde of flaming Zombies, which seemed to be growing larger.

Jess ducked underneath a burst of flames and fired another Awful Lawton arrow, causing the Napalm Zombies to look the direction of the arrow, but they seemed to be able to resist the arrows to the point where they didn't run to it. It did however distract them, allowing the group to get closer to the vehicles. Dempsey was firing arrows as far away from the building as possible, though he was somehow able to fire a Galil with his free hand at the Napalm Zombies.

"DIE YOU FLAMMING GUTTER-SLUGS!" Dempsey yelled.

"DIE YOU FLAMINGO GUTTING SONGS!" Jess yelled.

"What did she say?" Judith asked Andrew, who shrugged.

"Chainsaw Blaster!" Juliet cried out as she blasted apart a Napalm Zombie that was about to attack Nicholas.

Nicholas glanced at Juliet and grinned before his face paled in horror and yelled "Watch out!"

Juliet looked behind her and saw a Napalm Zombie drawing its hand back and hurling several fireballs at her at an alarming speed. Juliet jumped to the side to avoid the first one, did a front-flip over the second one, but the third one she didn't see until it was nearly upon her.

Juliet was suddenly tackled to the ground and the fireball just barely missed her and slammed into an abandoned car, which exploded on impact. Nicholas rolled off of Juliet and aimed his Galil at the Napalm Zombie who had attacked Juliet and unloaded an entire clip into its face, causing it to explode.

"You…saved me" Juliet said quietly.

"Now are we even?" Nicholas grinned.

Juliet responded by kissing Nicholas on the cheek and then blasting apart a Napalm Zombie creeping up on them from behind with her Chainsaw Blaster.

"I'll take that as a yes" Nicholas grinned.

"GET IN MOFOS!" Liam yelled from the RV.

"Hurry up!" Takeo yelled from the Big Rig.

Jess and Dempsey aimed their Awful Lawtons and fired several arrows into the ruins of the hospital, giving everyone time to get to the vehicles. Juliet glanced at Iva, Chan, and Kara jumping into the back of the Big Rig, and then saw Nicholas sprinting towards the RV. Nicholas glanced back at Juliet, who was hesitating, and then suddenly sprinted towards him.

"Welcome to the team" Nicholas said with a grin as Juliet hopped into the RV.

Liam revved the RV and shot off after the Big Rig, which was now flying down the road. Kara, Iva, Chan were making obscene gestures to Liam, who scowled angrily.

"Joe, which button is the mortars?" Liam asked.

"The green one" Joe replied in a bored tone

Liam pressed it and yelled out as his seat moved forward and slammed his head into the steering wheel over and over again. Liam had a goofy grin on his face and said "The following chapter is brought to you by pennnguinnsssss…"

Jess ran up to the front seat and thwacked Liam on the head with a wooden spoon, which somehow made him regain his senses. He punched Joe in the arm and went back to driving.

"It's good to be back" Nicholas said with a satisfied grin.

Nicholas flopped down on the couch, and yelled out when Juliet flopped down on top of him. Juliet grinned at Nicholas, who flushed red, but didn't object to the situation at all.

"Hey" Juliet said.

"Hey" Nicholas replied with a grin.

"Get a room you two" Joe smirked.

"Don't you have something you could be doing?" Nicholas asked.

"Like?"

"Shutting up?" Juliet said sweetly.

"…jerks" Joe muttered before sitting in the shotgun seat and pulling out his laptop, which he began to listen to music with.

"Amazing, even if it's a Zombie Apocalypse, Roosterteeth still manages to make a Minecraft Let's Play every Friday" Joe said out loud.

"Well, it makes sense. FlygonN would ensure his favorite company ever is totally safe" Jess said.

Nicholas sighed and Juliet giggled as Liam revved the RV and drove after the giant Big Rig driving down the road. The group drove after the Zombie slayers, hoping that with their help, they could finally put a stop to Richtofen and the remainder of Group 935.

**Meanwhile:**

**Washington D.C. **

"I VHOUGHT YOU LOCKED HIM UP!" Richtofen bellowed at Porter, who cringed in fear.

"It seems as though his powers are waxing, Master Richtofen. We can't hold him here forever" Porter said with some concern evident on his face.

"He contacted zhem directly...He's becoming too unpredictable" Richtofen murmured.

"I agree. We have him sedated for now, but I don't know how long it'll last" Porter replied.

"It'll haff to last until zhis is over. We cannot take any chances, and he is a liability" Richtofen murmured.

"And Illuzio isn't?" Porter questioned.

"Illuzio is valuable. Magic is rather scarce nowadays, and we need his power" Richtofen replied.

"But you're stronger than him" Porter replied.

"ENOUGH. I vill not discuss zhis matter again. Ve must finish zhee preparations in zhee capital and activate zhee second node" Richtofen said.

"It will take time, they may make it here before we're ready" Porter said.

"Well, zhen you vill have to stall zhem, now von't you?" Richtofen said with a smile.

Porter nodded and said "Of course"

"Vhat of the other…experiment?" Richtofen asked.

"It's coming along rather nicely, as has the Hellhound restoration project. I was able to secure Fluffy from the river and she's currently getting treatment. She'll be ready for them by the time they get to D.C" Porter explained.

"Excellent" Richtofen replied turning around.

"Soon…zhee shall meet their doom…soon" Richtofen breathed with a sinister grin.

Porter looked at his leader, and then at the figure wrapped in a bloodied straight jacket and wrapped in chains, hanging limp from the ceiling. Porter smiled and said "Master Richtofen, do you think we'll need him? I mean we could kill him now and be done with it"

Richtofen looked at Porter and said "We need him. I do not trust easily, and he gained my trust long ago. I ensured your escape from Der Reise, so you must trust my judgment on keeping him alive, even if he's…unpredictable, now" Richtofen whispered fiercely.

Porter nodded and said "Of course, Master Richtofen"

Porter glanced at the figure wrapped in chains and smirked again.

"Should I head to the surface and prepare for them?" Porter asked.

"Yes…and zhis time, if you can't kill those brats…don't bother coming back" Richtofen said looking at Porter, who nodded and vanished into a cloud of particles.

End of Chapter:

_Hopefully you all liked the chapter, I've had it pretty rough recently, but I'll keep trying to send out new chapters. But I will promise one thing though. I will have chapter 19 out on Halloween. So chapter 18 will be coming out sometime between then, and it's another training scenario. So you may have to wait until the end of the month for this next chapter, but you'll be getting one on Halloween for sure, seeing as its pre-done, I just got to edit it._

_Anyway, who is this new member and unpredictable member of 935? Why is he such a wild card? AND CAN THE 4TH WALL EVER BE REPAIRED!?_

_Here're the answers._

_Not telling you. Because he's crazy. And what do you think? Trollololololololol._

_Review and tell me what you thought of the chapter! Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	18. Countdown to Destruction

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

ANA:

_Bad News: This Chapter took a while to do, it seems like I've been working on this for AGES..._

_Good News: You get another chapter very soon on Halloween, there was way more backstory than I thought I'd include in this chapter, and this is the longest chapter I've done to date. How I got this done by this time, I'll never know._

_OK, shoutout to my amazing reviewers. _

_Justplainawesome, Thundermonkey39, Trapinchh, deltastar 141, mybrosdrivemecrazy…JC785 (Really!?, Jeez, we'll get to your love interest character thing later man!)…uig50, StaticBomb324, Coolguyforever, a new reviewer known as kittens, and two guest reviewers minecraftrules99 and nerdyjedi, and Trapinchh again._

_Sidenote: Gas here is like, 3.50 a gallon, it's just a joke I've been doing, and yes, I planned on John dying all the way back in chapter 2, and I had a really bad joke at the end of the Chapter 10, but it was in bad taste so I change it. I may seem like I'm rambling randomly, but I'm just responding to the comments left in reviews._

_Once again, sorry about the slight delay, I've had it really, really rough lately and I'm finding it hard to find time to work on either of my stories. Oh, and College essays suck. Just a sidenote._

_However, I persevered and got it done. Also, I just got Pokémon Black 2 (just beat the Pokémon League too) and I've been hard at work on that, giving me some real good ideas for a Pokémon fanfic I've been thinking of doing when I finish this one. ;)_

_Sidenote, Here's my Pokémon Team:_

_Emboar_

_Vaporeon:_

_Leavanny:_

_Metagross:_

_Eelektross: _

_Flygon (My favorite):_

_Sidenote: I seriously recommend any fans of Pokémon to get the new Black 2 and White 2. It's really good. I know Black and White were kinda…eh…but Black 2 (and I'm guessing White 2) are pretty good._

_Special shoutout to mybrosdrivemecrazy, whose Zombie idea will be implemented in this chapter. She won 1__st__ place in the contest back in Chapter 15. Awesome Zombie idea._

_Disclaimer: Don't own anything except my own characters and ideas, and the song "Coffin" is owned by the awesomeness that is Black Veil Brides. I highly recommend popping open an extra window and when you get to the part where the song gets activated, just listening to the song while reading or something. It's amazing._

_Enjoy!_

Chapter 18: Countdown to Destruction

"_**Release…me…release me…**_"a deep voice whispered into Richtofen's mind.

"No! Not yet. If Porter fails, zhen you may take part in zhe chase. But not yet" Richtofen murmured.

The voice chuckled and said _**"Oh Edward…you cannot keep me contained forever. I have shook hands with the devil since my slumber…and though I do not have the powers that you possess, I am still a deadly and unstoppable force…"**_

Richtofen smiled at the voice's attempts to persuade him, and said "Oh, you ver alvays the tricky one…"

The voice laughed manically and said _**"I'm tricky? What about your real reason for destroying humanity as the world knows it? What you lost and how it drove you to this state?"**_

"Do not act as though you understand mine ways…No one vill understand vhy I must do this. Why this world must destroyed. Only I can see to it that order is restored"Richtofen whispered.

"_**Can you really restore order though?"**__ the voice asked._

Richtofen chuckled as he glanced at the figure in the room with him, wrapped tightly in a bloodstained strait-jacket. He had series of crosses on his straightjacket, which were glowing a dark red color. He had long flowing black hair and had scars all over his face. Though his eyes were closed, Richtofen knew that only evil rested beyond those closed eyelids.

Crimson eyes.

Red as blood.

The man's body shivered and the voice in his head became different.

"_Ah…control once more. What's wrong Edward…miss having the voices in your head?" _a laughing and slightly cheerful voice asked.

"Zhee 115 experiments…I do regret that you turned out this way, mine old friend" Richtofen sighed as he got to his feet and walked over to the bound man.

"_Are you now? I seem to recall that you're the one you forced Illuzio to trap me in the first place..."_ the voice said wryly.

"For your own good. You needed time to regain your sanity. I have no use for a tool zhat is broken" Richtofen said.

"_Me? Broken? Hahahahahahahaha!"_ the voice laughed manically.

"Master Richtofen!"

Richtofen turned around and saw Illuzio walking into the lab. Richtofen sighed in annoyance and said "Anyzhing to report?"

"They're closing in on that Nuclear Power Plant in South Carolina. The one where the meteorite is. Porter found them and is considering unleashing…it…on them" Illuzio said.

"Ah…Experiment 339. One of mine favorites…Illuzio…?"

"Yes?"

"Do you still remember the day we met?" Richtofen asked.

"Vividly. Didn't you ask me to turn that servant into a frog?" Illuzio asked.

"A toad actually, but yes. Do you remember vhat I asked you?" Richtofen asked.

Illuzio looked at the man hanging from the ceiling, limp and unresponsive.

"_Don't mind me Illuzio…__Master __Richtofen is waiting…heheahahahe…"_ the man chuckled.

"Yes" Illuzio answered after a few moments.

"And do you remember how you answered me?" Richtofen asked.

"…yes"

"Zhen you know vhat must be done" Richtofen said.

Illuzio sighed and said "I'll see to it that it gets retrieved"

Illuzio snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash of wicked green light. Richtofen smirked. At least that's one thing off his check list. It didn't matter if those teens defeated Porter. As long Illuzio came through and got the meteorite to the node in D.C…things would go fine.

"If Illuzio succeeds, I may not have to release you so soon" Richtofen murmured to himself.

"_You do know that once you release me, my power will grow with each kill, and that even you may not be able to stop me?" _the voice said curiously.

"Yesh, but I do not care. There are…nuisances that must be eliminated when I release you. Dear Dempshey told them of my secret failsafe node in Tennessee. They must not reach it" Richtofen told the voice.

"_Hmph. And what makes you think I'll remain loyal to you, eh Edward? All of good times we had, planning on stabbing Maxis in the back?"_

"Yes…you're an interesting case. It's a shame that we won't be able to have brunch anymore because of your evil" Richtofen chuckled to himself.

"_Aww…getting sentimental are we?"_ the voice laughed and Richtofen scowled and sighed.

"Of course not…I just wish that I could haff saved you" Richtofen said quietly before walking out of the room, leaving the bound man with his thoughts.

"_Hmm…Porter will fall…Illuzio will fall…and even Master Richtofen will fall…but will I…?"_ the voice murmured.

"_Only time will tell I suppose…hehehe…"_

**Meanwhile:**

The group continued to drive after Nikolai, Dempsey, and Takeo. The group drove for several hours, talking amongst themselves or just messing around. Jess was talking to Marcus via radio, Liam and Judith were taking a nap together, Andrew was jamming to music, Joe was working on something in the bedroom, Nick and C.N. were debating whether or not dragons were cooler than dinosaurs, which was stupid because dragons are obvious far superior. Jax was talking to Samantha about their plans for D.C when they got there, and Nicholas and Juliet were quietly talking about the pros and cons of destroying buildings, seeing as every place they had gone too had been blown to bits.

"Jeez, it's as though we're in a bad fanf-" Nick began to say before Nicholas growled angrily at him.

"Oh…um, I mean a very well written story that-"

"Liam, hit him"

BAM!

"Ow!"

"Thank you"

"No Prob"

"…meanies"

The group finally noticed that the Big Rig was slowing down, and it pulled into an abandoned Nuclear Power Plant.

"Hey Nicholas, I've been wondering something" Jess said as Lam pulled into the Plant's parking lot.

"Yeah?"

"Why do you and Joe get most of the actions scenes?" Jess asked.

"Already you're going to start with that? Jess, I'll give you this if you never bring this up again" Nicholas said tossing Jess a small rock that he pulled out of his pocket.

"Um…O…K?" Jess said looking at the rock.

"Cool pet rock Jess" Nick sniggered.

Jess looked at Nick and threw the rock at his head, promptly causing him to yell out in pain and fall onto floor. He then began to roll around on the floor in agony. Jess picked up the rock from the ground and said "Wow, thanks!"

"Well, that may be an _amazing_ side-function, but that wasn't what the rock was for" Nicholas said.

"What is it for?" Jess asked.

"Well, that is a plot-device rock. It allows you to open up one plot hole. Use it in case of an emergency." Nicholas asked.

"Dude, this story's plot has got more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese" Nick laughed, earning a swift kick in the chest from Juliet, sending him sprawling backwards. Nicholas gave Juliet a smile and she grinned right back as Nick slowly got to his feet, groaning.

The group's vehicle slowed to a halt and the two groups got out. Takeo looked up at the Nuclear Power Plant and said "It is time to explain why we ventured out to this cursed place"

"There is something in there that we have to destroy. If we don't, Richtofen's going to find it. So, better to destroy it than to let him use it for himself" Dempsey said.

"What is it?" Nick asked.

Dempsey was about to answer when a wicked breeze blew through the area, causing everyone to lose their balance and even sent Nick and Kara stumbling onto the ground.

"The hell?" Kara said as she got to her feet.

"There's evil in the air. And a familiar feeling of dread…" Samantha whispered.

"Hey Nicholas!" a voice yelled out.

"Huh?" Nicholas said, turning towards the bushes to the east.

"I LOST THE GAME!" the voice yelled.

"Damn it Hunter!" Nicholas yelled with a grin, recognizing the voice.

A skinny teen walked out of the nearby bush with a grin, saying "Sorry bro, couldn't resist"

Hunter was at about Nicholas's height, with long spiky bleach blond hair. He was dressed in black skinny jeans and a black sleeveless shirt with the A7X symbol on the front and a Black Veil Brides necklace, with black fingerless gloves. He had an AK-47 strapped to his back and a long army knife in his black combat boots.

Hunter was a fellow band geek from Bradburn High School, from the French Horn section, who were a little…odd. He, John, Joe, and Nicholas were best friends back at school.

He walked up to the group and said "Thank God you guys made it out. It was pretty rough getting here"

"How did you escape Bradburn High School?" Joe asked.

"Randy and Ryan thought of going through the woods and we hijacked a Hummer, if it wasn't for their quick thinking, we'd be dead. We were able to get to my dad's place to load up on weapons and supplies, and we headed out here to try and get to D.C. to find out what's wrong. Me and Josh lost Randy and Ryan though in Georgia, because we were running from…well, Hellhounds" Hunter explained with a sigh.

"Sounds about right, considering everything in Black Ops Zombies was real, and that Richtofen is trying to kill us all" Joe said.

"Makes about as much sense as everything else" Hunter replied.

"So, I'm guessing that that's Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo over there" Hunter said, pointing to the group.

"Yeah. Oh, and Samantha Maxis is right there. She has her own body" Nicholas said, pointing to Samantha.

"Hello" Samantha said with a smile.

"Hey" Hunter replied.

"Oh, and that's Juliet, yeah from Lollipop Chainsaw, Kara Dempsey, Iva Belinski, and Chan Masaki" Nicholas said pointing to each one of them.

"Black Veil Brides and A7X. I approve" Kara said with a grin.

Hunter grinned and said "Always good to meet someone with good taste in music"

"'So, you said you lost Randy and Ryan. Where's Josh?" Judith asked.

"RIGHT HERE!"

A blur raced by the group and slammed into Joe, who yelled in agony as he was sent flying into a pile of bushes.

"Nice entrance" Juliet said approvingly.

"Josh, remember what Randy told you. Don't go overboard with the enhancements" Hunter warned the teen.

Josh was yet another band member from Bradburn High. He sat in a wheelchair, regarding the group before him with a grin. He had dark hair in a bowl cut-like style and he looked at them through his glasses. His wheelchair was NOT how they remembered it though. It looked as though it had been outfitted with machine guns and thrusters, leaving all of the teens envious of the awesome chair.

"Don't worry, I won't. So, Black Ops was real? Makes sense to me I guess. So do you guys have a plan to stop Richtofen?" Josh asked.

"We need to destroy his lab in D.C., New York, and California. As for killing him, we'll figure that out later" Joe said.

"All right kids, we-" Dempsey began to say before the group herd a rustle in the bushes.

A man stepped out from the bushes and flicked his fingers towards the group who, as one, were hurled backwards 40 feet. The group got to their feet and eyed the attacker warily.

"Well…so much for the Napalm Zombies" Porter sighed.

"GET HIM!" Nicholas yelled, opening fire on Porter.

The bullets deflected off of Porter, who in the moonlight was protected by a shimmering green aura. The others fired their weapons at the 935 scientist, but with similar results. Samantha hung back, but suddenly dashed at Porter with a glowing green fist. Porter's eyes widened in surprise as she punched him right in the face and sent him flying into a tree.

"You! You got yourself a new body, didn't you!?" Porter snarled as he leapt to his feet.

"Yes, and now I'll use it to destroy you!" Samantha yelled as she charged up energy in her palms and fired it at Porter, who warped on the spot.

The 935 scientist reappeared, scowling, and pointed at the Power Plant and said "If I were you, I'd be less concerned about me, and be more concerned about what's in there"

"What?" Samantha said, confused.

"Two teens walked into the Power Plant, and awoke an experimental Zombie. Now that my creation has been awoken, it will cause the plant to explode, causing everything within 20 miles to be eradicated, unless you can stop it" Porter said.

"Two teens…Randy and Ryan!" Hunter yelled.

"Yes. It seems as though you're friends are smarter than they look, because they should be dead by now. They've been trying to stop the place from exploding, and it's only because of them this place isn't a barren wasteland. Though I doubt they'll be alive when the Hydra Zombie gets to them" Porter said. said with a grin.

"Farewell, and when we meet in Washington, I will kill you all. Make no mistake about it" Porter replied before vanishing on the spot.

"He's unsettled. He didn't think I could hurt him" Samantha smiled.

"We've got to stop that Zombie" Josh told the others, wheeling his chair towards the front doors, which were blasted open.

Standing in the hallway was a Zombie in a Nazi Commander's uniform, glowing a faint green color. He looked at each one of the teens, and men, slowly and then began to leisurely walk towards them. Juliet aimed her Chainsaw Blaster at the Zombie and said "OK…Let's see how this works!"

Juliet fired a shot at the Zombie, whose head exploded violently. The Zombie's body split into two halves and fell onto the ground.

"See? Piece of cake!" Juliet grinned, looking back at them.

"Um, Juliet?" Nicholas said pointing at the Zombie, sounding freaked out.

The two halves of the Zombie began to move on their own, glowing bright green. The halves began to shake and convulse, and somehow, the two halves began to…heal themselves.

"What…the hell?" Dempsey said in amazement.

The one Zombie became two Zombies, and both leered at the group. Both Zombies began to flash green, and then both Zombies grinned horribly.

"Oh…Hydra Zombie! It probably multiplies when you kill it!" Nick said.

"Can I kill him?" Samantha asked, jerking a thumb towards Nick.

"No, I'm saving him just in case we need him for food" Nicholas replied, and she nodded.

Both Zombie's neck suddenly exploded and now both Zombies' head were connected to their bodies by a long flexible neck that stretched up to thirty feet long. Oh, and the heads were now replaced by a snakelike creature with skeletal-like face. It snarled and hissed at them as the body slowly moved towards them, still glowing.

"It must be mutated from the radiation from the plant. We've got to lead that thing away from there" Joe said.

"Don't you mean things?" Chan asked.

"Oh, yeah, I guess" Joe replied in an annoyed way.

"REAH!" the two Zombies roared as their heads lunged towards the Zombie Slayers, who opened fire on the closer one and blasted it to pieces.

"NO STOP!" Samantha yelled, but it was too late, as the destroyed bits of the Zombie began to reform into two new Hydra Zombies.

Samantha growled and said "We have to kill them. Otherwise they'll cause this place to explode, but attacking them causes them to multiply"

"Then we can't attack them then!" Nikolai proclaimed rather loudly.

"We've got to get Randy and Ryan. They can't stop the place from having a meltdown on their own!" Hunter said to the others.

"OK, Nicholas. You and Joe head into Plant with the new guys. Get them. We'll hold these guys off!" Dempsey ordered.

"I want to go to!" Juliet said.

"Me too" Iva said, surprising everyone.

"Yeah, me too!" Chan and Kara said at the same time.

"No, you two stay-" Takeo began to say before the three Hydra Zombies lunged at them.

Josh activated a thruster on his wheelchair and shot past the Zombies. Hunter sprinted towards the Zombies, ducking underneath the head snapping at him, and dashed towards the courtyard of the building. Nicholas and Joe ran after them, dodging the strikes of the Hydra Zombies.

"Stop!" Samantha said, charging up a handful of energy in her palms and firing it at the Zombies, who were heading towards the girls.

The Hydra Zombie sidestepped the blast, which hit the main doorway of the plant. Green zigziagging waves of energy began to spread all throughout the plant, and the front doors to the complex flung open, revealing a wall of blue electricity.

"Great, now the place is a Zombie Map!" Juliet said cheerfully, catching up with Nicholas.

"You're excited, aren't you?" Nicholas asked fondly.

"Yep!" Juliet said with a grin.

The group ran through the barrier, but not before one of the Hydra Zombies went through the portal after them. The iron doors slammed shut as the Zombie walked through the doorway.

The group outside starred after the group for a moment, and then realized two of the Hydra Zombies were still coming for them.

"What now?" Judith asked Dempsey.

"We hold these two off long enough for them to fight through 20 Rounds of Zombies" Dempsey growled.

"I'll try and provide some assistance. I still have control over most of what happens in there, though you'll have to protect me while I do so" Samantha said.

"Don't worry kid; you've watched our backs for years. I think we can repay the favor" Dempsey grinned, and Samantha smiled gratefully at the marine before kneeling down on the ground and becoming immersed in a dark green glow.

**Inside the Power Plant:**

"WARNING…PLANT MELTDOWN IN TEE MINUS…FORTY FIVE MINUTES AND FIFTY EIGHT SECONDS!" a woman's voice said loudly as an alarm went off somewhere.

The group of teens found themselves armed with a crappy pistol, a small knife, and two frag grenades. Plus, there was no power to the plant. Hunter looked around, bemused, while Josh moved his wheelchair away from the front door in horror.

One of the Hydra Zombies had made its way through the barrier and was standing there menacingly. Its head hissed and snarled at anyone who came close to it.

(Round 1)

"Chan, Iva, Juliet, Kara, you all watch the barriers. Josh, lead that freak away from us. Joe and Hunter, watch out for the windows and the ceiling" Nicholas said, pointing to the Zombies starting to break in.

"So, what's the deal here?" Hunter asked, firing a few shots at the Zombies.

Nicholas jammed his knife into a Zombie's skull and added 130 points to his total.

"Well, Samantha can create "Zombie maps" for us to practice our skills in a…safer environment. She controls what goes on in here more or less" Nicholas said backing up and letting Hunter kill a Zombie.

"Hey…what happened to John?" Hunter asked.

"He's…we lost him" Nicholas said quietly.

Hunter swore angrily and said "How?"

Nicholas more or less recapped the events of the past week while the group fought off this wave of Zombies. Josh yelped as the Hydra lashed out at him and its head came down where he just was. Josh hopped out of the chair, and walked awkwardly away from the Hydra Zombie which was snarling and hissing at him.

"Leave him alone!" Hunter yelled at the Zombie, firing a shot at its head.

The Hydra Zombie's head growled at Hunter and the body began to move towards him. Nicholas took this moment to examine their surroundings. The first room of the Power Plant had a square-like design, with two sets of metal catwalks leading to two other rooms. Both were blocked by a pile of debris. An Olympia and an M14 chalk outline were on the walls of the room, opposite each other. A red light was blaring in the room, as was a small alarm. A Quick Revive Perk-A-Cola machine rested on the wall behind a desk.

The group made quick work of the Zombies in the room and ended the round.

(Round 2)

Juliet walked over to the Olympia and bought it off of the wall for 500 points. She held up the shotgun, testing its weight, and said "I wonder…"

Juliet then spun around and fired a shot through the window, blowing a hole through the heads of two worker Zombies.

Chan ran to the wall after a Screecher Zombie tore through the wooden boards and jumped through the window. She bought an M14 off of the wall and fired several shots at the Screecher as it ran at her, but the Zombie fell to the ground, convulsing.

"Taste my honor you slimy mofo!" Chan yelled out as she reloaded her gun.

Iva jumped back as a Zombie tore at the window barrier and jammed her knife into its neck, quickly yanking it out and then slashing the Zombie's face. Joe unloaded the rest of his pistol ammo into the Zombie trying to tear at his face.

Nicholas repeatedly slashed and shot at the 5 Zombies coming in through the barrier. By the time he killed the last Zombie coming from the barrier, blood flowed like water down the barrier as Nicholas stepped away from the window.

Hunter ducked under a Zombie swipe, jammed his knife into the back of the Zombie's head before whirling around and kicking its legs out from underneath it. He then shot it in the head five times, killing it. The round soon ended after Josh jumped out of his wheelchair onto a Zombie's back and jammed his knife into its neck repeatedly, killing it.

(Round 3)

"I wonder where Ryan and Randy are. Porter mentioned that they were stuck in here" Joe asked the others as the Zombies began to break in.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" a voice asked over the intercom.

The Bradburn High students all recognized the voice, and Joe called out "Ryan?"

"Joe?" the voice asked over the intercom.

"Yeah, it's me! Me and a group of other students from Bradburn High survived the attack" Joe said

"How did_you_ survive?" Ryan asked curiously.

"…I hate you all"

"Ryan! You OK!?" Hunter yelled.

"Hunter?"

"Yeah it's me!" Hunter said, ducking under a Zombie's swipe and kicking it in the nuts and firing at it 8 times with his pistol.

"Yeah. Randy's here too. We're stuck in this room, and we can't get out. There was this weird Zombie attacking us and we locked ourselves inside of this…control room. This place is going to blow, and we need to get out!" Ryan said.

"OK, We'll try to get you guys out. Hang tight!" Hunter yelled.

The girls fought off the Zombie's and ended the round when Juliet bashed a Zombie in the skull repeatedly with her Olympia.

(Round 4)

"All right, here's the plan. Juliet…you, Iva, Chan, and Kara go to the left. Try and find some way to shut down the Plant. And try to help Ryan and Randy. We'll go this way and do the same thing" Nicholas said.

""I'll open the door" Joe offered, walking to the pile of debris on the left, while Iva went to the one on the right and opened the path for them.

"Hey" Nicholas muttered to Juliet.

"Yeah?"

"Be careful" Nicholas said with a smile, and Juliet nodded and with a grin and walked towards the left path.

The Hydra Zombie snarled in annoyance and went after the guys, allowing the girls to continue on.

Juliet sprinted into the room, observing their surroundings. It was an R and D room, with several machines and devices on a large worktable with an assortment of tools that would make Einstein have a stroke.

Juliet realized why they needed to go here now. There was a large 115 meteorite in this room, in the middle of a glass jar. It was glowing a dark red color and radiated power.

Juliet scanned the room, noticing an MPL and a PM63 on the wall and a green vending machine, advertising Speed Cola. She swapped her M1911 for the MPL and got ready for the waves of Zombies. Kara, Chan, and Iva swapped their pistols for the MLP and got ready.

The Zombie's streamed into the room, and also began to tear down the walls of the room. Chan backed up and began to fire from afar with the M14. Iva and Chan dashed to the walls and began to subdue the Zombies that were breaking in. Juliet was at the front, mowing down the waves of Zombies with her MPL, which quickly ran out of ammo.

"Chan!" Juliet yelled as she jumped back to avoid a Screecher swipe.

Chan ran forward and jammed her knife into the Screecher's face before jumping up and bringing her foot down on its skull, breaking its neck with an incredibly powerful kick.

Juliet ran to the chalk outline and bought MPL ammo and ran back to Chan help her. The round ended and the girls looked at each other and grinned. This was the kind of the thing they'd been preparing for for years. And it sure as hell felt good to do what they were born to do.

Kill Zombies.

(Round 5)

The guys ventured into the next room, which was small and had various devices inside of it, whose function couldn't be determined. There was a strange device attached to the door, as though something would spray out of it or something. The group just ignored it for now. A Stamin-Up Perk-A-Cola machine stood by the wall, and group made mote of it for earlier.

Joe walked over to the MP5K chalk outline on the wall and bought it. Nicholas explained the rules to the environment they had to fight in, and soon they had all bought MPK5's and were slaughtering Zombies. Joe pistol-whipped a Screecher in face and then jumped back as it slashed at him. Hunter ran up to the Zombie and drop-kicked it into the table, breaking its neck.

"Nice!" Joe said, and Hunter grinned and replied "Thanks. Behind you, by the way"

Joe looked behind him and saw the Hydra Zombie lunging at him. Joe opened fire out of reflex and the Zombie split in half and fell to the ground. Suddenly, the group heard a voice yell _**"INSTA-KILL!"**_

"Samantha?" Joe asked.

"_**No. This is the voice of God you idiot" **_came a dry reply.

"…point taken"

"_**I'll try to help you all. Get your friends and get out of there! We're trying to hold off these Zombies, but we can't kill them without making more of them"**_ Samantha said as the 4 teens slashed at the Zombies, earning a crapload of points.

"Same problem" Joe said nervously as the two Hydra Zombies began to reform in front of them in a flash of radiation induced light.

**Meanwhile:**

"I wish I could KILL THIS STUPID THING!" Dempsey yelled as the Hydra Zombie snapped at him again, narrowly missing his left arm.

The Hydra Zombie was becoming faster and harder to avoid. The group led the Hydra Zombie away from the Plant, but were getting annoyed at the fact that hurting it made it split in half and duplicate.

"Maybe if we shot the head?" Judith suggested.

"Go for it. At least if it splits in half, it may get a little less boring" Nikolai said.

Judith lined up the shot and fired her rifle, getting a headshot with her L115 Isolator. The Hydra Zombie's head exploded and the Zombie fell to the ground.

"Nice shot!" Liam yelled, and Judith grinned.

"Well, thank God that crap is over. Now, let's get back to the Plant and-" Judith began to say.

The Zombie suddenly split in half, glowing bright green from the radiation and began to reform. The two Zombies slowly got to their feet, grinning evilly as their glowing blue eyes flashed wildly. The two Zombie's heads exploded, revealing two more serpent heads snarling at them.

"Are you kidding me!?" Andrew yelled.

One closest one lunged at Andrew and head-butted him, sending him sprawling backwards.

"SCREW THIS!" Andrew yelled as he got to his feet, hurling Reaper at the two Zombies'.

"NO!" Samantha shouted as the scythe flew through the air.

SLLLLIINNNK!

Both of the Hydra Zombie's head's fell off of their body. Andrew walked over to his scythe and pulled it from the ground and said "Yep, I'm awesome all right"

"REAH! REAH!"

Both of the Hydra's Zombie's flashed bright green and then split in half and reformed, and now 4 Hydra Zombies stood there, surrounding Andrew. Andrew ducked under the first one's attack and jumped over the head of the second and, out of reflex, sliced off the head of the Hydra Zombie.

"Andrew you idiot!" Samantha yelled as the Zombie's split and reformed again.

"I can already tell where this is going…I better go get some more vodka" Nikolai sighed.

**Meanwhile…Back at the Awesomeness:**

(Round 8)

"Is it me, or is FlygonN just getting lazier? I mean, we skipped like 3 rounds. I know that what happens outside the Plant takes time, and that we'd complete a few rounds in the meantime, but what the hell?" Joe asked Nicholas, who shrugged.

"Guy's been busy. Halloween's coming soon, and he promised that he'd get 18 out before then. Oh, and stop breaking the 4th wall, numbnuts" Nicholas replied.

**Meanwhile:**

"Hehe…numbnuts" Jess giggled as she jumped to the side to avoid being devoured by the Hydra Zombie.

**Meanwhile:**

"Was that necessary?" Joe asked Nicholas.

"No, but it sure was fun" Nicholas grinned as he aimed his MP5K at the waves of Zombie's coming at them.

Hunter and Josh looked at them and said "What the hell are you two talking about?"

"Zombie Apocalypse. Nothing makes sense anymore. So fight!" Nicholas yelled with a grin as he turned to face the new wave of Zombies.

The group opened fire on the hordes of Zombies coming at them from the first room. Nicholas jumped back as the Hydra Zombies snapped and snarled at him. While he reloaded, he slowly drew the Zombie's away from Josh, who was back in his wheelchair of awesomeness.

Josh gave Nicholas a thumbs up and wheeled himself over to the next door and opened it, dropping his points total to 6970.

"Come on!" Josh said, wheeling himself into the next room.

Hunter ducked under a slash from a Screecher Zombie jammed his knife into its skull. While the Zombie stumbled backwards, Hunter pulled out his knife and roundhouse-kicked the Zombie in the skull with his boot, which of course had a wickedly sharp spike at the end of it.

Hunter, Nicholas, and Joe sprinted into the next room, which was a large white hallway with several large fans in the side of the room, helping keep the room cool. Of course the power was off, so the room was fairly dark except for the moonlight streaming in through the windows. There was a large knife outline on the wall, which Nicholas ran over to and said with a grin "Now THIS is more like it!"

Nicholas pulled out the Bowie Knife and said in a German accent "I don't know who Jim Bowie was…but he must have been big and long and sharp!"

"Nein" Josh said in a German accent.

"So are we Germans now or something?" Joe asked as he kicked the, inactive due to lack of power, Invizi-Fizz Perk-A-Cola machine.

"Nah. Richtofen's an evil jerk, but he has some fun quotes in the game" Nicholas admitted.

"I'm German actually. I can even speak and read it pretty fluently" Hunter said.

"Seriously? Hey, if you can, I need you to look at something" Joe said fishing around in his backpack for something.

"Not now man, Zombies!" Nicholas said as the Zombies began to break in through the barriers again.

"Hunter! Look over there!" Josh said pointing to a chalk outline of a shotgun.

Hunter ran to the wall and his point total dropped by 1500 as he grabbed the Stakeout off of the wall. Hunter grinned and ran up to the entrance of the room and began firing his shotgun, blasting each Zombie to bits with each shot. Josh and Hunter fired at the Zombies coming into the room while Nicholas and Joe made sure none of the other Zombies broke through the barriers. Soon enough, the round ended, and the group took a short breather.

(Round 9)

"Let's go to the next room" Juliet said to the others, who nodded in agreement.

The Zombies were coming in by the dozens now and Kara kicked open the door to reveal a garden/courtyard area, marked with several signs about worker safety policies.

Chan spotted the MP40 chalk outline on the wall and alerted the others to it. Each of them grabbed the SMG off of the wall and opened fire.

While the other three slaughtered Zombies, Juliet looked around at their surroundings. There was blood splashed all on the walls. Juliet noticed an automated turret in the middle of the courtyard on top of a statue, which could be powered by pulling a lever. Juliet continued to scan the room and saw both the Juggernog and Mule Kick Perk-A-Cola machines propped up against a wall.

Juliet walked back to the front of the room, where the other girls had eliminated the swarm of the Zombies. Juliet told the girls of her findings and they explored the room, waiting for the boys to finish killing the Zombies.

"So I'll honest, this is pretty fun" Kara grinned.

"Seriously. I haven't had this much fun in a while. I mean, nonstop Zombies to kill? Access to high-powered machine guns? If only there was more vodka, then it'd be perfect" Iva sighed as she walked around the courtyard, examining it thoroughly.

"Hey? Can you guys hear us?" a familiar voice asked the girls.

"Yeah! We can hear you! You guys OK?" Chan asked.

"For now. The Hydra Zombie left a while ago, but we're still stuck in here. And there's less than forty minutes until this place blows. You've got to get us out of here, or stop the reactors" Ryan said.

"Or both" a new voice added, speaking in a cockney accent.

"You must be Randy" Iva said.

"Yeah. We need to get out of here, ASAP" Randy said.

"Where are you guys?" Juliet asked them.

There was a roar and Randy said in an annoyed tone "It's back…"

"Hurry up please?-" Ryan asked humorously before cutting off.

**Meanwhile:**

Andrew went flying backwards as the Hydra Zombie head-butted him once again. Nick ran up to the Zombie bashed it over the head with C.N, causing the creature to fall to the ground stunned.

"Nick, can't you use one of those power attacks or something!?" Liam asked frantically.

"No. The more I do it, the more C.N. begins to break. I'm done using those" Nick replied.

"Idiot" Liam growled before jumping to the side to avoid the Hydra Zombie's long neck.

Samantha began to charge up a ball of energy and fired it at the Hydra Zombie, causing it to explode. The Zombie was now missing an arm, a leg, and a huge chunk of its torso. The Zombie flashed green and began to split and reform.

"How do we kill these things!?" Jess asked Samantha as she ducked to avoid being eaten.

"_You can't kill them! They're Porter's greatest creations!"_ the voice from the hospital laughed manically from nowhere.

"WHO ARE YOU!?" Samantha bellowed.

"_Like I would tell you…don't worry Samantha, you'll be with your dear daddy soon enough!"_ the voice laughed gleefully.

"DON'T YOU _**DARE**_ TALK ABOUT _**DADDY LIKE THAT!"**_ Samantha screamed, lunging at the Hydra Zombies and grabbing them both by the skull and putting them into a headlock. She then spun around and hurled them high into the air in an amazing display of power and strength.

Samantha then charged up a bigger ball of energy and fired it at the half-formed Zombies, incinerating it to the point where even the ash was destroyed. Samantha felt her strength falter and she fell to her knees, panting.

"I'm…not used to this body yet" Samantha panted, slowly getting her breath back.

"Samantha? You OK?" Jess asked.

"I'll be…all right. Could you help me up?"

Jess pulled Samantha to her feet, and Samantha muttered "That took care of that Hydra Zombie. We have to completely destroy the body when it's reforming. That's how we beat them"

"We don't have those kinds of weapons, and you really shouldn't push yourself like that again" Jess replied worriedly.

"I know" Samantha muttered.

"What about the Ray Gun and Thundergun?" Jess asked.

"It's not enough. These Zombies's are really powerful in the aspect that they can't be completely destroyed by the usual weapons. We need something different" Samantha muttered.

"Liam! Watch out!" Judith yelled as the two Hydra Zombies converged on them.

Liam jumped to the side, but was clipped on the shoulder by the Hydra Zombie. Liam crashed onto the ground, clutching his bleeding shoulder while the Hydra Zombie advanced on him, snarling loudly.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Three shots rang out through the night and the Hydra Zombie's head exploded on the third shot. Liam glanced behind him and saw Judith aiming her rifle at the Zombie.

"Thanks" Liam sighed in relief.

Judith grinned and was about to say something when she yelled "Watch out!"

The Hydra Zombie glowed bright green and split in half. Now two Zombie's stood where only one did before. Judith ran over to Liam and helped him up and the two quickly got away from the two snarling Zombies, who began to walk towards them.

BOOOM!

A huge blast of wind shot from behind them and sent the two Zombies flying backwards. Jax walked up behind them, holding the Zeus Cannon up and said "You two OK?"

"Where've you been?" Judith asked.

"Holding off the other Hydra Zombie. I blasted it off a cliff, that should keep it occupied for a few more-" Jax began to say before there was a loud roar behind him.

The group turned around to see not one, but two Hydra Zombies.

"OH COME ON!" Liam yelled, aiming his Afterburner at the Zombies.

"No! We've just got to keep it distracted. At least until we can think of something" Jax said to the teen, who lowered his weapon.

"I hope the others are having better luck than us" Jax thought as he reloaded his Zeus Cannon, and got ready for the now 4 Hydra Zombies converging on them.

**Meanwhile:**

"SHOTGUN TO THE FACE MOFOS!" Hunter yelled, bashing the Zombie in the skull with the butt of the shotgun before blasting its head off.

"HEY! That's MY contingency plan!" Joe yelled as he reloaded his Galil and opened fire on the three Screecher Zombie's advancing towards him.

"Shut up Joe" Nicholas and Josh replied as they ducked under the Hydra Zombie's attacks and ran to the side of the room.

Hunter hopped up on top of the machines and went to town on the Zombies, blasting their heads off with the Stakeout. As the group began to run out of ammo, Joe noticed a pillar of light coming from behind a machine. Joe ducked under the Hydra Zombie and found himself looking right at the Mystery Box.

Joe ran up to it and slammed his palm down on it.

"Roll!" Joe commanded, and the Box flew open and creepy music began to play.

As the weapons flew by, the group heard the very familiar tinkling music and ran over to the box, keeping the undead hordes away.

Joe grabbed an FN-FAL, switching his empty MP5K and began to open fire onto the hordes, putting a sizable dent into the amounts of Zombies rushing them. As Hunter walked up to the Box, chuckling slightly, the round ended.

(Round 11)

Hunter walked over to the Box and rolled, and ended up getting a Galil. Hunter walked to the front and opened fire onto the horde of Zombies coming at them. One of the Hydra Zombies began to drift away from the horde and walk in the other direction.

"It's going after the girls" Joe said worriedly.

"They'll have to deal with it for now. They looked pretty tough, I'm sure they can handle it" Josh said as the Hydra lunged at him.

Josh boosted the chair backwards and easily got away from the Hydra Zombie, which was slowly making its way into the room. The Zombie snarled and its neck shot out at Josh, who flipped himself out of the chair. He fell backwards out of the chair and the Hydra Zombie's attack went astray and it slammed into the wall.

"This thing's no joke" Hunter said helping Josh up as Nicholas rolled on the Box.

"Come on…come on…" Nicholas muttered as the Box's weapons flew by, landing on a single C275 pistol.

"Perfect" Nicholas grinned as he ran towards the horde.

"Is he high?" Hunter asked.

"Maybe he likes a challenge" Josh said as he waddled over to the Box and rolled, getting a M72 LAW.

"I like it" Josh grinned as he aimed it at the Hydra Zombie.

"TASTE THIS MOTHERF_*#ER!" Josh yelled, firing a rocket at point blank range.

The Hydra Zombie exploded violently, exploding into a hundred pieces. Josh flew onto the ground and landed on his back, unconscious.

"Joe! Revive him!" Nicholas yelled as he ran to the front of the room and fired at the wave of Zombies.

Joe pulled a syringe out of his pocket and jammed it into Josh's arm. Josh began to stir and after a few moments, he sat up. Joe helped him up and he got into his chair while Nicholas held off the Zombies. Hunter rolled on the Box and got the-

"RAY GUN!" Hunter yelled in joy as he grabbed the Wonder Weapon and opened fire.

The two friends ended the round, and the group pressed onward and opened the next room.

(Round 12)

The group opened a pair of double doors and emerged onto a Metal catwalk, about 75 feet above the ground. The group saw the catwalk extended all the way to the reactors, which were showing signs of weakness, and by that I mean there were huge a$$ cracks in it. The Zombies began to jump from the roof of the Plant, landing lightly on the metal catwalk.

"WARNING…PLANT MELTDOWN IN TWENTY FIVE MINUTES AND THIRTY NINE SECONDS. PLEASE EVACUATE ALL PERSONAL. THIS IS NOT A DRILL" the voice said loudly.

"WE KNOW ALREADY!" Joe yelled as he fired his FN-FAL and blasted at the heads of a row of Zombies, eliminating the small group that was attacking from the side.

"Well, at least the Hydra Zombie died" Josh said cheerfully.

THUD.

"You had to say something" Joe muttered as he turned around to see the Hydra Zombie Josh had blown up, fully recovered.

THUD.

Hunter looked to the left part of the catwalk, and saw both a PH.D Flopper and a Hydra Zombie, snarling at him. Hunter aimed the Ray Gun and was preparing himself to fire when Nicholas said "Don't. It'll just keep multiplying. We need to get past it somehow"

Josh looked around while the others fought off the Zombie's. He looked down below and saw that the fight below wasn't going so well. There were now 8 Hydra Zombie attacking the others, and even the expert Zombie slayers were having trouble taking down this new foe. He rolled his wheelchair across the catwalk and looked around for anything that could be used to their advantage. He noticed a chalk outline that showed a pair of hands with what looked like a pair of knives attached to them.

"_I wonder what those are for"_ Josh thought.

Juliet whirled around and bashed a Nazi Zombie in the head with her empty Olympia, using the gun as a club. She then turned around and kicked it in the face, sending it flying into the wall.

"Awesome!" Juliet grinned as she aimed her MP40 and opened fire onto the hordes.

Once they were dead, Juliet looked behind her and saw a very, very fat Zombie slowly making its way towards her. It looked as though it were about 500 pounds and had trouble even standing on its feet.

"Oh my God!... You are the fattest zombie I have ever seen. Oh, I'm sorry, didn't mean to be insensitive. DIE!" Juliet yelled as she fired at it with her MP40 and fired upwards from the Zombie's crotch to its head, literally shooting it in half.

The others were having no trouble eliminating the undead hordes, as they were dispatching the waves of Zombies with little to no trouble. Chan jumped back as a Screecher Zombie slashed at her and she noticed a Sickle on wall and grabbed it, causing her points to drop by 3000. She took the Sickle and jammed it into the neck of the Screecher Zombie and yanked it out, roundhouse-kicking the Zombie and killing it.

Juliet glanced at the stairway that led to the next set of doors. She knew that it led outside because of the windows. Juliet gasped in horror as she saw Nicholas jump into view and barely avoid being eviscerated by the Hydra Zombie. Juliet ran over to the door and kicked it, yelling "Open!"

Juliet burst through the open door and bashed the Hydra Zombie in the face with her Olympia, knocking the Zombie backwards. Josh wheeled himself towards the Hydra Zombie and fired a few shots with his MP5K, causing to go towards him.

"You OK?" Juliet asked.

Nicholas was bleeding from his shoulder and holding it tightly. He nodded and said "How about you?"

"A-OK" Juliet grinned.

"Nicholas!" Hunter yelled, firing a Ray Gun shot at the Hydra Zombie trapping him against the end of the catwalk.

The Zombie fell apart and Hunter jumped over it. The round ended and the girls met the guys on the Metal Catwalk.

"We need to get the power on" Chan said to the others.

"There's the door to the generators. Those supply power to the whole place" Iva said walking towards the doors.

Hunter glanced behind him and saw the Hydra Zombie reforming in a freaky green glow, spawning a second one as well. Iva approached the door and opened it, causing her point total to drop by 1250.

The emerged in a large room with several turbines and engines in it. It looked as though it supplied power to the whole facility. The group looked around the room, making note of the Double Tap Root Beer Perk-A-Cola and the Deadshot Daiquiri propped up on the sides on the room. Joe walked over to an old fashioned power switch and pulled it up, turning on the power to the whole facility.

"OK. Now that the power is on, we can try to keep this thing from exploding" Ryan said over the intercom.

"OK, where are you?" Hunter asked.

"UP HERE!" Randy yelled.

The group looked up and saw a small room with wide windows, where two teens with long black and blond hair were looking down at them. Randy, the one with long blond hair, waved down at them cheerfully while Ryan dashed about the room.

"Randy, help me out here!" Ryan said.

"Right" Randy replied, walking towards him.

(Round 13)

"All right. We need to circle around and get perks while they figure this crap out" Nicholas said, and the others agreed.

Joe, Kara, and Iva walked over to the Deadshot Daiquiri machine and each bought a bottle.

"Cheers" Iva grinned before chugging the bottle down.

As Joe chugged his bottle down, Iva frowned and said "Egh! This isn't vodka! What a rip-off…"

The front doors of the power room where wide open, allowing the others to get to the first room. Juliet and Hunter both ran over to the Quick Revive machine and bought a bottle of the fishy drink and choked and gagged on it.

"EGH! What the hell?" Hunter said.

"There's something fishy about this drink" Juliet said with a shiver.

"Come on; let's head back through this way" Joe said pointing to the path they had travelled earlier.

"Hold on" Juliet said pulling out a Quick Revive syringe.

Juliet walked over to Nicholas and injected the syringe into Nicholas's open wound, sealing it back up flawlessly. Nicholas's face eased up and he let out a sigh of relief.

"Thanks" Nicholas smiled.

Juliet winked and then bashed a Nazi Zombie so hard in the head with her Olympia that its brain flew into 30 feet in the air.

The group began to shoot and fight off the Zombies as they ran up the stairs to the first room. Nicholas, Chan, Iva, and Kara all bought a bottle of quick revive while the others held off the others savored the sweet drink of Stamin-Up. Joe noticed that not one or two, but three freaking Hydra Zombies lumbered into the room, snarling and hissing.

"Oh come on!" Kara yelled as the Zombies charged at them.

**Meanwhile:**

Dempsey ducked under the Hydra's head and fired another shot at its back, wounding but not killing it.

"RAH! This is really getting on my nerves!" the marine growled in annoyance as he jumped back, avoiding the Hydra Zombie lashing out.

"I am out of vodka!" Nikolai sighed as he ducked under the Hydra's attack once again.

"What a dishonorable creature. You will be defeated!" Takeo yelled as he blocked an attack from the Hydra Zombie with his totally useable katana that he could've used during his fight against the Zombies 50 years ago. (Seriously, WTF!?)

Porter watched from amusement at the top of the building. He was very pleased how things were going so far. The teens inside the Power Plant wouldn't fix the damage he had caused in time, and his creation, well Richtofen's and his creation anyway, was decimating the fools that were causing his Master trouble.

"Truth be told, I have to admire then for them staying and fighting rather than fleeing. But, they're not going to last much longer at this rate" Porter said under his breath.

He watched with glee as Samantha was sent flying backwards as the Hydra Zombie lunged at her and bashed her in the head with its skull.

"Does my heart good to see Maxis's brat get what she deserves. If it wasn't for Richtofen, I would've died at Der Reise because of her" Porter muttered.

He remember that day well. Very well…

As far as he knew, there were only three surviving members of the original 935. He was the only one of the two allowed to roam freely, as the the other member was…dangerous.

It was as though he was possessed by some evil force. Richtofen wanted world domination and the end of humanity as he knew it. But, he had his reasons for that. As for _him _on the other hand, he wanted nothing more than destruction after Richtofen's experimentations.

All of the members of 935 were a mystery it seemed.

"Well, maybe I can sort this mess out with Richtofen later. He needs to see reason, and kill that demonic freak while he can. As for Illuzio…he's a mystery he is…" Porter murmured before bursting into a cloud of particles and vanishing in the wind.

**Meanwhile:**

(Round 14)

"Jeez, these guys suck d**k" Juliet said with a frown.

The Hydra Zombies were being distracted by Joe, Nicholas, Hunter, and Josh. Chan walked over to the Invizi-Fizz machine and bought a bottle. Kara ran to the wall and grabbed the Bowie Knife off of the wall and immediately lashed out at a nearby Nazi Zombie, decapitating it with a single slash.

"Hmm…not bad" Chan said before becoming completely invisible as Kara slashed wildly with her knife at the Zombies rushing her.

Iva ran up to the Zombie's bursting through the barriers and opened fire with her newly acquired Python.

"Grr…I need Speed Cola" Iva grumbled as she slowly reloaded the pistol.

Josh aimed his M72 LAW at the crowd of Zombies and fired it. The rocket created several crawlers, but blew the Hydra Zombie apart. The Zombie split in half, flashing a wild green color.

"Uh oh! RUN!" Hunter said as one of the machines in the room overheated and exploded violently.

The Hydra Zombie appeared around the corner, still reforming and glowing green, and was caught in the massive explosion. The Zombie roared in agony as the flames consumed it, and it fell to the ground in a heap of ash. The group saw the Hydra Zombie try and reform as it burned, but the pieces were being destroyed as they began to repair themselves.

"That's it…these things can't reform themselves if they get incinerated while reforming" Chan said with a grin.

"Yeah, but do we have another explosive machine around here?" Josh asked.

"HEY! A little help here!" Ryan yelled from the speakers.

"We're trying man! What do you need?" Hunter asked.

"There are 4 power switches that power the terminal that keeps this door operational. They've got to be around here somewhere, s turn those on. Also, this door will remained locked unless you get rid of that strange energy reading" Randy said.

"Energy reading?" Iva asked.

"Yeah. It says there's something weird coming from the research and development room. It's messing with the circuits that open this huge door" Ryan added.

"The meteorite" Kara said to the girls, who nodded.

"What are you talking about?" Nicholas asked.

"This isn't just a Nuclear Power Plant. This is a research and development plant too. And there's a 115 meteorite in one of R & D rooms" Juliet said.

"We've got to get to it" Hunter said to the others.

"Grrrr…"

The two Hydra Zombies emerged into the room, looking pissed off. Juliet glanced at her two empty guns and muttered to Nicholas "I need to roll"

"I'll hold them off" Nicholas promised as she ran at the box.

Juliet went to the Box and rolled, and got the AUG. She switched her MP40 for it and said "OK, who's next?"

"I could use a roll" Iva said walking to the Box and rolling.

BAM.

"_**Hahahahaha! Bye bye!"**_

"Oh come on Sam, that's just not fair!" Iva yelled.

"_**Hehe…I still have fun doing that to- Liam! Watch out!"**_ Samantha yelled.

They felt her presence vanish and the group began to worry once more what was going on with their friends. The group began to move from the room they were in to the next room, and from the catwalk above they looked down on the scene of carnage below them.

The group forced themselves to keep going and to finish the round, which ended when Juliet kicked a Nazi Zombie in the chest and bashed him over the head with the Olympia and sent him tumbling off of the catwalk.

(Round 15)

"REAH! REOH! REEEEAAAAAHH!"

Andrew, Jess, and Samantha jumped to the side as the three Hydra Zombie's advanced on them. Liam was unconscious and bleeding rather badly from his shoulder when the Hydra Zombie lashed out him. These things were impossible to fight, and yet when they had seemingly managed to subdue them, they just came back stronger than ever and in greater numbers.

They just getting battered by the unkillable Zombie, and none of them save Samantha had enough firepower to put these things down for good. But Samantha was tired and weakened, still not used to having a human form again and from overusing her powers.

The Hydra Zombie lashed out at Jess, but for some reason a Zombie crashed down from out of nowhere and landed on its head, stunning it.

"…the hell?" Andrew asked, panting heavily.

"Stay alert!" Dempsey yelled as he bashed the Hydra Zombie in the face with his empty Galil and broke its knee cap in with a powerful kick.

The marine jumped back, worn out from the relentless fighting. They couldn't keep this up for much longer, even with their years of experience; they had never fought a Zombie like this.

"We've got to finish this thing and get back to them. There's got to be a way to kill all of these things" Nicholas muttered as the Zombies began to attack them once more.

Joe, Josh, Juliet went to grab a bottle of PH.D Flopper while the others fought off the hordes of Zombies. Iva ran up to the chalk outline of the M16 and bought it, adding her gunfire to the rest of the group's. Nicholas lashed out with Bowie Knife after shooting a few shots into a Zombie, maximizing the amount of points he'd get. Nicholas heard at the faint sound of music being played and saw Kara rolling at the Box. She held up a Galil like it was a newborn child and yelled "HOORAH!"

Kara rolled again and got the ever so useless China Lake. Kara sighed in annoyance, but switched the gun with her MP40. Chan ran over to the strange chalk outline Josh had found earlier and bought what was advertised in the outline.

Joe ran up to a Screecher Zombie and bashed it over the head with his FN-FAL. He got out of range of the Screecher's claws and was about to fire when a long knife flew from out of nowhere and impaled itself in the Screecher's skull. The Zombie fell to the ground and blood dripped from its skull down to the ground below.

"UGH! What is this substance!?" Takeo said in disgust as the blood got on his jacket from out of nowhere.

Joe looked behind him and saw Chan holding two similarly shaped knives. In fact, she had a holster full of them, and was wearing a pair of thick black gloves.

"Throwing knives" Chan grinned as she retrieved her knife from the Zombie's skill.

Nicholas swore as his C275 clicked due to the lack of ammo and Samantha said _**"I'm sorry! I can't send you all perks right now. I…I don't have the energy!"**_

"It's OK Sam. Stay alive. We've got this" Nicholas said.

"_**OK…"**_

Nicholas sprinted to the Mystery Box and rolled, and grinned as his gamble paid off with a pair of C275's. Nicholas opened fire as the group backed up and went into the courtyard room. Josh wheeled himself towards the horde and pulled out his M72 LAW. He attached it to a special holder on the side of his Wheelchair of Awesomeness and said "This is a really good day for me"

Josh fired a rocket into the horde, blowing several Zombies into nothingness. Josh reloaded and fired again and again into the horde, but winced when the rocket blasted one of the Hydra Zombies apart.

"Crap!" Josh said wheeling his wheelchair away from the now reforming Zombie.

The group burst into the courtyard area and everyone bought a bottle of Juggernog. Nicholas, Josh, and Hunter each bought a bottle of Mule Kick, allowing them each to get a third weapon.

The Zombies continued to come into the room and the others began get to slightly overwhelmed by the onslaught of Zombies. Hunter ran over to the turret and activated it. The automated turret turned on and began to fire at the horde of Zombies coming in from the room they had just come from.

With the turret helping them, the group made quick work of the remaining Zombies, and the round ended when Hunter bought a Sickle off of the wall and jammed it into a Nazi Zombies throat.

(Round 16)

Hunter than ran over to the MP40 and switched it for his empty Stakeout. A Nazi Zombie swiped at Hunter, who blocked the swipe with his Sickle and shot the Zombie in the neck at point-blank.

Josh spun around in his automated wheelchair, shooting away at the Zombies coming from all around them. He reloaded his M72 LAW and fired it at a trio of Screecher Zombies, sending them flying into the wall and fall to the ground as charred, bloody, corpses.

Kara hissed in pain as a unusually quick Screecher slashed her arm. As blood ran down her arm, she stabbed it repeatedly in the head with her Bowie Knife. Hunter glanced over at Kara who fell to her knees, clutching her arm. Another Screecher Zombie charged in from the side, coming in for the kill.

A flash of silver and flash of blood were all Kara saw through her pain as blood gushed from her arm. The next minute, she felt something flow into her gaping shoulder wound…and the pain began to fade. Kara looked up and saw Hunter injecting her with a Quick Revive syringe.

"T-thanks" Kara said gratefully as Hunter helped her up.

"Anything for a fellow member of the Black Veil Brides Army" Hunter smiled, and then turned around kicked a Zombie in the chest and fired twenty shots into its chest, sending it crashing onto the ground in a heap of blood. Hunter then picked up the Sickle he had thrown and chuckled to himself at how awesome this was.

Nicholas and Juliet stood back to back, shooting and slashing at the Zombies coming from all sides.

"Duck!" Juliet said.

Nicholas ducked as Juliet fired an entire clip of her AUG through seven Nazi Zombies coming at them.

"Thanks" Nicholas laughed as he reloaded his pistols.

Joe ran back to the previous room and went to the Mystery Box, with Chan watching his back. Joe rolled on the Mystery Box and got the HS10.

"Shotgun!" Joe yelled before bashing a Zombie in the face with his shotgun, sending it tumbling off the catwalk.

"Was that necessary?" Chan asked.

"No. But it sure was fun" Joe grinned as he fired several shots into the horde attacking them.

"Go R & D room!" Iva said to the others, who nodded and ran into the next room, and to their surprise, they found it occupied. A familiar foe was sitting on the table in the R & D room, next to a large glass container.

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in" Illuzio chuckled as he jumped off the table.

"Another friend of yours?" Josh asked.

"Nope, just another psychopath member of Group 935" Nicholas muttered.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Illuzio. Master of Magic, Illusionist Extraordinaire, and Master Spellcaster of Group 935, at your service" the magician bowed to the teens.

A Hydra Zombie burst into the room and Illuzio laughed and said "Oh Porter, your creations are so…pitiful"

Illuzio flicked a pulse of flickering green energy at the Hydra Zombie, which began to convulse wildly. The serpent-like head of the Zombie roared in agony and the entire thing split in half and began to reform, glowing bright green. The Zombie then began to burn from the inside out, being reduced to nothing but ash. Illuzio then clapped his hands, creating a green barrier to keep the Zombies from breaking in.

"What do you want?" Nicholas asked.

"I am here for the meteorite. Richtofen needs it to finish the final modifications to the Node in D.C." Illuzio replied.

"If you want to kill Richtofen so bad, why are you helping him kill us all!?" Juliet yelled.

Illuzio shook his head and said "I don't just want Edward dead…I want his power"

"What?" Joe said in surprise.

"Yes. I don't want that evil snake just dead…I want him to watch as everything he cared about and strove for gets stolen from him…but more importantly…I'm preparing for something else…something I may not be able to stop on my own…" Illuzio replied softly.

Nicholas realized what Illuzio could be referring to.

"…Do you…do you mean that voice we heard at the hospital?" Nicholas asked.

"Yes. Let me warn you of one thing. I have my own motives for what I do, and I may even try to kill you. But you must try to kill Richtofen. This ruse depends on all of you, and if we can't stop Richtofen, than I can't get his power" Illuzio said.

"What about that person you mentioned?" Hunter asked.

"For now he is bound by my spell. If you manage to kill Porter…then Richtofen will force me to release him. I'll have no choice but to let him hunt you down" Illuzio said.

Illuzio walked over to the meteorite and shattered the thick glass protecting the meteorite with a simple flick. Illuzio snapped his fingers and the Meteorite vanished. Illuzio then clapped his hands and said "There's a Pack-A-Punch Machine in the Power Room now if you care to get it. The choice is yours"

"T-thanks" Josh said uncertainly.

"But be warned. Richtofen is far too powerful for me to destroy on my own, but he has his weaknesses. I don't know what they are, but everything has one" Illuzio said with a smile.

"Why can't you just help us kill him!? With you, Samantha, and the others, we can take him and rest of 935 down!" Nicholas asked angrily.

"We all have a part we must play" Illuzio said simply.

"You're a coward" Nicholas replied.

"…What did you call me?" Illuzio said softly.

"You're a coward. You do nothing but slink along in the shadows, having us do your dirty work for you. I bet you could've killed Richtofen years and years ago, but you didn't. And now that you can't-" Nicholas said in disgust as he took a step towards Illuzio.

Suddenly Nicholas was hurled backwards and slammed into the wall and fell onto the ground. Nicholas got to his feet and drew his Bowie Knife and threw it at Illuzio, who caught the knife and jammed it into the wall.

"LEARN YOUR PLACE!" Illuzio snarled furiously.

"Then tell us, what's with the schemes? Why are you doing all of this!?" Nicholas asked.

"You ask why I do what I do? Why don't you ask dear Richtofen? His answer is the same as mine" Illuzio whispered before snapping both of his fingers.

The room was filled with an intense flashing light and the two barriers dropped down and all of the Zombies became electrified. The end of round music came on as Illuzio snapped his fingers and vanished.

"You shouldn't have provoked him" Joe muttered.

"I'm sick of us being manipulated. We're just pawns to him, a means to an end. I want to know the full story and what his reason for doing all of this is" Nicholas growled as he walked over to his Bowie Knife and yanked it out of the wall.

(Round 17)

"Look at all of this equipment" Joe muttered to himself.

"Think you could make the final modifications to_ it_ with this stuff?" Iva whispered to Joe, who nodded.

"OK, after we Pack-A-Punch, we can come back here and finish it" Iva whispered, and Joe grinned.

"You really like this kind of thing, don't you?"

"Well, yeah" Iva said with a sheepish grin.

Joe and Iva then looked at the six other teens, watching them. Chan began to laugh and walked over to the chalk outline of the PM63 and switched her MP40 for it.

"No, by all means Joe. Keep talking" Hunter said with a grin.

"Yeah, don't let us bother you" Kara added.

Everyone bought a bottle of Speed Cola and ran into the first room and through the doors leading to the Power Room. The Pack-A-Punch Machine stood at the top of the stairway in the room, surrounded by a dozen Screecher Zombies.

"OPEN FIRE!" Nicholas yelled, firing his twin C275's at the Screecher's.

"WARNING. PLANT MELTDOWN IN TEE MINUS TEN MINUTES AND FORTY THREE SECONDS"

Juliet bashed the Screecher in the skull with her Olympia and unloaded an entire round of her AUG into the Screecher, killing it by making its skull explode. Josh aimed his M72 LAW and fired a rocket into the horde of Zombies, stunning them and even making a crawler.

Kara and Chan walked over to the group of Zombies and killed all but one. Hunter grabbed the crawler by the stump of its legs and found a disconnected cord. Hunter tied the crawler to a support beam to the room and said "There. Now we can get everything we need"

"RAAAAHHH!"

"After we deal with the other Hydra Zombies" Hunter sighed as the Hydra Zombies came closer to the room they were in.

Nicholas put his C275's in the Pack-A-Punch Machine and got the Calamity and Jane. Nicholas went to the rear entrance of the room and went out the doors.

"Where's he going!?" Kara yelled as she Pack-A-Punched her China Lake, making it the China Beach. Which is just as useless Pack-A-Punched as it is when you first get it.

Chan ran up to the Pack-A-Punch and upgraded her PM63, getting the Tokyo and Rose.

"Oh come on, that's so freaking stereotypical" Joe said.

"What?" Chan asked.

"Just…come on FlygonN, be a little more classy than that" Joe complained.

"JOE! SHUT IT!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Joe replied as fired several shots of his HS10 at several Zombies that they hadn't killed yet coming at them.

"Go Joe. I've got your back" Iva said as she Pack-A-Punched both her M16 and MP40 into the Afterburner and Skullcrusher.

Joe grinned at her and Pack-A-Punched his FN-FAL to the EPC-WIN and his HS10 into the Typhoid and Mary. Juliet ran up to the Pack-A-Punch machine and to everyone's surprise she upgraded her Olympia. She grabbed the Hades and pulled out a small bungee cord.

"What're you doing?" Hunter asked as he ducked under a Screecher's slash and blasted it twice with his Ray Gun.

Juliet fastened the shotgun to her lower left leg with the bungee cord. After testing that she still was able to move like should could she ran up to a Zombie and kicked it while pulling the trigger of the Hades.

A huge burst of flames shot out of the shotgun and incinerated three Zombies. Juliet laughed and said "OMFG. That was awesome!"

"That's a new spin on Zombies, I approve" Nicholas said with a grin as he reappeared holding a Galil. He unloaded clip after clip into the hordes of Zombies that were coming from every direction. The group managed to subdue the hordes, and could now rest easy for a moment.

Josh got out of his wheelchair and removed the M72 LAW from his chair. He slowly made his way to the Pack-A-Punch machine and upgraded it to the M72 Anarchy. He then attached it to his wheelchair, grinning.

"Guy gets a high-tech wheelchair, and now he has a semi-automatic rocket launcher attached to it…what next?" Joe asked himself.

"Hey!"

The group looked up to see Randy looking down at them Ryan dashed about pressing buttons.

"You need to find the buttons to deactivate the door. They're somewhere in this main building. But before that, you've got to turn on the power switches that power the control panel that opens the door. There's 4 switches" Randy told them.

"Why four?" Joe asked.

"Because this is the room to the Power Plant's control room, and there's a lot of important controls in here. In order to keep people from breaking into the place when it was empty and getting access to this room, they implemented security measures" Randy explained.

"Wow, that's crazy" Juliet remarked.

"Randy we've only got eight minutes left" Ryan said urgently.

"Oh, and hurry up" Randy added.

ROAAAAH!

The three remaining Hydra Zombies burst into the room, snarling loudly. One of them lunged at the tied up Zombie and ripped its throat out, killing it and ending the round.

(Round 18)

"Jeez, talk about overkill" Kara winced.

"OK. We need to split up. Josh and Hunter, you go to the courtyard area. Iva and Joe, head to first room and the R & D room. Kara and Chan, you go to the room where the Hydra Zombie died and the room it led into. Me and Juliet are going outside on the catwalk" Nicholas said, and everyone nodded.

The group was just about to split up when the three Hydra Zombies roared at the same time and one of them flashed red and ripped itself in half, creating another copy.

"This thing's getting serious" Nicholas muttered as he reloaded his Galil as the four Zombies snarled angrily and flashed green again.

Their hands began to glow green and morphed into razor sharp six inch claws. The Hydra Zombies then roared at the same time, shattering all of the windows in the entire Power Plant.

"Go!" Hunter yelled sprinting past the Hydra Zombie on the left, with Josh using the thrusters on his chair to escape the Hydra Zombie's huge claws.

The Hydra Zombie that slashed at Josh then went after him, and went much faster than it had gone before.

"The radiation…it's causing them to become stronger" Juliet muttered as she crouched down and reloaded her Hades.

"You're right. We've got to find a way to kill them once and for all" Chan muttered.

"Come on Chan" Kara said, running at the Hydra Zombie's and sliding underneath its legs.

Chan followed Kara's lead and went out through the front doors. Nicholas, Juliet, Joe, and Iva went through the back entrance and two of the Hydra Zombie's followed them.

Nicholas ran over to the Mystery Box and rolled, and it landed on the HK21. Nicholas grabbed his 3rd gun and ran with Juliet to the edge of the catwalk and looked desperately for the power switch. The Zombies began to break through the barrier again and were coming at them.

"Look for the switch! I've got them" Nicholas said pulling out his Calamity and Jane.

Juliet nodded and began to search desperately for the switch.

The two Hydra Zombie's burst into the area and one of them went after Joe and Iva, who ran into through the closest door and into the courtyard area. The 2nd Hydra Zombie glanced towards the way Joe and Iva went, but then looked at Juliet and Nicholas, and roared loudly.

Nicholas began to back up from the Zombie, but then realized that Zombies were coming from behind him as well. Nicholas turned around and unloaded onto the horde with his Pack-A-Punched pistols.

Juliet then spotted it.

A small little panel that had a small blinking light on it. Juliet sprinted towards the panel, and jumped high into the air, doing a double front flip in midair.

As she landed, she stuck her foot out and pulled the trigger of Hades, blasting 5 Zombies with fire. The Zombie howled as they began to burn and fell to the ground. Juliet grinned and sprinted over to the panel and flipped the switch.

"WARNING. PLANT MELTDOWN IN TEE MINUS SEVEN MINUTES AND FIFTY TWO SECONDS."

"AGH!"

Juliet whirled around to see Nicholas fall to the ground as the Hydra Zombie slash at him. He rolled on the catwalk to avoid being bitten by the Zombie, whose face slammed into the catwalk. Juliet sprinted towards Nicholas and injected his arm with a Quick Revive syringe. Juliet helped Nicholas to his feet as the Hydra Zombie ripped off a chunk of the catwalk and snarled at them.

"DOUBLE SHOTGUN TO THE FACE!" Joe yelled as he blasted his way through a crowd of Zombies while Iva fired grenades into the horde with her Skullcrusher.

The group ran past Hunter and Josh and the Hydra Zombie chasing them, ducking under it as it chased the duo with single-minded intensity.

Joe pulled out his invention from his pack and said "OK, time to get to work"

"I've got your back" Iva said pulling out her other gun and holding each one in her hands, each gun aimed at a doorway.

Zombies began to come into the room an Iva opened fire. The combined gunfire from her guns allowed her to take down the horde with little trouble. Joe continued to work on his invention, muttering to himself.

"Hunter!" Joe yelled.

"A little busy!" Hunter yelled as he sidestepped the snarling head of the Hydra Zombie and blasted it in the knee with his Ray Gun, crippling it.

"Watch it, I'll help Joe" Hunter said, and Josh nodded.

The heard the sound of someone rolling and then getting a teddy bear, though Samantha didn't make any noises like she normally did.

"They must be really having trouble out there" Josh muttered.

The Mystery Box suddenly appeared in the room that he was in, and Josh glanced at the Hydra Zombie slowly hobbling along, trying to get to him. Josh grinned and got out of his chair, and very slowly and casually walked over to the Mystery Box and rolled, getting an orange machine gun.

"RPK. Nice. Let's try again" Josh said as he rolled once more.

"What's up?" Hunter asked.

"Translate that for me" Joe said, pointing to a line of text on the blueprint he had gotten from the Lakeside Cave a week ago.

"No problem, though is that what I think it is?" Hunter asked.

As Joe and Hunter worked on the Blueprint, Iva swore loudly as the Hydra Zombie burst into the room and lunged at her. Iva ducked under its claws and jumped back as it swiped at her. She fired a grenade from Skullcrusher at the Hydra's feet, blowing off one of its legs. Iva let out a sigh of relief, though she quickly regretted letting down her guard as the Hydra Zombie's head lunged at her and head-butted her, sending her crashing into the wall.

"IVA!" Joe yelled as Iva slid down the wall with blood trickling down the side of her head.

"Joe! Wait!" Hunter yelled.

Joe realized the need to wait, as if he attacked the Zombie, it would respawn and become even stronger. Hunter ran over to Iva and revived her with a Quick Revive Syringe. The end of round music came on as Iva limped over to the power panel and flipped the switch.

(Round 19)

Kara and Chan let out a sigh of relief as the Zombies stopped coming and took the time to look for the power switch. Chan spotted the switch on the wall and ran over to it. She pulled the 3rd switch and said "OK, let's get back to the others"

Zombies began to break into the room and the two teens readied their weapons for the oncoming hordes. The Hydra Zombie burst into the room and charged right at the girls, who jumped to the side to avoid the deadly Zombies claws.

Chan jumped back as the Hydra's head snapped at her. Kara glanced to her side and found a fallen pipe and picked it.

"Catch!" Kara yelled hurling pipe at the Hydra Zombie bashing it over the head.

"Come on!" Chan yelled as the two ran out of the room.

Joe grinned and held up his invention and Hunter laughed as it glowed even brighter.

"That thing's ready for use. It still mess you up if you use it though" Hunter said.

"Doesn't matter. As long as it works" Joe said walking over to a small, empty metal case next to the table and putting his invention inside of it.

The Zombie began to break in once more, and Josh wheeled his chair over to the others and said "I just pulled the last switch. All we have to do now is press the button on the terminal"

All three teens looked at Josh's wheelchair, which was now armed with an M72 Anarchy, an RPK, and…

"The Thudnergun!? REALLY!?" Joe yelled to the heavens.

"Jeez, what's your issue?" Hunter asked.

"Nothing. Come on, let's meet up with the others!" Joe said aiming his Typhoid and Mary at the waves of Zombies heading towards them.

Josh grinned and boosted past the Hydra Zombie. Iva, Joe, and Hunter sprinted past the Hydra Zombie as it slashed at them.

The group met up with Kara and Chan were running like hell as the Hydra Zombie came charging after them. The group merged and sprinted into the power room.

Juliet and Nicholas were already in the room, fighting off the Hydra Zombie that was chaisn them and fighting off a horde of Zombie. Juliet ducked under the slash of the Hydra Zombie and kicked out at a Nazi Zombie and fired her Hades, incinerating it and four other Zombies in the flames that shot from the shotgun.

Nicholas lashed out with his Bowie knife and blasted away with his Calamity. As the Hydra Zombie lashed out at him with its razor sharp claws, he threw his knife into the air and jumped buck to dodge. He pulled out Jane and opened fire onto the Zombies coming at them from outside. Nicholas put away Jane as the last Zombie fell and picked up his Bowie Knife and flipped it in his grip and slashed at the Zombies with a backhanded swing, decapitating the lot of them.

Joe ran into the room, blasting away with Typhoid and Mary and began blasting apart anything that moved with his dual-wield shotguns.

Iva kicked a Nazi Zombie and chest and blasted away with her Skullcrusher, eliminating an entire wave of Zombie's by scoring a multitude of headshots within seconds. She switched to her under-mounted grenade launcher and fired it three times at the waves of Zombies coming from the starting room.

Josh fired his M72 Anarchy and Thundergun at the hordes of Zombies while firing his RPK, laughing like a maniac all the while, putting a serious dent into the waves of Zombies. Hunter hopped on top of the wheelchair and fired at the hordes with his MP40 and Ray Gun.

Kara and Chan, much like Nicholas and Juliet, stood back to back, shooting at the Zombies with their Galil & China Beach and their Tokyo & Rose respectively. The group soon stemmed the tide of Zombies and ended the round.

(Round 20)

"_**Guys! It's Round 20! Kill those damn Zombies and then get out of there!"**_ Samantha said.

"But we can't!" Juliet yelled.

"_**You can't get out until they're gone! We're getting slaughtered out here!" **_Samantha yelled

"Got it. We'll figure something out" Nicholas said.

"Guys! Get to the terminal that opens the door!" Randy yelled over the loudspeaker.

"What about the Plant?" Josh asked.

"We've done all we can do. These things are somehow connected to the meltdown. If you kill them, it may stop the countdown" Ryan added.

"I think we can help from here though" Randy said.

"How?" Hunter said ducking underneath a slash from the nearby Hydra Zombie.

"There are controls in here, for some weird reason, for laser trap security systems they have in some of the rooms. If you can get them to go through the traps, while they're trying to reform and split, you should be able to kill them" Randy explained.

"Randy get those two. I'll get these. You 8 go through the Plant when you've found a laser trap, let us know. Got it?" Ryan said, and the group nodded.

Ryan glanced at a small radio next to the speakers ad flicked it on, out of curiosity. The radio flashed green and piano music began to trickle out of it.

"WARNING. PLANT MELTDOWN IN TEE MINUS FIVE MINUTES AND TWNETY SECONDS. EVACTUATE ALL PERSONNEL! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!"

The group split up, dodging in and out of the Hydra Zombies that flashed green again and shot after the teens with enhanced speed. Josh whirled around and fired his Thundergun and blasted at the Hydra Zombie whose leg's Hunter had destroyed. The injured Zombie flew backwards into the doorway of the courtyard. Guitars suddenly blared through the speakers as the song began to play.

The injured Hydra Zombie then roared loudly and to the two teen's horror, it began to regrow its destroyed legs.

_Take your crosses  
>I'll live without them.<br>Standing wet in holy rain.  
>When you were baptized<br>Ignored the problem  
>That's when I watched you seal your grave<em>

Hunter ducked under the Hydra Zombie slashed and slashed at it with his Sickle. The Hydra Zombie slashed at him and caught him in the chest, sending him flying backwards.

"Hunter!" Josh yelled out.

"I'm fine!" Hunter grunted as he got to his feet, clutching his bleeding chest.

Hunter spotted the laser door trap; it was at the door that led to the catwalk area. Hunter pulled out a Quick Revive syringe and injected himself with it, healing the slash wound.

"Josh! The door right ahead! Blast the Hydra Zombie towards it with everything you've got!" Hunter yelled.

Josh grinned and fired multiple rockets at the Hydra Zombie, knocking it backwards and making parts of it explode off of it, as well as knocking the Zombie backward with a burst of air from the Thundergun.

When the Zombie was in the doorway, Hunter yelled out "NOW!"

The Hydra Zombie glowed green and began to reform, and two Zombie head emerged from the body and began to split apart. All of a sudden, the doorway flashed red and red lasers shot at the Zombie, which roared in agony as the beams tore through it, making it unable to reform due to the constant damage.

_I tried to save you  
>But let you drink the pain<br>A final song now we both know.  
>So I'm not givin' up<br>Won't let you suffocate me  
>You find your hell is home.<em>

_I don't owe you anything  
>You'll only die a dream forgotten.<br>I've got my pride so hear me sing  
>I'll never let you steal my coffin.<em>

Kara and Chan went to the destroyed room where the machine exploded and looked around quickly for the laser trap.

_Words as weapons  
>Pierced into you<br>So self-righteous, have it your way  
>I'm alive and now I'm burning<br>Say a prayer to end today  
><em>_  
>I tried to save you<br>But let you drink the pain  
>A final song now we both know.<br>So I'm not givin' up  
>Won't let you suffocate me<br>You find your hell is home. _

Iva and Joe sprinted as hard as they could into the destroyed room and saw where the laser trap was. It was the device that Joe and the guys had seen earlier but ignored. The Hydra Zombie rushed into the room and lunged at Joe, who fired three shots from the Typhoid and Mary. Iva aimed her Skullcrusher and fired a grenade to knock the Zombie backwards.

"LET HIM HAVE IT!" Iva said.

Joe and Iva unloaded onto the Zombie until it was a broken mess. The Zombie glowed bright green and began to split in half and reform.

"NOW!" Iva and Joe yelled, and the Hydra Zombie was caught in the laser trap and was incinerated into nothingness.

_I don't owe you anything  
>You'll only die a dream forgotten.<br>I've got my pride so hear me sing  
>I'll never let you steal my coffin.<em>

I WON'T LET YOU STEAL MY AFTERLIFE!  
>I WON'T LET YOU STEAL MY AFTERLIFE!<p>

Kara and Chan sprinted into the room machine room where the Bowie Knife was with the Hydra Zombie hot on their tail. Chan hurled her 2 of her throwing knives at the Hydra Zombie and it roared as the knives sliced through its skin. The Zombie charged at them and the girls bolted through the doorway with the laser trap.

"NOW!" Kara and Chan yelled turning around.

The two teens opened fire as the Hydra Zombie charged at them. The Hydra Zombie began to glow bright green and split in half while running and began to recover from the damage it had taken and began to split into another Zombie.

Right as the Zombie reached the laser door trap, it activated and tore through the Hydra Zombie like paper. The Zombie burst into flames and the ash blew away in the night wind.

_So I'm not givin' up  
>Won't let you suffocate me<br>You find your hell is home._

I don't owe you anything  
>You'll only die a dream forgotten.<br>I've got my pride so hear me sing  
>I'll never let you steal my coffin.<p>

Juliet and Nicholas jumped t the side to avoid the Hydra Zombie's claws in the Power Room. Nicholas fired at the creature with his Galil while Juliet fired with her, newly Pack-A-Punched, AUG-5OM3.

Juliet rolled to the side to avoid the Hydra Zombie's deadly bite. Juliet then ran right at the Zombie and jumped into the air. The Zombie lunged at her, but Juliet simply kicked it as hard as she could in the face, while pulling the trigger of Hades attached to her leg, sending it stumbling backwards snarling in agony as the flames engulfed it.

Nicholas ran at the Hydra Zombie as the others began to run into the room and led into outside. Wit the final Hydra Zombie hot on his tail, Nicholas yelled "NOW!"

The final laser door trap activated the ensnared the last Hydra Zombie, which was trying to reform and spkit into two copies again. The Zombie let out a final roar of agony before bursting into flames and being reduced to a pile of ash. The group was able to open the door that had trapped Ryan and Randy and as the end of Round Music came on, the group let out a sigh of relief as the warning lights shut off.

"PLANT RADIATION LEVELS ARE NOW BELOW NORMAL. PLEASE RETURN TO WORK"

_I don't owe you anything  
>You'll only die a dream a forgotten.<br>I've got my pride so hear me sing  
>I'll never let you steal my coffin<em>

The group vanished in a burst of blue lightning as the song ended. Illuzio reappeared and said "They're coming along well…but they still have a over long way to go"

And with that the jester snapped his fingers and vanished in a flash of green light.

**Meanwhile, for the 86****th**** time this chapter:**

Jess was not having a good day.

She was tired, hungry, and there were a ton of Zombies kicking their butts.

"If only there was a way to beat these things" Jess sighed as she slid t the ground.

"WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Nick screamed as three Hydra Zombies chased him nearby.

"_**And this is my chosen one…why do I even bother?"**_ C.N. asked himself.

Jess pulled out a rock from her pocket and said "Why do I have a rock?"

She then remembered that this was the plot device rock that Nicholas had given her earlier. Jess looked at it and said "Stupid rock!"

Jess threw the rock at the side of the building she was at and the rock simply broke into a thousand pieces.

"Yep…that was helpful" Jess remarked sarcastically as she got to her feet observed the fight.

Jax was using the Zeus Cannon and blasting away the Hydra Zombies in an effort t keep them away from the others. Takeo, Liam, Andrew, and Judith were all injured and unable to keep fighting. Samantha was able to destroy another one of the Hydra Zombies, but now barely able to stand due to exhaustion. One of the Hydra Zombies was advancing on her, and she was too tired to even move.

Jess walked out from behind the small shack she was hiding behind and yelled "HEY UGLY! COME AND GET ME!"

The Hydra Zombie's head snapped towards her and the creature roared and stomped towards her. Its hands flashed green and began to grow into razor sharp that could eviscerate on elephant in moments.

Jess turned around, ready to run, but she noticed that a large crate was at the spot where she threw the rock not a minute ago.

"When did that show up?" Jess asked, running of the box with interest.

Jess threw open the lid of the crate and saw a familiar looking device with a note attached.

Jess grinned evilly and said "I…LOVE…PLOT HOLES!"

The Hydra Zombie turned around the corner and roared loudly. A machine gun went off in the night, and the Hydra Zombie fell to its knees and flashed green as bullets tore through it. The Zombie began to split in two and recover when a huge burst of fire engulfed it. The fire kept up for a solid thirty seconds, and the Hydra Zombie wasn't able to recover or split its form, and began to burn away into nothingness.

Jess stood there, aiming a flamethrower at the spot where the Hydra Zombie stood. Jess grinned and read the note she found with it again.

_Dear Jess,_

_I know you'll find this place, and this message, along your way to stop Richtofen. There was a large rock in the Plant that glowed bright green and red, and if it's what I think it is, then there's no way you'll miss this place. I wanted you to have my flamethrower. Take it and kill a whole crapload of the marrow drinking freaks. Send them back to hell in a burst of flames!_

_But most importantly…be safe. _

_I'll see you soon,_

_Marcus_

Jess grinned and sprinted towards the fight, where she saw four Hydra Zombies converging on Jax and Samantha.

"JAX! HIT THEM WITH THE RAY GUN!" Jess yelled.

"What!?" Jax yelled back.

"Just trust me and do it!" Jess yelled, readying the flamethrower once more.

Jax quickly pulled out his Porter's X2 Ray Gun and blasted at the four Zombies three time each, leaving them missing a limb or two. The Zombie flashed bright green and ripped in half and began to reform and recover.

"Get back!" Jess yelled as she let loose the flames and moved the flamethrower in a swinging motion, catching all four Zombies in the flames.

The inferno engulfed the 4 Hydra Zombies, which all roared in agony as the flames consumed them. One of the Zombies broke out of the flames and charged at Jess, who grinned even wider and allowed more flames to come forth from the flamethrower. The Hydra Zombie's neck extended and shot towards Jess, only for the entire Zombie to burst into ash and fall to the ground.

"Lead them over here!" Jess yelled to the others, who nodded.

Jess ran towards the Hydra Zombies and said "Dempsey! Shot the Zombies!"

"You sure kid?" Dempsey asked, unsure.

"Just do it!" Jess yelled.

"On it!" the marine yelled as he pulled out a handful of frag and Symtex grenades and hurled them at the three Hydra Zombies attacking him and Nikolai.

The Zombies exploded violently and began to reform and recover, glowing bright green and starting to split in half. Jess ran up to the group of Hydra Zombies and let the flames loose, incinerating the lot of them and reducing them to ash. The remaining three Hydra Zombies advanced on Jess who fired at the group of them with her M115 Kollider and damaged them, and then killed tem with a huge burst of fire.

"Thank God…where'd you get that anyway?" Dempsey asked.

"I found it in a crate. A friend left it for me" Jess grinned.

"Really?"

"Yeah! Don't you love plot holes?" Jess grinned.

"Yep. And it looks like the Plant is OK now too" Dempsey said pointing towards the blue bolt of lightning head towards the ground. The group walked out of the lightning and Nicholas said "Man…that was rough"

"That's…what…she said" Nick panted before collapsing onto the ground and falling asleep.

Randy and Ryan high-fived each other and Hunter said "Nice job guys"

"So, what now?" Josh asked.

"Well...we're heading to D.C. to deal with the 115 Node there. The next one is in New York. Why don't you meet us there? That is, if you want to help us stop this mess" Samantha said as she limped over to the group.

"How about it guys?" Hunter asked Ryan, Randy and Josh.

"I'm all for it" Randy said with a grin.

"Sure!" Josh said with a grin.

"Sounds fun. Though we'll need to stock up on weapons and supplies" Ryan turned to the others and said "Come on. We should get going then"

"Good luck bro" Hunter said giving Nicholas a no-homo bro hug.

"You too man" Nicholas said as the group walked towards the other end of the parking lot, where a tricked out Hummer was parked.

Samantha sighed and said "I'm not sure about you all, but I'm exhausted. We should recover and rest before we get to D.C"

The others agreed and the group began to treat their various injuries while praising the quick thinking of Jess, who walked over to Nicholas and said "Was that rock magical?"

"What rock?" Nicholas asked.

"The rock you gave me at the beginning of the chapter!" Jess asked.

"...what?"

"But you…the flamethrower…Marcus!" Jess said in amazement.

"Jess…you OK?" Nicholas asked curiously.

"OH NEVER MIND!" Jess yelled storming off.

Nicholas grinned and said "I love being me"

Illuzio watched the group from within the trees as they began to pack up. And drive, with the Big Rig getting a large head start on the trip to Washington. As the group loaded up, Samantha glanced at the spot where Illuzio was and starred at it for a moment before scowling and getting into the RV.

"They're in for a rough time. And if this feeling I'm getting is right…" Illuzio murmured as the group left in the RV.

The jester shook his head and then vanished on the spot.

**End of Chapter:**

HOLY CRAPMUFFINS THAT TOOK SO LONG TO WRITE.

Freaking long a$$ chapter…

OK, so the next chapter will be up on Halloween. Not really Zombie related, but I really liked the idea and couldn't resist, also, it was written by my good friend and a co-writer, JC785, and I edited it.

Special shoutout again to mybrosdrivemecrazy and her awesome Hydra Zombie idea. The next contest will be at some point soon, maybe when I get to 21 or something.

Anyway, let me know what you thought of the chapter and review! Until next time, FlygonN out!


	19. The Operator is Calling

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_OK, the following chapter will be scary as hell, hopefully. Due to both me being very busy and because I was too nervous to keep researching, my good friend JC785 helped me out by writing this entire chapter. I did the editing and got rid of and added some stuff. _

_Also, as for my plans with Black Ops 2. I don't know when I'll be getting it, but I may just include some of the weapons and perks from that game into this story. Like I said, we'll have to see and I have to actually get the game first._

_Happy Halloween to you evil creatures of the night!_

Chapter 19: The Operator is Calling…

**Somewhere NOT in the Story:**

"You are not writing chapter 19, and that's final." Nicholas said standing in front of Joe with his arms crossed.

"Give me one good reason why I can't." Joe whined.

"Because this is my story you dork" Nicholas replied.

"Yeah, but you got a lot on your plate, what with college and your other story" Joe replied with a frown.

"Doesn't matter, no means no." Nicholas finished as he walked out of the computer room. Joe just stood there with a disappointed look on his face.

He was about to walk out, when he noticed Nicholas had left his computer on, with the beginning of chapter 19 typed out already.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun…" Joe said as he wrote the name of the chapter.

**Meanwhile:**

"Stop it…stop it….stop it." Liam kept repeating as Nick was constantly poking him in the arm with C.N.

The group had been driving down a road with no lights for a while, but at least the zombies or Richtofen's creations hadn't come for them.

"Make me" Nick said, sticking his tongue out at him.

"With pleasure" Liam, then turned the steering wheel to the right, sending Nick and anyone else that weren't strapped in to the right of the RV. Nick's head slammed into the window and he fell into Judith lap, who yelped a little and quickly pushed him off.

"Oww, that hurt." Nick complained with a groan.

"Yeah, it was supposed to hurt, numbnuts." Liam laughed.

"Hehe, numbnuts..." Jess said from the back of the RV, where she was supposed to be asleep.

"…I'm not even going to begin to question how she heard that one." Nicholas muttered while polishing one of his Cobras.

"You do know there's no real point in cleaning it when you'll just get blood all over it, right?" Andrew said.

"Please, the real point is that it looks awesome while I'm killing them for a short time." Nicholas said with a grin standing up and tossing his Cobra into the air and catching it.

"Touché good sir." Andrew said, holding up a martini glass.

"Merci. Je suis l'homme de l'art de la fraîcheur." Nicholas said softly with a smile as he put away his pistol.

"Oh, do you speak French too?" Juliet said, hugging Nicholas from behind. "Je peux parler français aussi bien, parmi une variété de langues différentes. Par la façon dont Nicolas ..." As she finished saying what sounded like gibberish to everyone else, she kissed Nicholas on the cheek. Nicholas blushed, causing Andrew to laugh a little.

"You two seem to be getting along just fine" Samantha chuckled from the other couch, where she had been pretending to be asleep.

"Fine's an understatement, but damn, you work fast for a nerd" Andrew laughed as he took a drink from the martini glass.

"Oh up yours man. By the way, where did you get that?" Nicholas asked as Juliet laid her head against his shoulder sleepily.

"I found it in Joe's things when I was looking for evidence that he isn't a girl" Andrew said.

"Up yours" Joe said from under the dashboard. He was working with some of his tools and working on electrical things.

"What are you even doing down there?" Liam asked, leaning over to see if he could see Joe's face.

"Haven't you noticed that we've been going in a straight line for the last 2 hours, and that the GPS isn't working?" Joe asked.

Now that Joe finally mentioned it, the group did notice that they were just going straight for the longest time. The road also had no marking and no street lights. Plus, the GPS had a question mark in the middle of the screen the entire time.

"Well, where are we?" Nicholas asked.

Joe tried checking the latitude and longitude, but they were also flashing question marks. "I don't know where we are. It's like we're just…nowhere."

"What do you mean nowhere? We're always somewhere." Judith remarked.

"That's the thing though, you're right on that part. Theoretically, we are always somewhere. But road companies don't make straight roads that go on for more than a few minutes if you're driving fast. Plus, we can't get satellite when we have a clear opening above us."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying we might be in a…" Joe was just about to finish, when a loud bang came from the front of the RV causing smoke to come from the hood.

"Oh what now!?" Liam shouted as he pulled over to the side of the road.

Everyone got off the bus except for Jess, who was still sleeping. Joe opened the hood to reveal a smoking mess.

"Ah, well this is just great. The transmission is broken, there's oil all over the place, and the spark plugs have shorted out. Freaking perfect." Throwing his hands up in the hair, he kicked the RV.

"Is there anything you can do to fix it?" Jax asked from the back of the group.

"I don't have any of the right tools to fix this. I really don't know what we're going to do." Joe said with a sigh.

Suddenly, the group heard some shots some from the forest on the right. There was a faint scream, followed by more shots, and another scream.

"What the hell was that?" Andrew asked, but no one could give him an answer.

Joe had turned pale white though. He then started to run forward, cutting through the dark and luckily not hitting any trees. The others dashed after him and finally managed to catch up. Nicholas was the one to tackle him to the ground, the others holding him down to prevent him from kicking free.

"What's your problem man? You can't do that!" Nick said.

"**You do that all the time, why can't he**_?_" C.N. said.

"Hey, that was one time."

**And it was to chase a squirrel."**

"Oh come on, it was a cute squirrel"

Everyone looked at Nick, who just stared at them back. Eventually, Joe broke the silence. "We have to get there and save them."

"We don't even know who they are." Nicholas said, trying to hold down the still squirming Joe.

"That was Iva's scream!" Joe replied angrily.

"What!?" Juliet shouted. She then proceeded to pull off the others from Joe and pulled him up on his feet. "Are you sure that was her?"

"Yes, I know what Iva sounds like. And we're not leaving her and whoever else in there." Joe said firmly.

"I'm with him." Juliet said, standing at Joe's side. The others had some worried looks on their faces, but they eventually started walking forward, and the group all headed deeper into the forest.

**Meanwhile:**

As Jess stepped out of the bus, she rubbed her eyes, still a bit groggy from her nap she just woke up from. She had pulled the most watch duties at the hospital and was pretty exhausted.

"Guys…guys, where are you?" Jess called out.

She walked around the bus looking for any signs of them, but they had just completely disappeared. The only evidence that they were there before was the open hood. As Jess kept looking, she felt like there was something behind her, but when she turned around, there was no one there.

Eventually, she was about to get back on the RV and grab her gun when the presence increased. She slowly turned around and finally saw what had been watching her.

It was really tall, more than a normal human length. It had on a black business suit with a red tie, and fingers that hung down like rope. There was something about it though that drove Jess to walk towards it, until she was right in front of it. Before the black mist engulfed them both, the last thing she noticed before passing out was the white in the area where its face was supposed to be.

**Meanwhile:**

Everyone had to hop the chain link fence to keep going. Juliet looked at the fence with distaste and said "How to get over this without ripping my skirt…?"

"You could just climb over" Andrew suggested in an annoyed way.

"Or I could do this!" Juliet yelled kicking off of the ground and soaring over the fence with a wicked flip. Juliet landed on the ground in a kicka$$ pose and everyone starred at her in awe, except Nicholas who punched, Joe, Nick, and Andrew in the gut.

"What was that for?" Nick groaned.

"Looking up her skirt" Nicholas said in an annoyed way.

"Always looking out for me" Juliet said with a smile, and Nicholas grinned bashfully.

"Alright, the scream sounded like it was coming from over here." Joe said as he got to his feet and started walking forward.

The others followed suit, keeping close to each other. A couple times, they started to drift from one another, but managed to realize this before they went wandering off. Eventually, the group came up to a big oak tree in the middle of a clearing. Its leaves were all wilted away, and it was just a husk of a tree now. They went around it, continuing on, when C.N. spoke up.

"**Everyone, stop and turn around."**

"What is it?" Nicholas asked.

Everyone turned around to see a piece of paper stuck to the tree. There were no staples holding it in, it was just floating there on the tree. Joe walked up to it, getting a closer look at what it said. It had a picture of a long stick figure with even longer arms. The word "No" was all around the figure. While he was looking at the photo, strange static appeared across his vision, giving him a headache. It only lasted a couple of seconds, and then went away.

"Joe, are you ok?" Judith asked, coming up to him.

"I'm…I'm fine…let's get going…" Joe muttered. The group moved on, trying to ignore the cold tingles going down their backs and increasing presence of something…dark.

Something very…very dark.

C.N. muttered quietly to himself **"Strange…very strange."**

Everything was just unnaturally quiet. No wind, no sounds of animals…nothing. As they continued, moving their flashlights to everything that moved, a slow fog started to move around them. That same static that had appeared before Joe before was showing up in everyone's vision now, causing everyone to drift away.

"Guys, we need to stick together…guys…guys, where are you?" Nicholas started shouting into the fog. Joe and Nick stuck by his side, until the fog finally lifted a few minutes later. As the fog lifted, the trio looked around in horror and saw that everyone had disappeared except for Nicholas, Joe, Nick, and C.N.

"What the hell? Where did everyone go!?" Nick said, startled.

"**This isn't possible…"** C.N. said to himself again.

Nicholas went up to Nick and snatched the figurine out of his hands. He then proceeded to hold Nick back while talking to C.N. "What do you mean this isn't possible? We need some answers now shorty."

"…**Did you just call the master of all things awesome 'shorty'?"**

"Answers, now!"

"**All right, all right. We'll first off, there's something strange about this place. What Joe said about the road and satellite was true, it's not normal for that kind of thing to happen. And now we're in a forest where a magical fog appears, puts static in our vision, and takes our friends. No, we're somewhere else other than a forest. If my theory is correct…we're in another dimension"**

The three just stood there, looking at the statue for a minute. It was really nerve racking how there was no noise, so Nicholas was the one to break the silence. "…Are you kidding me?"

"**Do I look like I kid?"**

"You a real piece of work, you know that!" Nicholas growled in annoyance.

"**Will you be quiet and listen? Look, it's possible for this kind of thing to happen. Gateway pockets to different dimensions are all around your world, it's just no one has ever really found one. And if they have, they would have no way of getting back to their own dimension."**

"So are you saying we're stuck here now?" Joe demanded.

"**Probably, but with me, you might be able to get back…hang on. I'm reading some kind of strange energy…no, please no, not him…"**

"What is it, what's over there?" Nicholas said, looking in the direction C.N. was faced. But as he did this, static started to come over his vision and felt a pressure in his head increase.

"**Listen to me, turn around and run! No questions, just run, now!"**

The trio looked at each other real quick, before taking C.N's advice and running to the trees. Behind them, the first signs of sound were coming straight towards them.

BOOM…BOOM…BOOM…

**Meanwhile…again:**

"How could we have lost them? That fog was only for a couple minutes." Juliet muttered, keeping a tight grip on her chainsaw.

"I hope we can find Liam and the others soon" Judith said quietly.

"Don't worry, we'll find them…somehow" Juliet said doubtfully.

"What's wrong with you two?" Samantha asked curiously.

"We're worried about the others, especially Nicholas" Juliet said tensely.

"And Liam" Judith said quietly.

"I'll probably never understand feelings like that" Samantha said with an annoyed sigh.

"What do you know Sam? You've never really, had feelings, for someone" Juliet said with a slight blush.

"True, though I have lived as a spirit, disconnected from my body for more than 50 years" Samantha replied.

Suddenly another small wave of static passed over their vision. Judith stumbled and leaned against a tree for support.

"Come on, we've got to keep going" Juliet urged, but Judith was panting heavily now.

"I…I ca-can't. I…I…" Judith whispered.

"What is wrong with you both?" Samantha asked, but another wave of static passed over her vision and she fell to her knees.

"Agh, what's going on here?" Samantha growled in annoyance as she got back to her feet.

"I can't breathe…" Judith panted.

"Fear. Whatever this thing is…it's affecting us with pure fear" Juliet said quietly, tightening her grip on her chainsaw.

"Fear? That's…unsettling…few things have such power" Samantha said in a calm voice, even though she was beginning to lose her cool.

"Judith, it'll be fine. We'll find our way back to the others OK? Liam would want you to be strong" Juliet said comfortingly.

Judith took a deep breath and nodded, and the trio continued their journey. They continued walking through the increasingly cold forest, trying to see through the fog, when all of a sudden they came upon a strange building in the middle of the forest. Thinking it would be better to get out of the open, they went inside.

The building had twisting hallways with a very high ceiling. They were wandering for a few minutes when they came to a room with another piece of paper on the far end of the wall. As the three girls walked up to it, they all thought something was breathing on their necks.

But when they turned, there was nothing.

Juliet was the one to pick up the paper, and it had a similar writing as the first one. It just said in bold and underlined, "Can't Run". Another wave of static washed over their vision, and then disappeared like that.

"Ok, the freaking static is getting annoying." Judith muttered.

"Well whining about it won't help." Juliet said. "How about you ghost girl, you with me?" Juliet just waited for a reply.

Eventually, she just turned around to see that Samantha had disappeared. Judith and Juliet went around the corner to see Sam walking out of the open doorway into the open. They ran to Sam who was heading towards a series of gas tanks and stopped her.

"Sam, you can't do that…Sam?" Juliet said urgently.

Samantha wasn't responding, instead, with wide eyes, continued towards the gas tanks. Juliet and Judith just looked at each other, and then followed Sam. Eventually, they came to another page on one of the gas tanks. This one had just writing on it like the last one. It said, "Don't look or he takes you" in scratchy writing.

"What is this, and why is this familiar?" Judith said.

She scratched her head with her free hand, trying to remember. Sam however, walked around the side of the tank again, disappearing from the other girl's view. The pair started for Sam, but suddenly, that presence they had felt before, it increased tenfold. They started shaking as they peeked their heads out from the side of the tank to see a horrifying sight.

In front of Sam was a…thing. It stood at about 9 feet tall, had long arms and fingers, and no face. There was something about it though that drove the girls to start walking towards it though. When they got halfway there, Juliet grabbed her head, trying to free her head from whatever spell she was under. In a quick motion, she grabbed her chainsaw and revved it up.

The thing looked at Juliet, causing Judith and Sam to drop. It started moving towards Juliet, its flingers dragging on the ground as it floated towards her. Juliet could feel the presence of it trying to push into her mind, but she tried as hard as she could to resist. She charged for it, chainsaw dragging on the ground. Juliet swung her chainsaw expertly towards the creature's head, but the creature swiftly sidestepped it and then placed a hand on Juliet's shoulder. This caused her eyes to go wide as the creature's spell was taking full effect. This caused her to drop her chainsaw as well. Before she passed out in the thing's arms, she let out a shrill scream.

**Meanwhile:**

Nicholas turned towards the sound of the scream, and like Joe, he recognized the scream as Juliet's. His eyes also went wide and he started sprinting towards the source of the sound.

"Nicholas, wait!" Joe screamed after him.

"No! It's got her!" Nicholas yelled out as he kept running.

By the time the three got to the source of the sound, the only evidence that someone was there was Juliet's chainsaw on the ground. Nicholas just stood there, shaking as he looked at the ground. Nicholas let out a yell of fear and anguish and fell to his knees. Joe and Nick didn't know what to do, so Joe just went up to him and said the first thing that came to mind.

"…We'll find her. I promise."

"How…can you promise that? It's got her, and probably the others too!" Nicholas said trying to keep his emotions under control.

"Because I won't stop until everyone's safe" Joe then went over to Nick and held his hand out in front of him. Nick understood this, and gave him C.N.

"Alright, you're going to tell us what took our friends, now."

"…**You won't like the answer I give you."**

"We don't care. In case you haven't noticed, our friends have gone missing, so we need to know what we're up against it…please" Nicholas said softly.

"…**Very well. But don't say I didn't warn you… This…creature, it's like a hunter, stalking its prey. It uses no method of torture, carries no weapons, and only lives to give nightmares to everyone of your world… You're up against Slenderman."**

As C.N. said that last sentence, the teen's faces paled and pure fear coursed through their bodies, as did disbelief. They had heard of it from around school, by the people that were more obsessed with mythical creatures. They had always joked about the existence of The White King, but to think that he was not only real…but was trying to kill them all…

"…So Slenderman has the others?" Nicholas asked.

"**I'm not sure, but the only way we can tell with this one is the chainsaw. Plus, there are 2 other body marks on the ground, rather small. If I had to say, it was Sam and Judith that got taken as well."**

"So what do we do now?" Nicholas asked quietly as he got to his feet, picking up Juliet's chainsaw and strapping it to his back.

"**It is said that once you find all 8 warning pages of Slenderman, you'll be teleported back to your world."**

"Even the people that have been captured?" Nick asked.

"…**I don't know, but I would take a look at the ground again."**

All of the guys looked down at the ground to see something that they had missed the first time. Two pieces of paper were on the ground, glowing white faintly like the first one. Joe picked up the sheets of paper, but his eyes didn't flash static like with the first paper.

"**Since the girls have found those, they are a part of the collection now. Only 5 to go. Now keep moving, it's bad to stay in one place for too long."**

"Right." Nicholas muttered, and the guys started walking forward again. Luckily, their guns had a light on the end, so at least they could see a little in the dark.

As they just kept walking, they noticed that there were no stars out, even though it was extremely dark everywhere. There were no clouds and no wind, nothing to make the 3 teens forget about the eerie darkness. After about 20 minutes, they came up to a broken down truck. Joe looked over the vehicle to see if it was still working, but to no avail. Behind the truck was a mobile office. Behind the office was another sheet of paper. This one said, "Help me". Just that, nothing else. Nicholas picked it up, another wave of static washing over his eyes.

"Another one down…" Nicholas said quietly. "I just hope the others are finding the rest of the pages…"

**Meanwhile:**

"Come on Liam, keep moving!" Andrew said to Liam.

The pair had been running for a few minutes now. They could feel something was right behind them after they found the first strange page that had a picture of a stick figure and some trees on it. And almost after that, Jax started walking towards it when it appeared, so they just ran. The static that kept appearing in their vision made it hard to see where they were going.

"What about Jax, what's that thing gonna do to him?!" Andrew yelled.

"I don't know, but for right now, just keep running!" Liam replied, adding a burst of speed to his run.

And so they ran.

They kept running for another 10 minutes, panting all the time. Eventually, they came to a long concrete tunnel. Looking behind their backs, they decided to go in. The tunnel wasn't as long as it seemed, for if you looked hard enough, you could see the exit a short distance away. Andrew and Liam held their guns up so they could see, but they were just shaking so much. At the middle of the tunnel was another piece of paper, just floating on the wall like the last piece. Andrew was just about to touch it when Liam spoke up.

"Dude, don't touch it!"

"Why not? These things could be clues on what's going on here." Andrew replied

"Yeah, but remember what happened when we pick up this first piece?" Liam then waved the piece of paper they picked up.

"Now Jax is gone and we're running through a freaking forest!" Liam's raised voice echoed through the tunnel.

"Well we don't even know if it'll happen again." Andrew said.

"Do we really wanna test it? For all we know, that thing will come out and take the both of us, and we don't even know if the others are alright!"

"Alright, alright, just be quiet. I won't touch it." Andrew turned to his right and started walking away. But as he did this, his shoulder brushed up against the paper. This caused it to fall to the ground and another wave of static to come over Andrew's vision.

"What the hell man, I said not to touch it!" Liam said angrily

"I didn't mean to" Andrew replied.

Suddenly, the pair felt the same presence from before, only it was far stronger this time. They both looked towards the end of the tunnel to see the same figure that had taken Jax. It started walking towards the pair, so Liam went forwards and raised his Afterburner. He let out a full clip, but it didn't even phase the thing.

"Andrew, I need some help here!" Liam could feel Andrew coming up behind him, but he wasn't doing anything. Instead, he put Liam in a full nelson, causing Liam to drop his gun.

"Andrew, what the hell are you doing!?" Liam turned his head just enough to see Andrews face, but was met with a horrible sight.

Andrew's face had disappeared, replaced with nothing at all. He was just faceless, and not showing any remorse for his friend. Liam turned his head back around to see the monster in front of him, standing over him with his head turned. Liam started hyperventilating, and just before he passed out, he could feel the thing putting his long fingers on his head.

**Meanwhile… once again:**

The trio heard the shots and started running for them. By the time they got to the concrete tunnel, all that was left was Liam's smoking Afterburner, and two more of the pages. Nicholas was getting even angrier at this point, for Slenderman had not only taken Juliet, but now his friends were now in the hands of Der Ritter.

"Joe, pick up those pieces of paper, and let's go." Nicholas muttered as Joe grabbed Liam's Afterburner.

"Right." Joe did what he was told, grabbing the papers and putting them in his bag.

Out of nowhere, a quick breeze of wind swept through the tunnel along with the static in Joe's vision. The trio looked at each other quickly, and then continued on their way.

After the wind, the three could feel something was looking at them, just watching them the entire time they were moving. This kept up for another 20 minutes, until they came up to a big rock formation. Each of the guys checked all around until Nick found the next page, floating on the back of one of the rocks. When he took it, more static came across his vision, and he could feel the presence even more this time.

"Hey guys, I found the next page." Nick said before turning around and screaming.

Slenderman was standing right there, his fingers hovering right over his head. He let out another scream, dropping C.N. out of pure fear.

"Nick, NICK!" Nicholas shouted as he ran to where the shout had come from.

But by the time Nicholas and Joe had gotten there, Nick was looking right at Slenderman with his face now missing. Slenderman and Nick then looked at the two friends and started to walk towards them, the presence increasing in both of their minds.

"RUN!" Joe shouted, grabbing Nicholas by the arm and pulling them towards their enemy.

Nick and Slender tried to grab them as they passed, but they managed to dodge them, with Nicholas picking up C.N. as they passed.

"What do we do now?" Nicholas shouted at C.N.

"**Keep running straight ahead, there's something strange coming from over there."**

And that they did, a few hundred meters ahead, there was a gas truck, with the final note stuck to the back of the tank. Nicholas tossed C.N. to Joe and sprinted forward, the presence increasing with every step they took. Finally, Nicholas reached his destination, grabbing the paper. When he grabbed it though, there was no static, no presence in his head, there was nothing.

"C.N., what happened, it all just…stopped."

"**I don't know…I can't sense anything. It's like he just disappeared…for good."**

"Well that's great, now we don't even know how to get out of here." Joe said with annoyance.

"**Just walk around, try to find an exit."**

"Right…let's go Joe." Nicholas said, and then started walking towards the trees. The wind was starting to pick up after their first couple steps, and then stopped again. Out of nowhere, he appeared right in front of them. Slenderman, in all of his terrifying glory, stood directly in front of them, not even 2 feet away.

Nicholas and Joe could feel the presence of Slenderman in their heads, and it was excruciatingly painful. It was the combination of 100 headaches with the sound of TV static being forced directly into their brains. With both of them clutching their skulls, they fell to their knees, letting out silent screams. They couldn't look away from Slenderman though, for there was a force that caused them to look directly at him. They could see black tentacles coming out of his back and his hands were now razor sharp claws three feet long.

He slowly came towards them, and Joe and Nicholas couldn't even see at this point.

And then all went dark.

**Sometime later:**

Joe and Nicholas woke up with a pounding headache, and noticed two things about their surroundings. The first thing was that it was daytime through the shades, and the second thing was that they were back in the RV. Their heads felt like cement was poured in, hardened, and then chiseled out.

"Oh…oh man, my freaking head." Joe said as he stumbled to get up.

"Mine too…wait a minute." Nicholas said as he tried to get up.

They were back in the RV. In their own world.

Nicholas tossed Juliet's chainsaw on the couch and reloaded his weapons, and Joe did the same.

Nicholas then stumbled towards the door of the RV, flinging it open, and letting in the sunlight. He had to shield his eyes at first, but eventually, they adjusted to the light and he could see clearly. The road they were on was behind them, and the road was starting to turn into a highway road. In the distance was the Washington D.C. state border. A sign next to them told them that D.C was just a few miles away.

"We're even closer to Richtofen then we were before" Nicholas muttered.

"Indeed" said a voice from behind Nicholas. He turned around quickly and aimed down his sights to see Illuzio standing at the barrel of his gun.

"I must say though, I'm surprised you came out of there alive" Illuzio said softly.

"Explanations, NOW! How did you know where we were!?" Nicholas shouted at the magical jester.

"You would be surprised how much Richtofen will notice when a large group of teenagers trying to kill him and the daughter of the man he betrayed coming after him go missing. So he sent me to your last known location, which would be, well, here." Illuzio explained.

"Where are the others?!" Nicholas demanded.

"Why do you think I know? You two and that statue we're the only ones to show up."

Nicholas just stood there for a second, and Illuzio understood why he was shocked.

"Oh, I see. It's the one you care for, isn't it? Well let me give you a piece of advice. The ones you love and care for will always be ripped away from you. It's a fact of life. The world can be a cruel and evil place"

As Illuzio continued, he was even getting angrier at Nicholas now, as they brought up memories better left forgotten.

"You hold onto that one person that you would give anything for…and just like that they're gone…You never see them again, never hear their voice again…And when you find out what happened to them, you're crushed from the inside out! It feels like your heart has been ripped out and shattered into a million pieces that can never be repaired! You knew nothing of that pain before, but now you do. Use your anger, direct it into rage. And use that to give you strength" Illuzio ended quietly, wiping a tear from his eye.

Nicholas was steaming with pure rage now. He screamed in anger and hurled his Bowie Knife at Illuzio, who ducked under the knife, which imbedded itself in a tree. Illuzio flipped into the air and landed on top of the RV. Joe was coming out at that moment with C.N. He saw what was happening and aimed his EPC-WIN in one arm and with C.N. in the other. Illuzio looked at both of them, and then sighed.

"I must inform Master Richtofen that only you 2 have returned. And if it's any consolation, I'm sorry…that I was wrong about you all"

With that, Illuzio snapped his fingers and disappeared in a wicked green flash.

Nicholas wasn't really in control then, his anger was. He stormed over to Joe and snatched C.N. out of his hands. "OPEN THE PORTAL NOW!"

"**Incredible, so much anger…"** C.N. said to himself. **"Alright, put me on the ground."**

Nicholas did what C.N. said, then backed up. Nothing happened for a few minutes, and this was not going well with Nicholas's temper. "Well, what are we waiting…?"

Suddenly, the space around the three started to bend together, side to side, and then it started to bend up and down. Finally, everything returned to normal as a purple hole in the space-time continuum opened up, revealing nothing but darkness. Nicholas and Joe were drawn back by this. Both of them thought that nothing like this was possible, and yet here it was, in front of them.

"**Arrgggg!"** C.N. shouted and the portal shrunk quickly and closed. The statue fell on its side, steam coming from it. Joe tried to pick it up, but C.N. was steaming hot.

"What happened?!" Nicholas demanded.

"**It takes a lot of energy to open a multi-dimensional portal, even more power than I have…without Nick, I can't do it. I'm sorry. I can't open it again…"**

Nicholas just looked down at C.N. with a look of shock and terror on his face. The feeling of losing his friends forever, it was indescribable. They were always there for him, when he was upset about something, or if it was just to annoy the hell out of him. But they were still his friends at the end of the day, through thick and thin. And Juliet…she was…gone…With losing his friends and family now, it was just too much. Joe went to his side and put a hand on his shoulder, softly crying too. The duo just stayed in that position for the longest time, mourning over their lost friends.

Nicholas picked his head up slowly after a few minutes of just staying in that position, his tear stained eyes slowly burning with rage. He reached up and picked up C.N. with both hands. **"What are you…?"** He never got to finish as Nicholas slammed him down on the hard concrete, making the ground rumble. Joe stumbled back and fell to the ground.

"OPEN…THE…MOTHER…F#$^!&G…PORTAL…NOW!" With each word, he slammed C.N. down harder, making the ground rumble even more.

Red sparks were coming out of the statue as it was hit against the ground each time. Rage was building within Nicholas as time went on as well. He wasn't about to lose his friends, and he wasn't about to give up easily. By the final word, he slammed down C.N. with such a force; another chip appeared on the cowboy hat. Then, the unexpected thing happened.

Red sparks and bolts of lightning came out of the chip, surrounding Nicholas, Joe, and C.N. with swirling wind and sparks hitting them from time to time. But the sparks didn't hurt. Instead, they sent pure energy though each of them. When it finally ended, everything was quiet for a split second, and then a giant red version of the portal from before appeared in front of them. Red sparks were coming from this as well. Nicholas and Joe looked at each other, and then looked back at the portal.

"**You're going to want to go through now if you want to get everyone back!"** C.N. said over the howling wind.

Nicholas took this advice and ran for it, Joe following close behind. They both ran through at the same time, disappearing in the picture of a portal. After a few seconds, the portal closed, leaving the statue of Chuck Norris in the middle of the road.

"**I just hope you guys can save them…"** C.N. muttered to himself .

**?:**

Tumbling through the elements of time and space was rather painful. The feeling of your insides being opened up, put back in the wrong way, then opened back up again and put in the right way. In laymen's terms, it hurt like hell for Nicholas and Joe.

Finally, they could feel themselves falling. Nicholas slammed into the ground rather hard, making him have a sudden migraine mixed with a hangover feeling. Doing his best to stand up, he opened his eyes to see something he wasn't expecting. Areas of land floating in midair, defying gravity. The islands had the elements of the forest in them, with some of them having a lot of trees, or some areas where the pages were kept. The sky was a different color though, instead of a dark blue, it was a dark grey, as was the ground. Nicholas looked around some more, noticing that Joe was nowhere to be found.

"Joe! Where are you?" Nicholas yelled out into the open.

"I'm down here!" Nicholas could hear Joe's reply coming from below. He went to the edge, peeked over, and saw Joe on another island below him.

"What…what happened to this place!?" Joe asked.

"I don't know…but I'm willing to bet my gun that the others are here." Nicholas said aiming his HK21 into the distance

"Well what do we do now?" Joe asked.

"Find the others and get out of here" Nicholas said nervously.

The two began to walk in the same direction, trying to get their bearings.

"Hey Nicholas?" Joe asked.

"Yeah?"

"Where did Slenderman come from anyway?" Joe asked.

"Well, as you can see, he comes from a world of darkness where no trace of humanity exists. And if you enter his unholy domain, you'll find yourself unable to escape with your sanity intact" Nicholas replied.

"I thought he came from the Internet?" Joe asked.

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

Suddenly a figure fell out of the sky and landed on Joe's island, right next to Joe. He stumbled back, and then inched forward a bit. The figure was human as far as Nicholas could tell.

"Dude, its Liam!" Joe yelled up at Nicholas.

Joe turned over Liam, and then backed up when he saw something he wasn't expecting. Liam's face was missing and replaced with what Slender had for a face. Liam leaped up and grabbed Joe. The two were wrestling at this point, each one trying to gain the upper hand. Liam managed to tackle Joe to the ground, then got up and started dragging Joe to the edge. Liam pulled out his Sickle and raised it high into the air. Joe took his other leg and brought it down on Liam's arm. Liam let go, but was then forced back and off the edge by Joe who kicked him in the chest.

"What the hell man! Why did you do that?!" Nicholas yelled at Joe.

"That wasn't Liam. That was something created by Slenderman." as Joe finished saying this, the body of Andrew landed on Joe's island and got up like Liam did, holding Reaper in a menacing manner. Instead of fighting this time, Joe started island hopping. He yelled up to Nicholas before he had to start running again "Get out of there! We need to find a way out!"

Nicholas took head to this advice and started island hopping as well. When he jumped to the third island, Jess fell down from above and started charging towards him. Right before she got there, Nicholas stepped to the side and held out his leg. Jess tripped and fell off the edge with an ethereal yell.

Nicholas leaned over the side and said, "Sorry."

This went on for about 10 minutes, with Judith and Nick appearing, both of them opening fire on the two with their L115 Isolator and their Calamity and Jane respectively. Nicholas had either managed to fight them off or lose them after a few minutes.

Eventually, he came up to the big building that was in the forest. Feeling it was better than island hopping; he made his way over and went inside. It was a bit dark, but just enough to see everything. The place had a weird feeling to it though, not like Slenderman's presence, but something darker.

Nicholas started noticing something as he was walking. The walls were moving just slightly, but they just seemed to ripple back and forth. Nicholas could feel the presence getting stronger, so he decided to look behind him. The walls and the space were turning pitch black, moving towards Nicholas quickly. He then started running though, trying to find an exit. But no matter how many halls he turned, there was no exit.

"How do I get out of here?" Nicholas muttered nervously

When he was about to make a turn at a 4 way intersection, Joe came from the other hall to the right and slammed into Nicholas. The two were sent flying back, landing on their backs.

"Joe, watch where you're going…" Nicholas grunted as he got to his feet and pulled Joe up.

"I'd be more concerned about that right now." Joe said while pointing to the darkness catching up.

Nicholas got up and helped Joe up, then the two continued running. All the time, the darkness got faster and faster, until they were barely able to outrun it. Eventually, they came to a dead end with a surprise at the far wall. Juliet, Kara, Iva, and Chan were leaning against the walls unconscious. Takeo was by their side, protecting them from the darkness.

Another surprise struck the two when each of them was slammed into the wall by Dempsey and Nikolai. It was pretty obvious that they didn't recognize Nicholas and Joe at first though.

"Alright shadow freak! You've got 5 seconds to tell us how to wake them, or we'll blow out your f&%king brains." Dempsey said.

"Yeah, what he said." Nikolai said.

"Hey Nikolai, if you let me go, I'll give you some vodka." Joe said with his face planted against the wall.

"Vodka? Hurray! Wait…Joe, Nicholas, what are you doing here?" Nikolai asked. He was also waiting by Joe's side for the vodka. Dempsey let go of Nicholas as well.

"We got trapped in the forest the first time, and when that thing got us, we got transported back to our dimension. But the others got taken by Slenderman, so we had to come back to rescue them. How did you guys get here?" Joe asked.

"We have the same story as you young warriors." Takeo said. "We got trapped in the cursed forest, and then got taken by what you call 'Slenderman'. When we woke up, we were in this room, but the girls would not awaken. Every time we try to leave, we end up back here once we turn a corner. This place is most dishonorable."

Nicholas went over to Juliet and looked at her. She was unconscious, but she just wasn't waking up. He couldn't tell if she was in a coma or not, but he was just happy to see her unharmed. Joe did the same with Iva, but was interrupted by Nikolai. "Ahem, I believe someone owes me vodka."

"Oh yeah, I don't have it right now." Joe said not looking at Nikolai.

"Hey! You tricked me!" Nikolai said, sounding slightly impressed.

"Well look, I'll give you some when we get out of…" Joe never got to finish as presence of fear and darkness went in everyone's minds.

They looked towards the entrance of the room to see something that was the symbol of pure fear. It was Slenderman, but he was really different from before. His limbs were bent at weird angles, his suit torn in different places, dirt was everywhere, and tentacles were coming out of his back, moving at odd angles. But the most terrifying thing was that his face finally had something on them. Where his eyes were supposed to be, there were just dark holes with crimson blood flowing freely down his blank face, like the tears of a demon.

Everyone, even the original zombie killers, was stricken with complete fear. They didn't even realize that they had dropped their weapons from pure fear. They didn't notice the darkness coming into the room, surrounding everything and everyone. Nicholas and Joe were the only ones left in the room of darkness now, and in front of them was the form of Slenderman that was slowly disappearing. While this was happening, every one of their friends were put in a circle around the two, an invisible force holding them up.

"_**You won the challenge, yet you come back for them…Why? No one who has ever won my game and chose to return to my realm …"**_A deep voice rang out through the space of darkness.

Nicholas and Joe looked at each other again, each of them silently agreeing on who the voice was. Nicholas then said out loud "They are our friends. We help them, they help us. We're like a family now, and we have to save the world. We're not going to leave them behind"

Slenderman slowly walked forward, sinking along the ground towards them. The static blurring their vision was almost too much to bear, and they could feel themselves sinking into the darkness. Then, just when all seemed lost, it began to recede. The Zombie slayers saw the darkness began to recede and Slenderman's form began to revert to its normal state. He stood there, silent as death.

Slenderman cocked its head and then clapped slowly clapped its hands three times. The darkness had all but disappeared, and the group sat there in horror, wondering what the creature would do next.

"_**Be released…"**_

**Sometime later again:**

Nicholas and Joe woke up again, this time; they were leaned up against the RV. The sun was setting against the horizon, casting an orange glow across the sky. When they opened their eyes all the way, they could see everyone was laid across the grass on their backs. Nicholas and Joe quickly got up and woke everyone up, crying a little in the process.

"Oh man, why does my head hurt so much?" Andrew asked to no one in particular.

"It's a long story. We'll explain later…the important thing is that everyone is back now." as he finished, he went over to Juliet and pulled her in for a tight hug. Juliet hugged Nicholas back, glad he was safe.

"Don't get cozy yet kids, we've still got a mission to complete" Dempsey said to the others, who nodded.

"Destroy the node in DC" Samantha said with a small smile.

"What are you so happy about?" Liam asked.

"The closer we get to killing Richtofen…the closer I get to fulfilling my father's last wish" Samantha said quietly.

"You all need to head to D.C. and destroy the node there. We came along just to make sure you got there all right. Now that that's over, we've got to get to Tennessee and back up the survivors who I sent to Richtofen's hideout there" Dempsey said.

"You all have much valor. Be safe, all of you" Takeo said with a smile, causing the teens to smile at the old warrior's praise.

"Curses…out of vodka!" Nikolai grunted

""You guys take care. We'll meet up with you in D.C." Kara promised.

"Juliet, you sure you're sticking with them?" Chan asked.

Juliet grinned and lifted her chainsaw high and said "Yep. I'm going to eff up so many Zombies"

"Hey, you stay safe, all right?" Iva said quietly to Joe.

"You too. Where are you guys going? Aren't you coming with us to?" Joe asked.

"We are going to find one of Richtofen's secret bases to back up the survivors from the hospital. Tank sent them there to help us stop Richtofen from controlling more Zombies… I kinda want to go with you guys though, and I really want to see if your invention works" Iva said, blushing slightly.

Joe chuckled a little. "Don't worry; maybe you could come with us later"

As Joe said this, Nikolai said "Iva, let us go. We need to find more vodka…and help those other guys"

"Alright! Coming Papa!" Iva said. She then looked back at Joe.

"I'll see you later" Iva said with a smirk before walking to her father.

Joe stood there for a few seconds, just smiling. He then ran towards Iva, with a bottle of vodka he grabbed out of his bag.

"Iva, wait."

When he caught up to her, he gave her a bottle. "I promised your dad some vodka, so here. Part of it's for you too."

Iva smiled this time giving a big hug to Joe. The two broke the hug after a moment and Iva went running back towards the group with a grin on her face. Joe went back to the others, with Liam smirking at him.

"What?" Joe asked.

"Oh nothing." Liam said in a sing-song voice.

"I pushed you off a cliff once, I can do it again." Joe warned.

"Oh please, you can't…wait what?"

"Nothing." Joe said walking off and smiling.

The group rested for a few minutes, still trying to recover from what had just happened. The others had left in the Big Rig leaving the teens alone by the D.C. border sign. The group then began to load up and prepare their weapons for the big fight that would be at D.C. When Liam got in the driver's seat, he noticed that there was a piece of paper on the wheel.

"Nicholas, come here!" Liam yelled frantically.

"What is it?" Nicholas asked as he came up.

Liam handed him the paper, and Nicholas just stood there and looked at it with a twisted smile.

The paper was written in a sloppy scrawl, just like all of the other papers they had ran into all night. The paper had only two words written on it.

Good Luck.

End of Chapter:

_Hey there everyone, it's JC785. Just wanted to say, man this chapter was freaky. I was looking up every 5 minutes to see if Slenderman was in my room. But anyways, hope you guys liked it, put a lot of time into this one. Also, if you can go to my page and check out my Bioshock story, that would be greatly appreciated._

_Message from JC785, anyway, thanks for tuning in for this filler chapter, even though it wasn't written by me and wasn't strictly Zombie related in any sense, I still think it wouldn't be Halloween without The Pale One. Weirdly enough, I got the idea from when me and my friends went to Disney of all places. Ironic, huh?_

_Next chapter._

_Washington D.C…battle on the national monuments …fight with Porter…all kinds of awesomeness…stay tuned…._

_Happy Halloween everyone, and may the creatures of night have mercy on your souls!_

_MUAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!_

_Review and tell me what you thought! Until next time…FlygonN out!_


	20. Upon the Monuments of Our Fathers

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Here we are._

_I can't believe I'm at 20. Pretty big chapter, so I'd like to take this opportunity and thank you all, my awesome reviewers and my readers. Without your support, I wouldn't be at this point and I wouldn't have discovered how fun this was. So thank you. _

_Also, I'd like to take this moment to say thank you to the veterans of the Armed Forces. If you know a veteran, let them know how grateful you are for their sacrifices and their bravery._

_Shoutout to: (AHEM!) kittens, mybrosdrivemecrazy, uig50, Coolguyforever, the guest reviewer nerdy jedi, a guest reviewer (AKA Jess),Trapinchh,uig50 again,Thundermonkey39, StaticBomb324, minecraftrules99, mybrosdrivemecrazy again, and another Guest reviewer, as well as THREE new reviewers known asBu11etB1iss115, Echostar 141, and tjelledge262. Thank you so much for the support, it's what keeps this story going, and thanks for sticking with this thing that's been going on for more than 10 months._

_Also, shoutout to the Internet Box Podcast. It's incredibly entertaining and if you're a fan of Roosterteeth and Achievement Hunter, I HIGHLY recommend you start listening to it (Warning: for Mature audiences only). I'd recommend starting from the beginning at Episode 1. And if you see any questions submitted by FlygonNick, vote Fluttershy for them because they're from me. (All will be explained when you visit the site, I hope.)_

_Also, WHY THE HELL DIDN'T I PRE-ORDER BLACK OPS 2!? WTF IS WRONG WITH ME!? _

_I'll be honest, I was going to upload this on Wednesday, but with the midnight release of Black Ops II approaching, I decided to update early (I do that a lot), just for the occasion._

_So here's what I've been able to gather about the Zombies in that game so far. The first map, chronologically, is Nuketown Zombies, which takes place after a nuclear explosion and timeline-wise takes place DURING Moon. The Zombie's eyes change from yellow to blue over the course of the match, signifying a change from Samantha's control to Richtofen's control. In addition to this to this, the "Demonic Announcer" changes over the course of the game as well, changing from Sam to Richtofen._

_For those of you, who didn't pre-order, like me, don't worry. If you buy a Season Pass for $50, you can get all 4 DLC Map Packs, including Nuketown Zombies. This is just what I've been able to find out while browsing the Internet, so really, the best way to get more info is to play the game and/or go to Gamestop and find out more. I'll probably get the game in a few weeks, until then I'll get watch gameplay videos and try not to go insane. Also, there's some info on the CoD Offcial site too._

_If anyone who reads this story bought Black Ops II, tell me how Black Ops II Zombies is in the review section. I must know…_

_OK, let's get this show on the road._

_ENOUGH RANTING._

_Enjoy!_

Chapter 20: Upon the Monuments of Our Fathers

"Wait wait wait…are you saying that Slenderman almost killed us all?" Liam asked Nick.

"Yep. It was dark and scary. I wasn't scared at all" Nick said.

"Yeah, OK. And FlygonN doesn't crap himself when he gets a new review" Liam remarked.

"Oh come on! First Jess, Joe, and Nick do it, and now you? Jeez, what's next, Samantha breaking the 4th wall?" Nicholas asked.

Samantha was sleeping soundly and was oblivious to this comment, but for some reason murmured in her sleep "If I get 100 reviews before updating 21, the fans decide the next story I do…"

"Son of a b****!" Nicholas yelled.

The group had spent the past few hours resting and recovering from the battles they had went through. The sun was just now setting, and the Zombie slayers were getting ready for another long hard night of survival.

"Calm down, we're in D.C now! The nations-!" Jess began to say before she was interrupted.

BOOOM!

Samantha's eyes flew open and she rolled off of the couch. She grunted in annoyance and stood up to stretch.

"OK, who turned off the sun?" Samantha growled before she see saw the scene before her.

Total destruction unfolded before them.

D.C. was a bloodbath. Zombies were attacking left and right and tearing people apart. Screecher's Zombie simply tore apart any survivors that had escaped the outbreak at this point. The group watched in horror as the Zombies slaughtered the D.C. residents, what few had survived up to this point anyway.

"Everyone who survived in the southern US must have gone to D.C. for answers…and they walked right into a trap" Nicholas whispered in horror.

"We've got to help them!" Judith said to the others.

"Illuzio must have gotten that meteor to the Node. We have to find it. The longer that thing keeps sending out signals, the more Zombies Richtofen has at his disposal" Samantha said furiously.

"So…where do we start?" Andrew asked.

"Well, I'd pick underneath one of the monuments. It's kind of obvious" Juliet said.

The group looked her and said "What? History is awesome!"

Nicholas smiled and said "It's a start"

"So, how do we take back the capital, oh fearless leader?" Jess said doing a mock-salute while sticking her tongue out.

"We do what we've always done. Blast the crap out of everything nearby and pray that the plot holes keep coming! Let's lock and load people!" Nicholas said switching to his HK21.

The group reloaded their guns and readied themselves for what was coming. Joe carefully took something out from his backpack and wrapped it in a black cloth, and then clipped it to his belt.

"Liam. How about I take shotgun?" Juliet asked as Liam got into the driver's seat and revved the car loudly.

"My pleasure" Liam said, curious as to what the Zombie-slaying cheerleader would do.

"Floor it" Juliet said to Liam, who grinned evilly and slammed on the accelerator as the RV's turrets went wild and shot into the Zombie hordes coming at them.

The RV shot forward and the group aimed out of the windows and opened fire. Juliet laughed, rolled down the window of the RV, and jumped out of the window and rolled onto the road.

"Juliet!" Nicholas yelled.

"Chainsaw…!" Juliet yelled, aiming her chainsaw towards the horde of Zombie heading towards her.

"DASH!" Juliet yelled out as her chainsaw transformed until it became part rocket thruster.

Juliet shot forward like a dart, her long legs allowing her to keep up with the speed she was going. Her chainsaw was glowing dark orange and tore through the horde like it was nothing. Juliet then swung her chainsaw, causing her to spin around in a deadly circle, slashing and hacking through the wall of Zombies.

"I think I'm in love" Nicholas said in awe as Juliet stopped the Chainsaw Dash and grinned at them.

"That was so much fun!" Juliet said popping a strawberry lollipop in her mouth.

A car exploded behind Juliet, but she easily rolled out of the way glanced back at the smoldering wreckage with a laugh.

"Explosions are such a cliché" Juliet grinned as RV drove by. Juliet kicked off of the ground and jumped onto the roof as it drove by.

"WOOHOO!" Juliet yelled cheerfully as she switched to her Chainsaw Blaster and fired at the hordes from the safety, though that term is kind of subjective at this point, of the RV.

"Where're we heading?" Nick asked Liam.

"Um…good question" Liam laughed as he drove towards the capital building.

A huge flare appeared in the road and Juliet growled in annoyance as five Napalm Zombies walked towards the RV fearlessly.

"CHAINSAW BLASTER!" Juliet yelled firing over and over again.

"Are you even going to help her?" Nicholas asked Liam.

Liam shook his head as he drove past the Napalm Zombies, each of which exploded violently as Juliet blasted them to Kingdom Come. Liam shot down the road, guns firing at the Zombies. The others leaned out of the window and opened fire onto the Zombie hordes. Andrew simply leaned out of the window and let Reaper slice off Zombie's heads. Nick did the same with C.N., though C.N. killed twice as many Zombies as Andrew did.

A large figure burst out onto the street and started barreling right towards them.

"A Juggernaut?" Joe said.

"I thought you weren't going to use them as much?" Nick asked.

"It's been four chapters numbnuts, deal with it" Nicholas said.

"Hehe…numbnuts" Jess said happily from the back of the RV.

"Liam! Brake!" Juliet yelled.

"Are you nuts!?" Liam asked.

"Just do it!"

Liam slammed on the breaks, sending all of the Zombie slayers crashing into walls and the floor and sent Juliet hurtling towards the air. Juliet flew right at the Juggernaut, who looked up in surprise as the cheerleader flew through the air and raised her chainsaw. Juliet revved it loudly as she swung it in an upwards sideways motion in the air. Her chainsaw slammed into the armpit of the Zombie and carved through the Juggernaut's flesh effortlessly, it's power increased by the extra momentum. Juliet landed on the ground in a crouch as the Juggernaut fell to the ground, followed by its chest a few seconds later.

"That hurt" Nick said, on top of the pile of bodies laying on the floor of the RV.

"GET OFF!" Samantha yelled kicking Nick off of her, causing him to slam his head into the wall.

"Where's the leak ma'am?" Nick groaned before passing out.

"Idiot" Liam said as he got to his feet.

Liam got back into the driver's seat and drove over to Juliet and killed the few Zombies' that she was fighting. Juliet hopped onto the side of the RV and killed the Zombies by shooting them with her Hades strapped to her thigh.

The group had reached the capital building and saw blood splattered all over it with several men in suits laid out on the lawn. The group shrugged and Samantha said "Nothing. Though I doubt it'd be where there are large amounts of people during the day"

"Maybe one of the monuments?" Juliet suggested, and Jess said "Maybe it's underneath the Lincoln Memorial or the Washington Monument?"

"Good idea Jess, we-" Judith said before a howl rang out in the night.

The group got out of the RV and saw a pack of Hellhounds racing towards them down the street.

Samantha walked to the front of the group and said "Fluffy's puppies"

Andrew aimed the shaft of Reaper and said "Down boy!"

A silver chain shot out of the end of Reaper and the wicked spear at impaled the lead Hellhound in the skull. Andrew yanked the Hellhound into the air with all of his strength and brought it crashing down to Earth.

Jax pulled out his Porter's X2 Ray Gun and fired at the pack of Hellhounds, and everyone opened fire onto the horde. Juliet' chainsaw shuddered and transformed into the Chainsaw Blaster.

"Let's send these hounds back to hell!" Andrew said with a grin as switched to Skullcrusher and began firing his grenade launcher, sending explosions into the pack of evil hounds.

Judith crouched onto the ground and began to snipe at the Hellhounds that came bounding at them down the street. Judith reloaded and Jess walked next to her and began to open fire with her HK21, putting down any Hellhounds that were coming at them.

Nicholas opened fire with his Calamity and Jane, Nick doing the same. With the four Pack-A-Punched pistols doing their work, nothing came close to attacking them.

"Nick, why aren't you using C.N.?" Nicholas asked.

"He's chipping more and more when I use him" Nick said to Nicholas.

"Nick. You're going to have to get over it, we need his power. We need YOUR power" Nicholas said.

"My…power?" Nick asked

"He chose you, didn't he?" Nicholas asked with a smile.

Nick thought about it while Nicholas slashed at a nearby Hellhound with his Bowie Knife and then finished it off with his Calamity.

Liam ran up to a Hellhound and rammed a Sickle into the neck of the Hellhound before hurling it towards Judith, who blasted it in the head.

Samantha ran right into the pack, punching and kicking the dogs left and right with bursts of energy, causing the flaming Hellhounds to explode on impact.

"_If there's still Hellhounds coming after us…"_ Samantha thought as she broke a Hellhound's neck with a well-placed kick.

"_Then that means…!"_ Samantha realized in horror.

"Jax! Zeus Cannon!" Jess yelled as she fired an arrow into the Hellhound pack.

"You've got it!" Jax replied firing two shots at the pack, finishing off the pack of Hellhounds.

"Samantha? Do you feel anything?" Nick asked.

"Hehe…bow chicka bow wow" Joe chuckled.

"Nothing. Let's keep looking" Samantha said walking back to the RV.

I'm getting on top of the RV. I'll be able to sense any energies in the area better" Samantha said leaping onto the roof.

The group drove through DC, aiming their guns through the windows and mowing down the waves of Zombies coming at them. Samantha sat on top of the RV, oblivious to the fighting as she focused on finding the Node.

"Guys!" Samantha called as they began to drive down 14th Street.

"What's up Sam?" Joe asked as he blasted a Nazi Zombie's head off.

"There's something coming from over that direction!" Samantha said pointing towards the distant Lincoln Memorial.

"Alight. Liam, park the car" Nicholas said.

Liam put the car in park and everyone reloaded their guns.

More Zombies began to move towards the RV. Joe sighed and said "Well, back to the old grind…again!"

Judith reloaded her L115 Isolator and began to open fire onto the Zombies by sniping their skulls off. Liam held onto his Sickle in one hand and his Afterburner in the other and slashed and shot at anything that came near him.

Jess unloaded onto the horde with her HK21, but she became overwhelmed by the waves and waves of Zombies coming at them. She pulled out her Awful Lawton and fired an arrow at the head of a Nazi Zombie, allowing her a brief respite. She pulled out her M115 Kollider and blasted the heads off of the Zombies next to her, allowing her to press on.

Juliet and Nicholas stood back to back, Nicholas armed with Calamity and Jane and Juliet with her bedazzled chainsaw as the Zombies circles them

"Well, I think I can take about fifty of them. How about you?" Nicholas asked with a grin.

"Fifty? I can take a hundred!" Juliet said revving her chainsaw loudly.

The duo rushed forward and laid waste to undead hordes before them, shooting and slashing wildly. Juliet leapt over a Zombie and beheaded it with her chainsaw while Nicholas opened fire onto the waves of the undead. Nicholas ducked as a Screecher Zombie slashed at him and tossed Calamity in the air. Nicholas whipped out his Bowie Knife and decapitated the Screecher before grabbing Calamity out of the air.

Juliet kicked a Nazi Zombie in the chest and pulled the trigger of her Hades, the large flames that burst from the shotgun's tip incinerated five Zombies coming towards her.

"Watch my back for a sec!" Juliet said as she began to reload the Hades strapped to her leg.

Nicholas gave her a thumbs up and continued to aim for the heads of the Zombies, killing several dozens of them before Juliet stood up and revved her chainsaw loudly.

Nick swung C.N in an arch, beheading a row of Zombies. Nick glanced to the side and saw a large Napalm Zombie walking towards them with two hands full of fire.

"That's not good" Nick said.

"**Nope"** C.N. replied.

"Suggestions?" Nick asked.

"**Well, I'd say use me to kill it, but you don't seem to have the guts to do that, so I'd hit it from a distance"** C.N. suggested as the Napalm Zombie came closer to the group.

"Joe! Napalm Zombie at 9 o' Clock!" Nick yelled to Joe, who was the closest to the Napalm Zombie.

Joe turned around and saw Nick aiming his Calamity and Jane at the Napalm Zombie. Joe ran over to Nick and said "OK, what's the plan?"

"KILL IT!" Nick said aiming his Calamity and Jane at the Napalm Zombie, whose eyes flashed bright blue.

"Rahahaha…" the Napalm Zombie hissed as it hurled a ball of flames at Joe, who rolled to the side to avoid it.

"Nick!" Joe yelled.

Nick hurled a Symtex grenade towards the Napalm Zombie, but it exploded in midair from the heat. Nick and Joe then opened fire onto the Napalm Zombie, which swung a flaming fist at the two Zombie slayers.

Nick jumped back and tripped over a long sharp metal rod. Nick looked at the Napalm Zombie and the rod, and got an idea.

"Joe, hold him off!" Nick yelled as he backed away from the Napalm Zombie.

"Noted!" Joe replied as he jumped to the side to avoid another fireball.

Nick lined up the metal rod with the Napalm Zombie and then ran inside of the RV. Nick went to the driver's seat and quickly looked around.

"There you are" Nick said with a grin.

The RV flashed bright blue and a small wave of electricity flew out from the RV. The sharp metal rod flew towards the Napalm Zombie and slammed into its chest. The Zombie's flames flickered and died and it fell to the ground.

Joe looked towards RV, which had its Magnetic Pulse Generator active. Nick waved from the driver's seat and deactivated the device.

"Quick thinking" Joe said approvingly.

"A deed worthy of me" C.N. said.

"Well, you know…I'm pretty great" Nick said.

Samantha grabbed a Zombie by the arm and hurled it into a horde of other Zombies. Jax noticed a trio of Screecher's running right at Sam, who Jax evened the odds with a friendly blast from his Zeus Cannon.

"Thanks" Samantha said with a grin.

"Allow me to finish the job" Jax said with a similar grin as he fired he Zeus Cannon three more times, destroying the rest of the horde.

The group reloaded their weapons and began to look around the Washington Monument. Jess noticed something inside of the Lincoln Memorial.

"What is that?" Jess said running towards the monument.

"Jess! Come back!" Judith said running after her friend.

"No way…" Jess said quietly, pulling out her HK21.

"What's wrong? What is…it" Nicholas said slowly to a stop as they reached the Lincoln Memorial.

Right there in front of the Lincoln Memorial stood Porter. He was dressed in a white lab cloak with the symbol of Group 935 and wearing black combat boots.

"Well…it seems we've reached an impasse…" the 935 scientist said with a smile.

"You see…you wish to live and stop Richtofen…and I want you all to die" Porter smiled.

"Porter!" Samantha yelled.

"Maxis…You were responsible for the deaths of many good friends of mine. And you nearly took my life. If it wasn't for Master Richtofen, I'd be in the depths of hell right now. So I think it's about time I do to you what Richtofen did to your father" Porter said with an evil smile as he became immersed in a dark green glow.

Chunks of the floor of the memorial ripped out of the ground and floated into the air. Porter smiled and flung 5 of them towards the group. Jax ran to the front of the group and blasted the marble slabs away with the Zeus Cannon.

Porter grinned as he warped on the spot.

"Where is he?" Judith asked, aiming her rifle around.

Porter reappeared and punched Andrew in the stomach, sending him flying back twenty feet. Porter whirled around and threw out a hand towards Judith and Liam, who began to float in the air and yell out in pain as an incredible force began to crush them.

"NO!" Samantha yelled running at Porter and kicking him in the head.

Porter yelled out in pain and warped on the spot, causing Liam and Judith to drop onto the ground. Porter reappeared and pulled out two Ray Guns and fire them at the group, who scattered. Andrew aimed Skullcrusher at Porter and fired a grenade at him, which exploded at his feet. Porter laughed loudly and began to fire at Andrew with the two Pack-A-Punched guns named after himself.

Porter was now immersed in a large green aura that seemed to be acting as a shield to all attacks. Jax ran out from behind one of the pillars and shot at Porter with the Zeus Cannon. The 935 scientist was blasted backwards into a pillar, but landed on his feet and fired his Ray Guns at Jax, who retreated behind the pillars once more.

Nicholas opened fire on Porter, who deflected the bullets and aimed them back at Nicholas, who ran to the side of the building to escape the gunfire.

"Fools! There is no stopping Group 935!" Porter laughed as he hurled another chunk of marble towards Samantha, who jumped out of the way and shot a burst of energy at him, who he sidestepped.

"Hold still!" Samantha growled as she ducked under another chunk of marble.

Porter began to turn his attack to Samantha, who was able to avoid the onslaught thanks to her enhanced physical abilities. Jess ran out and fired an arrow from her Awful Lawton at Porter, who grabbed the arrow and threw it back at her. Jess yelled as the ground exploded at her feet.

"Jess!" Joe yelled out as he narrowly avoided a chunk of marble getting thrown out him.

Jess was on the ground now, several feet from where she had been standing, coughing from the dust. She looked to the side to see Juliet, coughing from the dust as well.

"Thanks!" Jess said cheerfully.

"It was nothing!" Juliet said with a grin as she got to her feet and aimed her chainsaw at Porter and sprinted towards the 935 scientist.

Porter's face was grinning evilly as Judith narrowly avoided being killed by a chunk of rock. The area around the Lincoln Memorial was a hailstorm of debris that could easily kill one of the teens if it came hurtling towards them. Porter laughed manically as he walked outside and yelled "No one can stop us! Not you! Not anyone!"

Joe aimed His Typhoid and Mary at Porter and began to open fire, as did the rest of the teens. Porter laughed while the gunfire didn't even phase him.

A cloud then moved out from the moon, engulfing the teens and Porter in the moonlight. Porter's aura was bright green as before, but Jess spotted something that wasn't there before when they had fought Porter back in Florida. There was a very small spot where the aura seemed to be faint, and around that same area, it didn't even seem to be there at all.

"Judith, can I borrow your rifle?" Jess asked as Porter hurled an enormous rock at Jax.

Andrew raised Reaper high into the air and slashed a huge chunk of rock flying towards him in half. Andrew grinned, but then yelled out as a chunk of marble slammed into his chest and sent him flying into the air. He landed next to the Reflecting Pool, and didn't get back up.

"Andrew!" Nicholas yelled out.

"You'll pay for that!" Samantha snarled, charging at Porter.

Porter aimed both Ray Guns at Samantha and fired at her, but the shots went awry when Jax fired another blast of his Zeus Cannon.

"Hey!" a voice called out.

Porter 's head snapped towards the sound of the voice and a shot rang out. Porter yelled out as his shoulder began to bleed profusely. Porter looked at who had shot him and saw Jess aiming Judith's sniper rifle at him.

Porter clutched his shoulder and began to heal it, but realized that she was aiming at the chink in his armor.

"I found your weak spot" Jess sang as she fired again, hitting the gap in Porter's aura again.

"And I found yours!" Porter snarled as he hurled a chunk of marble at Jess, who screamed and ducked.

Porter threw out a hand and blasted the teens away from him and angrily focused on Jess, who dashed around him to avoid the deadly rocks. Jess jumped on top of a floating rock and fired again, hitting Porter's weak spot once more. Jess then hopped to another near floating chunk of marble.

"Jess! Wait!" Liam yelled.

Jess began hopping from floating rock to rock as Porter angrily tried to crush her. Jess continued to fire from Porter, gradually getting higher and high into the air.

"Uh oh" Jess said in horror as she realized she was now more than 85 feet in the air.

"What goes up…" Porter whispered with a smirk.

"OPEN FIRE!" Nicholas yelled as everyone fired at the 935 scientist, trying to hit the weak spot in his aura. Porter blasted the teens away with a wave of his hands and then focused back on Jess, who was taking aim at Porter again. Jess fired and scored another shot on Porter, who groaned in pain, but shook it off and glared up at Jess, separating her from the other rocks and trapping her on that one rock.

"Must come down!" Porter said moving his hand down.

The rock Jess was on plummeted towards the ground and Jess let out a scream as she fell towards the earth, clinging to the rock for dear life. The rock crashed onto the ground and Jess fell onto the grass and didn't get back up.

"JESS!" Samantha yelled out, terrified for her friend.

"She'll…she'll be fine" Jax said aiming his Zeus Cannon at Porter, who was smiling wide.

"Porter! You'll pay for that!" Samantha growled furiously.

"Doubtful" Porter replied as he lifted a hand and caused Judith's fallen L115 Isolator to lift into the air and aim towards the teens.

"Scatter!" Nick yelled as the gun turned towards him and fired a shot, narrowly missing his arm.

The rifle then turned on Juliet, who was trying to get to Jess. Nicholas sprinted towards Juliet and tackled her to the ground, narrowly avoiding the three consecutive shots fired by the sniper rifle.

"Thanks…again" Juliet grinned.

Nicholas grinned and was about to respond when the rifle fired at them again. Nicholas and Juliet both rolled to escape the shot.

"Get Jess. I'll handle the psychic douchebag!" Juliet said revving her chainsaw angrily.

"Be careful" Nicholas warned, and Juliet winked.

Juliet charged at Porter, dragging her chainsaw along the ground. Porter smiled evilly and hurled five stone blocks at her. Juliet jumped over the first one and slashed the second one in half. Juliet twirled around, dodging the third rock and giving her momentum to slice the fourth in half. The fifth rock Juliet ran at and stabbed it with her chainsaw and tore it in half.

"Juliet! Watch out!" Nicholas yelled as Porter hurled a tree at Juliet.

Juliet grinned and ran at the tree and jumped into the air, running alongside the tree, and jumped into the air. Juliet landed next to Porter and slashed at him with her chainsaw. The aura intercepted the attack and Juliet was blasted backwards.

"Oh come on, force fields? That's like…cheating!" Juliet said sounding annoyed as she skidded to a halt.

Porter growled angrily and ripped a tree out of the ground and threw it at Juliet.

Juliet grinned and raised her chainsaw and cut the tree down the middle. Porter lifted a hand towards Juliet and she began to float into the air. Juliet yelped and held down her skirt to keep it from billowing in the air.

"Perv!" Juliet said aiming her leg towards Porter and firing her Hades.

The shotgun blast engulfed Porter, but did no damage to him. The others opened fire on Porter and Nicholas even ran up to him and threw his Bowie Knife at Porter, which he threw back at Nicholas.

Juliet began to fly higher into the air, and then shot down to the ground and slammed into it. Juliet yelled out in pain and she nearly dropped her chainsaw.

"Juliet!" Nicholas yelled out.

"Nicholas! Catch!" Juliet said tossing Nicholas her chainsaw.

Nicholas caught the chainsaw as Juliet soared into the air. The group continued to open fire on Porter as Juliet rose into the air, though she was simply glaring at Porter instead of being afraid.

"What goes up, must come-AH!" Porter yelled as his shoulder exploded in a shower of blood.

"Stay still!" Judith said angrily as she reloaded her L115 Isolator.

Porter scowled as the wounded sealed itself back up, though the aura around his shoulder became fainter, which Joe noticed.

"The more we hit him, the weaker the aura protecting him gets" Joe yelled to the others.

"So you found a weak point" Porter said waving his hand.

"This is so going to hurt tomorrow!" Juliet yelled as she fell to the ground with an insane amount of speed.

"Juliet!" Nicholas yelled, running towards her.

"Oh no you don't!" Porter laughed, hurling a large stone towards Nicholas.

Nicholas jumped into the air and onto the stone, springing off of the projectile. He was heading right for Juliet until a force stopped him in midair.

"NO!" Nicholas yelled as he flailed furiously in the air.

A horrible force began to crush Nicholas from all sides and then hurled him into the dirt, smashing him into the grass. Nicholas then went flying headfirst into a tree and crashed onto the ground. Juliet slammed into the ground below her, but was able to stop herself from getting killed by firing her Hades into the ground, suppressing the fall somewhat.

Juliet and Nicholas were both knocked out, and Porter was smiling broadly.

"Four down" Porter said glancing at Andrew, Jess, Nicholas, and Juliet's unconscious forms.

"Guys. Get that weak spot!" Joe yelled as he pulled out Typhoid and opened fire on Porter.

Porter vanished in a burst of particles and reappeared behind the ground a few moments later ad threw his hands upward, sending up a burst of dirt and debris at Joe. Joe jumped back and hurled a Symtex grenade at Porter, who stopped the grenade in mid-flight and threw it back at him.

"Oh crap!" Joe yelled out.

A huge gust of wind blew the grenade back towards Porter, and he yelled out as he became engulfed in the explosion.

Porter reappeared next to Liam in a burst of particles. Liam whirled around, trying to stab him with his Sickle, but Porter caught it in his hand.

"Crap" Liam sighed before Porter kicked him in the chest and lifted him into the air.

"Liam!" Judith yelled out, trying to his Porter's weak spot and failing.

Porter then proceeded to slam Liam into the ground over and over again while the others watched in horror. Liam flew into the air once more, but then threw his Sickle at Porter, who sidestepped it.

"You missed" Porter grinned.

"Wasn't aiming for you!" Liam grunted.

Judith appeared from behind Porter and jammed Liam's Sickle through the gap in his aura shield, causing him to yell in agony.

"DIE ALREADY!" Porter yelled grabbing Judith by the arm and hurling her towards Liam who was fifty feet in the air. The two crashed into each other and fell into a nearby tree.

Porter extended a hand towards the tree and lifted it and the two teens into the air and hurled it over a hundred yards away.

Porter began to heal his wound again, and became aware that his aura shield was becoming fainter and fainter the more then teens hit his weak spot. Plus, the more he healed his wound, the weaker he became.

"_I have to finish this soon"_ Porter thought as he lifted his hands into the air and began to float off of the ground.

Jax fired the Zeus Cannon at Porter who jumped to the side and hurled a stone at Jax. Jax ducked to avoid it and reloaded his Zeus Cannon.

"Hehehehe…" Porter chuckled as he raised a hand towards Jax.

Jax felt his Zeus Cannon getting pulled out of his grip and it went flying into the air. Porter aimed it at Jax and moved it right in front of him.

"_This isn't good…"_ Jax thought as he pulled out his PX2RG fired it at Porter.

Porter's grin widened as he fired the Zeus Cannon fired at Jax, sending him flying into a tree.

"AH!" Jax yelled in pain.

Porter's grinned widened as he fired the Zeus Cannon again, and again, and again.

Jax was now stuck inside of the tree, hanging limp from inside of the trunk.

Nick, Joe, and Samantha were the only ones left.

The remaining fighters readied their weapons and Porter yelled out "Fools! There's no way you can defeat me! Now bear witness to your destruction!"

The earth underneath the Zombie-slayers began to shift and rumble and huge stones rose from the earth. The broke into several large pieces and began to whirl around Porter.

Porter's eyes were now glowing bright green and Porter hurled a large stone at Nick, who scowled and said "C.N. GO FOR IT!"

"**ABOUT DAMN TIME! PULSATION CANNON!" **C.N. yelled.

A huge blue and white pulsating beam shot forth from C.N, blasting the stone into a ton of pebbles. Nick ran towards Porter and swung C.N. at him, causing him to jump back.

"A statue? Are you seriously trying to defeat me with a doll?" Porter scoffed.

"**Kill him"** C.N. said to Nick.

"My pleasure!" Nick growled as he ran towards Porter again.

Nick swung C.N. at Porter again and it connected with his aura shield. The statue began to instantly crack and chip, though the force field around Porter began to break.

"No! What is that thing!?" Porter yelled.

"**I'M CHUCK F_*%ING NORRIS!"** C.N. and Nick yelled as the force field shattered completely.

"BEGONE!" Porter bellowed angrily as the aura shield shattered, releasing a huge burst of energy that sent Nick flying into the air and crashing down onto the marble slabs next to the Reflecting Pool. C.N. landed right next to Nick steaming hot and with several large cracks running down the side of it.

"Nick!" Joe yelled out.

"It's just you and Maxis's brat" Porter panted furiously.

Joe pulled out Typhoid and Mary and opened fire onto Porter, who leapt to the side to avoid the gunfire. Porter jumped from behind the pillar and hurled a stone slab at Joe, who barely dodged it.

Samantha ran at Porter and tried to punch him in the head, but Porter caught her fist and threw Samantha into the wall of the memorial. Samantha fell to the ground and got to her feet as Porter blasted Joe into air. Joe landed roughly onto the ground about thirty yards away, wincing in pain and landing badly on his leg.

"You all have a lot of fight. But even if you find some way to kill me, the others will be harder to best. And if by some miracle you beat them, could you really defeat the strongest of us all? The leader of Group 935, Edward Richtofen?" Porter asked Samantha.

"We have to. You all won't get away with this!" Samantha snarled.

"That's a shame. Time to die" Porter said with a smile.

A Symtex grenade flew through the air and landed on Porter, who yelled out as he exploded violently. Samantha looked towards the culprit and saw Nicholas standing next to Joe.

Nicholas pulled out Calamity and said "Sam, I think he's overstayed his welcome"

"Are you OK?" Samantha asked.

Nicholas's hair was drenched in blood and he was holding his shoulder tightly.

"I'll be fine" Nicholas grunted.

"Oh no you won't!"

Samantha was thrown backwards and slammed into the wall over and over again, yelling in pain. She finally fell to the ground after about ten seconds, twitching in pain.

"PORTER!" Nicholas yelled firing into the smoke with both Calamity and Jane. The smoke eventually cleared, but Porter was nowhere.

"Where did he-gak!" Nicholas gagged as a invisible force began to crush him.

"Behind you" Porter said with an evil smile.

Nicholas scowled and fired at Porter with Calamity and Jane, causing him to let go of Nicholas, who gasped for air on the ground. Porter hurled a large stone at Nicholas, who rolled out of the way and stabbed Porter in the chest with his Bowie Knife.

"AGH! Die already!" Porter snarled.

"First we take you down, and then we're going after Richtofen!" Nicholas said aiming Calamity and Jane at the 935 scientist.

Porter grinned evilly and extended a hand toward Nicholas, lifting him into the air and causing him drop Jane. Nicholas began to choke and gag as in invisible force pressed down on his throat and lungs, depriving him of air. He pulled out Calamity and opened fire on Porter who yelled out in pain as the bullets tore through him.

"DIE!" Porter yelled as he swung an arm at Nicholas, sending him flying backwards into a marble column, where he yelled out in pain before crashing onto the ground and gasping for air.

Porter chuckled as his body began to heal from the damage he had taken. He took a few casual steps towards Nicholas and lifted him up into the air once more, literally choking the life out of him. Nicholas lost his grip on his Calamity and it fell onto the ground.

"And now…my favorite part of the show…" Porter whispered with glee as Nicholas turned red.

Porter flicked his hand and slammed Nicholas hard into the side of the marble wall. Nicholas yelled out, suffocating and in agony as his bones met hard marble. Porter flicked his hand again and Nicholas crashed into one of the pillars, breaking his shoulder. Porter lifted Nicholas into the air and slammed him down onto the floor face-first, and then did it again and again and again.

"The breathtaking finale!" Porter said rising Nicholas, who was barely conscious and whose face was slowly turning blue.

"Get away from my friend…right…f**king…NOW!"

A massive bolt of white lightning shot from nowhere and slammed into Porter, sending him flying into the opposite side of the wall. Nicholas then fell from the sky and towards the hard marble forty feet below until Juliet slid underneath him and caught him in her arms.

"Nicholas…please stay with me" Juliet whispered, as she dragged him away from the battle taking place.

Porter crashed onto the ground and slowly got to his feet, wincing in pain. His entire body was throbbing in pain and he began to cough up blood. As he wiped away a trickle of blood from his mouth, he looked up and saw his attacker.

"That…was for John" Joe said coolly as he aimed a new gun at Porter.

It was something any diehard fan of Zombies recognize. Glowing a bright white color, strange glowing tubes encasing the gun and a bright glowing tesla coil, and it was something that made the Ray Gun look like a squirt gun.

"The Wunderwaffe DG-7…"Porter breathed out in disbelief and horror.

"Amazing what kind of plans you just leave laying around for the taking" Joe said charging up the gun again.

"That cave…no one but me, Richtofen, and Illuzio knew where that…Illuzio…that traitor!" Porter realized angrily.

Joe took a step forward with his Wunderwaffe pulsating wickedly.

"No! Please don't!" Porter shouted in fear, but Joe pulled the trigger and a ball of white lightning shot froth from the Wonder Weapon.

A massive ball of lightning shot towards Porter, who was helpless to move as the ball slammed into him and sent him crashing into the wall, convulsing wildly and screaming in agony. Joe fell to one knee as electricity coursed through him as well.

"AGH! Still haven't worked out all of the kinks" Joe gasped as he got to his feet as he felt his heart slow down from the first shot, and then almost shoot from his chest on the second shot.

"N-no! I…I can't lose!" Porter grunted as he got his feet and extended a hand towards Joe.

Joe charged up and Wunderwaffe and fired a third shot before Porter could do anything, and sent him flying into the lap of President Lincoln, who's statue seemed to gaze down on the scene below with an approving look. Porter fell off of the statue and crashed onto the ground, gasping in pain and drenched in blood.

"No…the…Wunderwaffe…Sam catch!" Joe said weakly, tossing the Wunderwaffe-DG7 to Samantha, who was getting to her feet.

Samantha caught the Wonder Weapon as Joe collapsed onto the ground and remained still. Though worried about him and the others, she had a job to finish.

"YOU!" Samantha snarled as she walked forward with the Wonder Weapon.

"Samantha…pl-please…your father…he wouldn't want this…he'd want you…to forgive me…" porter gasped weakly.

Samantha smiled and put away the Wunderwaffe. She extended a hand towards Porter, who gratefully grabbed it, only for Samantha to pull him towards her and punch him in the stomach as hard as she could. A fine spray of blood flew from Porter's mouth and Samantha drew her hand back and punched Porter full in the face, sending him crashing into the wall.

Porter fell to the ground and slowly got to his feet, only for Samantha to lift him into the air effortlessly with one hand clamped around his throat. Porter kicked at Samantha, who was knocked back. Porter pulled out his remaining Ray Gun and fired it at Samantha at point blank, but the blast did nothing and the young woman knocked the Ray Gun out of Porter's hand and clamped one hand around Porter's throat and held him up against the wall.

"This is for my father…and for John…and for my friends that you've hurt…" Samantha whispered as her hands became immersed in a dark green aura.

Samantha drew her hand back and charged it full of energy.

"NO! Samantha! PLEASE DON'T-!" Porter yelled before Samantha's hand shot forward and plunged Porter's chest.

"ACK!...Sam-an-tha…d-don't…" Porter gasped before Samantha ripped something out of Porter's chest.

Blood drenched the marble on the floor as Samantha held in her hands the still-beating heart of Porter, who went limp. The aura around Porter faded, yet the blood-drenched heart of Porter still glowed bright green, full of the power that Porter once had. Samantha smiled evilly and crushed it in her hands, unleashing a huge burst of 115 energy and radiation.

"AAAGHH!" Porter yelled out before bursting into green flames and being blow away in a gust of wind.

Samantha gasped as an enormous surge of energy flowed into her. She floated off of the ground slightly as she felt herself become engulfed with energy and…power.

"YES! This is amazing! I feel so…strong!" Samantha yelled with a laugh as she evaporated the blood on face and hands and turned onto the others and her face fell.

The others were regaining consciousness and were making their way towards Samantha and Joe. The others looked at Joe in horror, as he was still unmoving.

"Joe? You OK?" Judith asked Joe.

His face was flushed red and his clothes were singed from using the Wunderwaffe. Jax limped over to Joe and injected him with a Quick Revive syringe, but though his wounds healed, he remained still. Unmoving, and almost not breathing. There was a very small pulse when Juliet chucked it.

"I think that last shot…jolted him into a coma" Jess said quietly as she rubbed her head, the side of which had a large bleeding gash on it.

"I can't believe he made something that powerful" Liam said in an awed tone, staring at the glowing Wonder Weapon clipped onto Samantha's hip.

Jax and Andrew injected the others with Quick Revive syringes to help heal their wounds while Samantha looked at Joe sadly.

"No matter what…I can't save the ones who would do anything to help me…damn you Edward…._**DAMN YOU!"**_ Samantha bellowed, letting forth a shockwave that cracked the marble floor badly.

"AWOOOO!"

A sharp peal of fear went through everyone. Only one thing could make that kind of howl. And it was something every one of them had hoped was gone. A great flaming mass appeared in the distance and starred right at the group, as though it could see them from miles away. The creature howled once more and began to make its way towards the group.

"How…did it _survive?_ I blew it up and sent it to the bottom of the river…what will it take to put this thing down" Nicholas said weakly.

"Fluffy…this time…I'll save you…" Samantha vowed as she walked to the front of the group and starred into the full moon, which seemed to gleam even brighter in the light of the group's latest victory.

"I swear it"

End of Chapter:

_Hope you enjoyed the chapter._

_Fluffy vs. the Zombie Slayers Part 2? Find out next chapter!_

_So first of all, yeah, Joe's invention is a Wonderwaffe-DG7, which I know two of you guys guessed. He got the blueprints for Richtofen's latest model in the Lakeside Cave back in Chapter 7. It's the Wunderwaffe DG-7, since Richtofen has modified and upgraded his Wonderwaffe plans over the years._

_Will Joe awaken? How much stronger did Samantha get? And what lies in store for the Zombies slayers?_

_Find out next chapter, where all three of these questions, and more, or not, will be answered! But until then, review and tell me what you think! Oh, and tell me how Black Ops 2 is!_

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	21. Know Thy Enemy

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_ANA: _

_Sorry about the delay everyone, my computer died and I had to get a new one, so luckily I won't have this problem again. Oh, and the "me going back and redoing the old chapters to make them flow better and fix errors" thing got ruined too. -_-_

_So about those other stories I've been mentioning._

_So far I'm considering doing a Skyrim story, a My Little Pony Friendship is Magic story, a Pokémon story, or a Red vs. Blue story. Each of these has a plot set up and all that good stuff. Let me know in the review area which one of these you'd be interested in seeing, I know some of you read this story because it's Zombies related but I'm the kind of writer who likes to branch out and not just write about one set thing. Then again, I probably won't finish this story for a while, so that's a ways away, but I still would like to get started on whichever story gets the most positive feedback. I'll probably have a short description of each story on my profile, so look for that in the near future as well._

_I'll be honest though, I'm really leaning towards the __**Pokémon Coliseum fanfic.**__ It sounds like so much fun and I like what I've got so far. Also, if you REMOTELY like Pokémon, I HIGHLY recommend reading the story "Pedestal" by Digital Skitty. It now takes the spot of my favorite story on and I highly recommend you read it. It's in my favorite stories on my profile._

_Also, I'm not sure whether or not I said this, but I'm going to do a fairly long story with "Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead". It'll be about 45 Chapters. Possibly 46 if I throw in an epilogue, and all of them fairly long._

_Shoutout to my lovely reviewers, Thundermonkey39, tjelledge262, uig50, Bu11etB1iss115, Justplainawesome, a guess review known simply as "Guest", The Lone Traveller, two more guest reviewers known as minecraftrules99 and I did not buy BO, Trapinchh, mybrosdrivemecrazy, Echostar 141, StaticBomb324, and Noskansho, as well as the new reviewer Devilbros666. If I missed anyone, I'm sorry, there were a lot of reviews last chapter. _

_Also, shoutout to Bul11etB1iss115 who started up a pretty good Zombie story called "In Our Darkest Hour", I recommend checking that out when you've got the chance as well._

_Also, big thanks to uig50 who won the "Guess the Character" Contest back in Chapter 15. His Zombie idea will be used in this chapter, so big thanks to him. Also, he's the 100__th__ reviewer on the story (sidenote). I can't believe I have 112 reviews…just…wow. You all are just amazing._

_Oh yeah, vote in the poll I have on my profile. What should be my character's(Nicholas) signature weapon? Galvaknuckles (Black Ops 2), A Daedric Sword of the Inferno (Skyrim), or a Scimitar? _

_VOTE NOW! (please) _

_Sorry for the usual rant folks. _

_Enjoy!_

Chapter 21: Know Thy Enemy

"Joe! Come on, wake up!" Judith said shaking Joe, who was still not moving.

"This isn't good." Nick said with a tired sigh.

Nick looked at C.N. and winced at the condition he was in now. He was chipped horribly and there were long cracks running down the length of the statue. Nick sighed again and put the statue on his back.

"How long until Fluffy gets here?" Juliet asked.

"No telling. It's just...watching us as it moves" Nicholas said as he reloaded his weapons while sitting on the ground.

"I don't know if I can keep this up" Liam said tiredly as he lay down on the marble slabs of the Memorial.

"I think I'm OK still" Juliet said with a wan smile.

"No, you're not" Nicholas said firmly.

Juliet smiled and said "Yeah, but I'm still better off than you"

Nicholas shrugged and said with a small smile "Good point"

Jax glanced at the piles of Zombies everywhere and said "I'm going to move the bodies. It seems disrespectful to leave them here"

While Jax blasted the Zombies into the Reflecting Pool, which was also filled with dirt and mud and group continued to rest, trying to catch their breath. It had been nonstop for them ever since they were at the hospital. They were barely able to put down the Hydra Zombies, they had almost all been killed by Slenderman, and each of them had been rendered unconscious by Porter. They couldn't hold up much longer.

The group wandered around, observing with a detached sort of interest the destroyed around them. Samantha watched Fluffy making its way towards them, almost hungrily. Obsessed with saving her from the grasp of Richtofen.

After a few minutes, and group slowly gathered together at the base of the memorial. Everyone except Nicholas, which struck Juliet as odd. He had been acting…weird, ever since the encounter with Slenderman. He didn't show it, but something was bothering him.

"Hey, can you guys tell me more about Nicholas?" Juliet said as she sat down on the ground with the others.

"What's to say? He's kinda scatterbrained and talkative, but he's a great guy" Nick said.

"**Have you ever looked closely though?"** C.N. asked.

"What do you mean?" Jax asked.

"**When you guys were captured by Slenderman, Illuzio taunted us and hinted that he lost someone special at the hands of Richtofen. Nicholas…he flew into such a rage…I have never experienced so much anger before. He's hiding something painful underneath that calm. I only noticed it because he slammed my head into the ground" **the statue said drily.

"What do you think's wrong with him?" Judith asked.

"**I could look into his mind…but I'd rather not" **C.N. said.

"Why?" Liam asked.

"**Because the best thing for him is time" **C.N. replied.

Nicholas had walked away from everyone, wanting to be alone. He sighed and said "I…damn it!"

Tears welled up in his eyes, yet he forced it back. He was good at hiding his true emotions. He hid it behind a wall for a while, but recent events had begun to break the wall. He could only deal with all of this for so long.

"I guess…I guess I can sympathize with him…I understand why he's doing all of this...I mean, it's not exactly what he went through, but…it's enough" Nicholas said as he slunk to the ground and put his hands in his face.

"I miss you…I wish I knew what you would do in this situation…" Nicholas whispered as a tear rolled down his face.

Illuzio watched the group from on top of the room of the Lincoln Memorial. He pulled out a small dagger and began to clean the dirt from under his finger nails with it in a rather bored way. As the group tried to figure out a plan, he began to smile to himself.

"They may have bested Porter…but can they best Richtofen? Another test will determine that…" Illuzio whispered as he created a spark in his fingers.

Illuzio flicked the spark into the Reflecting Pool, which shimmered bright green and began to rumble and boil.

"What's with the underwater light show?" Nick asked.

"And since when was the water of the Reflecting Pool so…muddy?" Jess asked curiously.

"I don't know, but I think we're about to find out…" Jax muttered as he reloaded his Zeus Cannon.

A huge mass rose out of the water, and the group watched in silent horror as some…_thing_… began to form from the mud.

It was humanoid in shape, with a large mass of mud mixed with blood. It continued to rise from the pool until it was sixty feet big, with two huge arms of mud. Bits and pieces of Zombies stuck out from the mass, which had two Zombie heads as its eyes, which were glowing bright blue.

Samantha glanced towards Fluffy in the distance, heading right towards them, and then looked back at the new Zombie.

"I'll take care of Fluffy" Samantha said.

"Samantha…"

Samantha turned around to see Nicholas looking at her with a sad look.

"Go to her. We'll be fine" Nicholas said with a smile after a moment.

Samantha smiled and said "Thank you"

Samantha put away the Wunderwaffe and sprinted towards the Hellhound. The others turned their attention to the new Zombie, which roared loudly and picked up a large stone and hurled it at them.

"GET BACK!" Nicholas yelled as he sprinted towards the safety of the monument, and everyone sprinted after him.

Andrew pulled out Skullcrusher and fired a grenade at the Zombie, which took the attack head-on. Large globs of mud globules flew everywhere and the creature roared loudly in agony.

"Guys, can you keep going?" Nicholas asked as he ducked behind a pillar.

Nick, Jax, Judith, Liam, Juliet nodded. Andrew shrugged painfully, holding his chest and Jess sadly shook her head, which had only just stopped bleeding.

"You two stay here and shoot from afar then. Watch over Joe too. We'll…we'll figure something out" Nicholas said, though he really wasn't sure.

Truth be told, he was sore all over and would like nothing better than to take a breather. Even anger and adrenaline couldn't keep you going forever. Juliet limped over to Nicholas and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hope" Juliet murmured as she revved her chainsaw.

"Hope huh?" Nicholas muttered with a small smile as Juliet strode out into the moonlight.

The creature pulled back a fist that had morphed from the mud the hurled it at the group, who scattered.

"You know what I hope? That this thing has a death wish!" Nicholas scowled as he opened fire with his Galil.

The group opened fire, with some grenades courtesy of Jess and Andrew. The mud Zombie roared in pain and large globules of mud fell from the beast, landing on the ground in large chunks.

"We've almost got it!" Liam yelled.

"Rooo…"

The Zombie starred at them, and then its face contorted into a terrifying grin.

"Uh oh…" Jess said quietly.

A dozen tentacles of mud shot from the creatures back and shot towards the group, who were sent flying back into the monument. Illuzio winced with a smile as Liam landed on his chest and began to cough up blood.

"Liam! Get back there! You're done!" Nicholas said loudly as he got to his feet.

"To hell with that!" Liam choked out, grabbing another Symtex and hurling it at the Zombie, blowing off another chunk of its body.

The large globules of mud and Zombie flesh fell onto the ground.

And then they began to move.

"Oh come on!" Liam said exasperatedly.

The globules began to form into humanoid figures themselves, becoming a terrifying mish-mash of pieces of Zombie flesh, blood, and mud. One of the Mudball Zombies lunged at Nicholas, who jumped out of its way and fired an entire clip into it. Its head exploded in a shower of blood and mud and fell onto the ground.

"The hell-?" Nicholas muttered as the Zombie's corpse began to move towards the water.

The Zombie slid back into the water of the Reflecting pool and Nicholas watched in horror as the Mudball Zombie merged back into the original mud Zombie and the original Zombie began to heal.

Andrew threw more grenades at the enormous Zombie attacking them, causing ten more globules to land onto the ground. The blobs of mud and flesh formed into horrible human-like shapes and lunged at the group, who opened fire onto the muddy Zombies.

Jess aimed her Awful Lawton at the main Zombie and fired an arrow into its head, causing it to explode in a shower of mud and Zombies. The mud Zombie snarled at Jess and a tentacle of mud shot towards her, causing her to scream as it wrapped around her.

"Jess!" Judith yelled, aiming her rifle towards the Zombie and firing five shots at it.

"C.N, will you hold together if we do another attack?" Nick asked.

"**JUST DO IT ALREADY!"** C.N. yelled, and Nick nodded and aimed C.N. towards.

"**ANNIHALTOR GUN!"** C.N. yelled as a stream of red hot bullets shot towards the tentacle, severing it and causing the arm to explode.

Jess screamed as she fell towards the earth, but was saved when Jax shot a blast of air towards her and slowed her fall to where she could land lightly on ground.

"Thanks" Jess said to Jax and Nick with a sigh of relief.

Nick smiled for a moment, and then howled in pain and fell to the ground as the strain of using a power attack caught up with him. Another huge crack appeared on C.N.

"Andrew, get Nick!" Jax yelled as he reloaded his Zeus Cannon

"Everyone, open fire!" Nicholas yelled as he unloaded another clip into the giant Zombie.

"You OK?" Andrew asked Nick.

"I'll…I'm fine" Nick grunted as he got to his feet and walked back over to the fight.

"Watch out!" Nick yelled out as the creature attacked again, tackling Liam out of the way of another stone projectile.

"T-thanks" Liam muttered as he pulled out his Afterburner and opened fire onto the Mudslide Zombie.

The group continued to open fire on the new foe and after a solid minute of firing, the Zombie had huge gaping holes in it. About a hundred globules from the creature surrounded the ground, as a result of their fight with the beast. They slowly slid back into the water, where the beast remained still.

"Are we done?" Judith asked lowering her rifle.

"Nope"

Illuzio appeared in a burst of particles, clapping his hands together. He looked slightly impressed, and walked through the mud and guts and towards the group, which raised their weapons at the jester, who chuckled.

"Sorry about the Mudslide Zombie, it was a simple test" Illuzio said with a grin.

"A test? We can barely stand after fighting Porter, and now choose now to "test" us?" Judith said angrily.

Illuzio shrugged and said "If you think I'm bad, you're going to hate the other two members of 935 that you haven't met yet" Illuzio said with a laugh.

"Other two members…you mean that voice that we heard" Nicholas said to the jester, who nodded.

"And one other" Illuzio said.

"Other? Who else is in 935?" Jess asked.

Illuzio was about to answer when he straightened up and said "Damn! I've got to go. By the way, look behind you"

Illuzio snapped his fingers and vanished in a green flash.

The group slowly looked behind them and saw the Mudslide Zombie starring at them, its glowing blue eyes narrowed in anger.

"We _may_ have made it mad" Liam said.

"What gave you that idea?" Judith said sarcastically.

**Meanwhile:**

Samantha watched Fluffy from behind a building as it slowly padded down the street. Samantha bit her lip, and then ran out into the street.

"Fluffy!" Samantha called.

Fluffy snarled angrily and shot a burst of fire at Samantha, who jumped back and easily avoided the attack. Samantha rolled to the side to avoid another burst of flames and said "I won't fight you Fluffy!"

"AWOOOOO!" Fluffy howled.

Fluffy raised a paw and brought it down on Samantha, who yelled out in pain as she became pinned under the massive claws.

"Fluffy! **SIT!"** Samantha yelled in her demonic voice.

Fluffy snarled and roared at Samantha, who scowled and said "BE THAT WAY THEN!"

Samantha wriggled free from Fluffy's claws and jumped back as another paw slammed down next to her.

"Bad! Bad Fluffy!" Samantha yelled at her dog, which snarled at her.

Fluffy lunged at Samantha, who grabbed the mouth of the Hellhound and yelled "BAD DOG!"

Fluffy snarled as Samantha slammed Fluffy's head into the ground with an incredible amount of force. Fluffy snarled and shot a fireball at Samantha, who was hurled through the air in a burst of flames. Samantha landed roughly on the ground forty feet away, smacking at her clothes to put them out. Samantha growled angrily as she tossed her burnt jacket to the ground and said "Well, here goes nothing!"

Samantha dashed forward and leapt high into the air, soaring above Fluffy. She landed on Fluffy''s head, but the dog threw her off. Samantha righted herself in midair and kicked off the side of a building, sending herself flying back towards Fluffy. Samantha charged her fist full of energy and punched Fluffy in the snout, causing the Hellhound to snarl in pain.

Samantha landed on the ground and said "Fluffy! Stay!"

Fluffy roared at Samantha and slammed her paw down on Samantha's legs, pinning her to the ground. Fluffy opened her mouth and began to charge up another fireball in her mouth.

"Nein! Schlecht Hund! Fluffy! Sitzen!" Samantha yelled out desperately in German.

Fluffy blinked in surprise and removed her paw. She then sat down on her hind legs, and looked at Samantha quizzically.

"_She must be having trouble recognizing me in this new body"_ Samantha realized.

"Good girl…" Samantha grunted as she got to her feet.

Samantha looked at Fluffy, who was staring at her. Samantha slowly walked up to her dog and said gently "Fluffy? It's me…Samantha"

Fluffy bent down and looked at Samantha deep in the eyes, and then whined softly. She then laid down in the street.

"I guess you only recognize German commands. It's been a while since I learned the language of this country, you don't really know English commands" Samantha said thoughtfully, patting her dog on the nose.

"Now, let's see if I can help you" Samantha said walking over to Fluffy's side.

Fluffy growled in annoyance as Samantha climbed up her back and onto her head.

"So much mutation and 115 energy…you've been hurting for a while, haven't you Fluffy?" Samantha whispered.

Fluffy whined loudly, and Samantha patted her dog on the head and said "There there, I'll make it all better"

Samantha placed both of her hands in Fluffy's matted fur and yelled **"RELEASE!"**

Fluffy roared loudly and almost hurled Samantha off of her. Energy from Fluffy flowed into Samantha, who screamed in agony. It was beyond pain, but she would endure it to help her beloved Fluffy.

The Hellhound roared in pain and charged down the street, with Samantha clinging to her head for dear life. Samantha hung on though and continued to absorb the very radiation that had been used to torture and mutation Fluffy. After a whole three minutes. Fluffy whirled around in a circle and threw Samantha off of her. Samantha crashed down into the street, leaving massive cracks in the road.

Samantha was grinning widely as she got to her feet.

"There…isn't that better?" Samantha asked her dog gently.

Fluffy whined and bent its head down to the ground where Samantha was. Samantha felt a tear go down her face and said "I've missed you Fluffy…"

Fluffy flashed dark red and began to shrink. Samantha watched in amazement as Fluffy shrank down to the size of a rhinoceros. Its skin had reverted to normal, making Fluffy look just like a German Shepard. Fluffy began to pant happily and wagged its tail at the sight of Samantha.

"Fluffy!" Samantha yelled happily as she ran towards her dog and threw her arms around it.

Fluffy began to lick Samantha's face, to which Samantha giggled happily.

"Fluffy…Ich habe dich so vermisst, meine Fluffy" Samantha whispered in German as she hugged her long lost dog tightly.

"NO! ANDREW!" a voice yelled in the distance.

"NO! The others! Fluffy, can you still…you know?" Samantha asked Fluffy.

The dog nodded and its eyes flashed crimson. Samantha chuckled and said "My little Hellhound…let's get you some payback, shall we?"

**Meanwhile:**

"NO! ANDREW!" Jax yelled as Andrew went flying into the air and crashing down onto the hard ground, where he remained still.

Judith ducked as a Mudball Zombie swiped at her and bashed it in the head with her L115 Isolator before Jess fired an arrow at it. Judith ran away from the Mudball Zombie as it exploded violently. The pieces of mud, flesh, and blood splattered on the ground and then began to move towards the water of the Reflecting Pool.

"This thing won't die!" Liam yelled as the Mudslide Zombie lashed out at him, causing him to jump to the side to avoid the attack.

Jax pulled out his PX2RG and fired it over and over again, causing the Mudslide Zombie to roar in pain as large blobs of mud and flesh fell onto the ground, only to attack the Zombie slayers again. Juliet activated her Chainsaw Blaster and began firing at the Mudball Zombies attacking them.

"Jess! On your left!" Juliet yelled as one of the Mudball Zombies lumbered towards Jess.

Jess aimed her Awful Lawton and was about to fire when she realized this was her last arrow. Jess ducked to avoid the swipe from one of the three hands of the Mudball Zombie and switched to her M115 Kollider and fired at the Zombie, causing its head to explode.

"How are we supposed to beat this thing?" Jess asked Judith as the Mudball Zombie fell apart and merged once again with the Mudslide Zombie.

Illuzio watched from the rooftop of the Lincoln Memorial. They were losing against this seemingly unbeatable beast. It was one of his own pet creations, and he was curious as to how to would work against the teens.

"Maybe what they need is the right nudge?" Illuzio asked himself as he slid off of his perch and through the ceiling of the memorial.

Illuzio landed lightly on the ground of the Memorial and walked over to Joe, who was propped up against the statue of Lincoln. Illuzio chuckled and said "I never even imagined the possibility of someone making the Wunderwaffe DG-7. So, as thanks for putting Porter down for good…" Illuzio murmured.

Illuzio created a spark in his hand and flicked it towards Joe, who began to stir. Illuzio warped again as Joe's eyes opened.

"W-w-what…where am I?" Joe asked himself.

"Last thing I remember was shooting Porter with the Wunderwaffe…what the hell?" Joe yelled in surprise as he saw the epic battle taking place next to him.

"Samantha must have the Wunderwaffe still" Joe realized as he got to his feet and reloaded his guns.

"This thing just won't die!" Nicholas yelled as he stabbed a Mudball Zombie in the head.

"HERE COMES THE CAVALRY MOFOS!"

Five grenades flew through the air and landed on the Mudslide Zombie, which roared in pain as they exploded and fell over, stunned. The group turned around to see Joe walking down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, smiling widely.

"JOE!" Nicholas yelled with relief.

"Hey guys, what's up with the Mud Zombie?" Joe asked.

Jess and Judith hugged Joe, who blinked in surprise at the reception.

"What happened?" Joe asked.

"Using the Wunderwaffe put you into a coma! We thought you wouldn't wake up" Jax said.

"I still have some kinks to work out with the Wunderwaffe then. Sorry I worried you guys. Did you kill Porter?" Joe asked.

"Samantha ripped out his heart and absorbed some of his power" Liam explained.

"Nice!" Joe said with a grin.

"ROOOAAAAHH!"

The Mudslide Zombie was back on its feet, and it looked pissed. Juliet aimed her chainsaw at the Zombie and said "Hang on!"

Juliet sprinted towards the Mudslide Zombie and yelled out "Chainsaw Dash!"

Rockets shot from the back of her bedazzled chainsaw and she shot forward like a bullet. Juliet kicked off of the ground and soared into the air. Juliet kicked out with her legs so she was aiming her chainsaw at the Mudslide Zombie. The rockets on the chainsaw shifted so Juliet was floating in midair, and she began to fire her Chainsaw Blaster over and over.

Mores chunks of mud fell to the ground and attacked the group, who tried as hard as they could to subdue the monster, but to no avail. Juliet was able to fly to the shore and ran back over to the group, trying to slash and hack the Mudball Zombies in nothingness, but it wouldn't work.

"What will it take to kill this thing!?" Nicholas yelled angrily as his Galil ran out of ammo.

A ball of white lightning slammed into the Mudball Zombie in front of Nicholas, and it evaporated into nothingness. The ball of lightning flew to the closest Mudball Zombie, killing it, and then flew to the next. Each of the Mudball Zombies became ensnared in a net of white lightning. The group watched in amazement as the horde was slaughtered in front of them.

The group looked to the side to see Samantha, riding on top of a giant dog, her hair billowing in the wind as the dog raced towards them. Samantha was aiming the Wunderwaffe at them. The Hellhound leapt about fifty feet and landed onto the ground right in front of them. The Hellhound whirled around to face the Mudslide Zombie, which towered impressively over the massive dog.

"Fluffy…Sic 'em!" Samantha yelled.

Fluffy began to grow explosively and suddenly the huge flaming undead Hellhound that had attacked them on the bridge was standing before them, with Samantha standing on its back.

"Töten."Samantha said quietly, pointing a finger towards the Mudslide Zombie.

Fluffy roared and a massive burst of flames erupted from its maw, engulfing the Mudslide Zombie. The flames sprayed everywhere, evaporating the muddy water everywhere to nothing. The Mudslide Zombie thrashed and writhed as the flames slowly reduced it to a shriveling pile of dirt and flesh. Samantha smiled evilly and aimed the Wunderwaffe at the Zombies.

"Bye bye!" Samantha laughed as she fired a shot at the Mudslide Zombie, causing it to explode violently.

The Mudslide Zombie burst into dust and the group let out a collective sigh of relief and collapsed onto the ground.

"So, Fluffy…is good again?" Jess asked.

"Yes. She listens to me again. She can switch back and forth between this form and her regular form" Samantha said as Fluffy began to shrink rapidly.

Samantha jumped off of Fluffy's back and lightly onto the ground. Fluffy reverted to her normal form, though she was still much larger than she had been before she went into the Teleporter all those years ago.

Jess and Liam ran over to Fluffy and began to pet her. Fluffy growled in annoyance, but allowed it. The group sat in silence for a few moments before Illuzio appeared in a flash of green light, clapping slowly.

"Well done" the jester grinned.

Illuzio looked at each of them, but was surprised at the look Nicholas was giving them. He starred into Nicholas's blue eyes, and recognized the look he was giving Illuzio.

Understanding.

"You…have been thinking about what I said before, haven't you?" Illuzio asked.

"Of course I have. You don't forget that kind of speech" Nicholas said quietly.

"Hey, what's up man?" Joe asked Nicholas quietly, but Nicholas ignored him.

Illuzio smiled slightly and said "You _do_ know. Don't you? What it's like to lose some you care for"

"To watch them die…slowly…painfully…and can only watch helplessly as they suffer" Nicholas whispered.

"Nicholas…" Juliet said too quietly for anyone to hear.

"Yes…I do know that feeling, Illuzio… I know it very, very well" Nicholas said.

"Show me" Illuzio said simply.

Nicholas stepped forward and Illuzio placed a hand on his head. Illuzio used his magic to show what memories Nicholas was thinking of.

Nicholas and Illuzio stood there for a few moments, and Illuzio said softly "I see…"

He let go of Nicholas and took a few steps back. He looked at Nicholas, who was starring at the jester in a very tired way.

Illuzio smiled and said "You know then, the pain of loss. Not exactly my pain, but close. It's incredible, how loss drives you onward, yet the memory of the one you lost gives you strength. But it also a pain like no other, that can tear you to pieces. Know that we share the same pain, you and I. And for that, I promise you that together, you, me, and your friends. We shall make Edward pay"

Illuzio snapped his fingers and the group felt a wave of warmth course through them each, healing each of them and giving them newfound strength. Nicholas however continued to stare at Illuzio.

"Why didn't you kill Richtofen sooner?" Nicholas asked him.

"He…was my friend, for a time. I never considered he had a hand in my precious one's demise. And by the time I found out from Sieger, he was far too powerful for me to stop" Illuzio said.

"Why did you kill the group Samantha formed a while back to stop Richtofen?" Nicholas asked.

"Orders. I had to thwart any threats to the plan, and I had to enrage Samantha to keep fighting against Richtofen" Illuzio looked at Samantha and said "It also kept you going until now. I knew how close you were to going on to the next life"

"I hate getting played" Samantha grunted angrily.

"I have to go now. But until then, keep searching. The node is close by, more so than you realize. Until then. Ciao!"

Illuzio snapped his fingers and vanished in a flash of light.

"Hey…you OK man?" Joe asked walking over to Nicholas.

"No. I'm not. Not for a while"

Nicholas sighed and said "We should get moving. We've got to stop Richtofen and the rest of 935"

"Hey!"

Nicholas turned around to see his friends looking at him in concern. There was pain in those blue eyes. Nicholas turned around and said "Yes?"

"What is the deal with you?" Liam asked.

"You want to know what the deal with me is Liam!?" Nicholas yelled walking up to him.

"Yeah!" Liam shot back.

"I know EXACTLY how Illuzio feels. To lose someone you hold very dear to your heart. I'm not over it yet, and now I have to deal with this crap. You all almost died from Slenderman for crying out loud, I thought I lost all of you! I'M NOT GOING THROUGH THAT AGAIN! " Nicholas practically screamed.

"It's not our fault!" Liam shot back.

"Liam!" Judith yelled angrily.

"No. You need to clam the hell down. We can't trust Illuzio. He's trying to get into your head!" Liam snapped.

Nicholas smiled bitterly and said "No, he isn't Liam. You wouldn't understand"

"Try me" Liam replied.

"We don't have time for this. He said the node is close, we need to find it" Nicholas said reloading his Galil and walking away.

"Did you guys know?" Jess asked.

The others shook their head and looked after their de facto leader, who stormed away.

"I wonder what that was about?" Andrew muttered.

"Until he tells us, just don't bring it up. If it torments him that much, then there's a reason he hasn't brought it up until now" Jess said firmly to the others, who nodded.

A voice then spoke to them.

"_Hmm…you defeated Porter…you defeated the Mudslide Zombie…and now you've tamed Fluffy…but can you really stop Edward?"_ a quiet voice whispered in their ears with glee.

"Of course we can!" Samantha growled angrily.

"_Sure…but be warned. Now that you've defeated Porter, Illuzio will finally have to release me…and when I've completed my mission…I'm coming…_

The presence in their minds became…darker and said in a deeper tone **"And when I find you, I'll slaughter each and every one of you!"** the now deep voice growled maliciously.

"We took down Porter, and we'll take you down too!" Liam yelled at the voice, who laughed.

"**Doubtful, though you can try. Liam is it? You'll be the first one to die!"** the deep voice laughed.

"ENOUGH!"

Richtofen's voice yelled out loud enough to shatter their eardrums. The presence all but vanished and group looked at each other, wondering who had been speaking to them and why.

End of Chapter:

_I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but the characters in the story are based off of me and my friends, so this chapter was a little…personal, for me._

_Anyway, sorry again about the wait. I'll try to get another chapter up before the actual Zombie Apocalypse._

_Who is this man, and what are his motives for taunting the Zombie slayers? Which other members were Illuzio referring to? Who knows?_

_I do. _

_Also, I want to know whether or not you guys are listening to the songs I post in the chapters while you're reading the story. If so, then I'll have the lyrics synch up with when the song gets activated, if not I'll space the lyrics out more. Please let me know in the review section. Oh, and vote on my poll in my profile._

_Also, let me know whether or not you'd be interested in reading my Pokémon story when I start posting chapters in a few months._

_Find out more stuff and more next chapter (or not), until then, please review and tell me what you thought. Until next time folks, FlygonN out!_


	22. Screams in the Silence

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Howdy._

_I've been getting some good feedback about my stories in Beta, several people are for Pokémon Coliseum, a few for Skyrim and a few for Red vs. Blue. I just finished my first chapter of my Pokémon fanfic, but I'll let you guys know for sure which one I'm doing next in a few months' time. The Skyrim one has a chapter and a half done, and I've started on three different chapters of the RvB one. I kinda jump around a bit when working on stories. I'll keep you all updated on the other stories. For those of you who haven't done it, let me know which one of these stories you're most interested in reading in the review section._

_Until then…it's time for the newest contest. _

_As you all know, there is a mystery member of Group 935 who is an utter wild card and is being trapped by Illuzio until Richtofen releases him. The identity of this man will be released in a few chapters time, but until then, let's have a contest._

_This new character is based, on appearance and his choice of weapons, on a character in a well-known anime. This anime character is immensely powerful, sadistic and deadly, and is as complicated as they come. _

_The contest is to guess who this new upcoming character is based off of. I'll release one hint per chapter until Chapter 24. Chapter 25 is where the character's name and appearance and all of that stuff will be revealed. The first person to guess the character who MY character is based off of gets a customized boss Zombie in the story, and this one will be in multiple chapters. Here's the first hint._

_Hints:_

_One of his nicknames is the __Abyss General __on the wikia page of the anime he's from. _

_So it's like last time, first to guess the character wins. There'll be only one winner this time, and you can only guess if you're registered on the site, and each of you only gets one vote. So if you want to wait until 24 when I've released more hints, that's cool. But the first person to guess it wins._

_Shoutout to those who reviewed last chapter, which includes Bu11etB1iss115, Justplainawesome, The Lone Traveller, Trapinchh, uig50, Otherworld Metal N (who I could've sworn was Task Force Metal or something similar to that, unless you changed your name), a guest reviewer known as Anonymous, mybrosdrivemecrazy, Echostar 141, minecraftrules99, and a new reviewer known as XilentApostle. Thanks again for so much feedback and support, and since this will be the last chapter I do in 2012, I want to thank each and every one of you who read this. This story has helped me through some really rough times, and the feedback I get from you all keeps this story going. _

_So thank you._

_The chapter name comes from the song "Fragments" by Jeff Williams and is part of the Red vs. Blue Season 10 Soundtrack. Listen to the song, for it is most awesome._

_Anyway, enough with the usual rant!_

_Enjoy._

Chapter 22: Screams in the Silence

"OK, here's the plan" Samantha said after everyone had gotten a chance to get take a breather and take a snack break.

"Let's hear it" Nicholas said walking back over to the group.

"Are you-?" Juliet began to say before Nicholas gave her a look that said "Please, not now" and she stopped herself.

"We need to spread out and search for his lab, which is where the node will be. I sent Fluffy to search the area and I've narrowed down the location to three areas of D.C. We'll split into three teams. Nicholas, you, Juliet, and Nick go search the National Air and Space Museum. Me, Jess, and Andrew will search the city. Joe, you Judith, Jax and Liam search this area some more. It may just be traces from when we fought Porter, or he may have been guarding the area. We may have missed something" Samantha said.

"How are you going to search the entire city?" Nick asked.

"Fluffy?" Samantha said.

"AWOOOO!" Fluffy howled at Nick, causing him to scream in fear.

"OK! OK! She can come!" Nick yelled as Fluffy began to snarl louder.

"Good girl" Samantha said petting Fluffy, who panted happily.

"**And that everyone is the Champion of Norris…why do I bother trying anymore?"** C.N. sighed.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. C.N., why do you keep breaking and fracturing?" Joe asked.

"**The more I break, the more my true form is revealed, and the more worthy of being the Champion of Norris Nick is becoming"** C.N. explained.

"You're barely holding together as it is" Jess said, poking C.N.

"**Stop that"** C.N. growled.

"Guys, focus. We've got to find that Node. Come on you two" Nicholas said pulling out his Galil and walking towards the distant museum.

"Keep an eye on him" Joe said to Juliet and Nick, who nodded and hurried after him.

"Before we go, I want to get something" Samantha said with a smile, walking towards the Lincoln Memorial with Fluffy, who padded behind her.

"She's really happy to have Fluffy back, isn't she?" Jess said.

"Yep. And having Fluffy on our side is really good too. I feel a little safer knowing that we've got a Hellhound on our side" Joe said.

The group waited for Samantha to return, and she came back carrying the two Ray Guns Porter had been carrying when he attacked them. Samantha clipped them on to her belt and looked at Joe.

"Joe, I think I'll hold onto the Wunderwaffe for now. It doesn't hurt me as much as it does you" Samantha said.

"Yeah, hold onto it until I can work out the bugs in the design" Joe said.

"Before we start though, let's give everyone a fresh supply of ammo" Samantha said.

Samantha held out both of her palms and a burst of green energy surged around them. A ball of green light appeared next to Joe, and as the light slowly dimmed, a Max Ammo was revealed.

Joe walked through it and Samantha screamed _**"MAX AMMO!"**_

"…really?"

"Shut up Joe. I do my thing, you do yours"

"Fluffy. Finden Sie die Knoten. Suche Edward" Samantha muttered to her dog.

Fluffy's ears perked up and she began to sniff the air. Samantha looked at the others and said "Come on"

Samantha and the others walked towards the RV. Samantha hopped back on Fluffy while the others got into the RV. The 2nd group drove way in the RV while Samantha rode Fluffy close behind.

"Come on, let's-"Jax began to say before Judith screamed and pointed behind Jax, who turned around.

The group looked behind them and saw something utterly terrifying.

It stood at about 6 foot, garbed in a Nazi Commanders uniform. Its head was looking at the ground, and its hands were held out to the side. Blood was running down its body, drenching the ground. The Zombie was smiling wide, its broken teeth soaked with blood.

It just stood there, watching them.

Liam aimed his Afterburner at the Zombie, whose head snapped up with a _crack_.

The voice from before spoke to them again.

"_So, it seems dear Richtofen is using some of MY creations. That's just marvelous…I think you'll find that this Zombie is rather straight to the…point?"_ the voice said with a chuckle.

Razor sharp serrated blades sprang out from the arms, legs, and back of the Zombie, who let out a roar and charged at the group.

Judith ducked under the Zombie's slash and fired at it, but the Zombie grabbed her by the arm and hurled her 30 yards away.

"What is this thing!?" Liam yelled as he opened fire with his Afterburner.

The Zombie quickly moved its arms in a flash, deflecting all of the bullets. The Zombie's face contorted into a terrifying grin as it charged towards Liam.

**Meanwhile in the City:**

"Wow, look at that!" Jess said loudly.

"What!? What is it?" Samantha asked aiming her Ray Gun around the area.

"Buy one ice cream, get one free? YAY!" Jess yelled happily as she skipped into an ice cream store.

Samantha's jaw dropped and she said "But…b-but I…I don't…what?"

"Just roll with it and get some ice cream" Andrew said with a sigh as he followed Jess.

Samantha growled and said "Fluffy. Sitzen"

The dog nodded and sat down, keeping a lookout while Samantha walked inside of the ice cream store.

"Jess, come on, we don't have time for this" Samantha said.

"There's always time for ice cream!" Jess said happily as she began to scarf down a tub of Cookies and Crème ice cream.

"YOLO!" Andrew said grabbing a tub of vanilla ice cream and devouring it.

Samantha grunted angrily and was about to say something when a glob of chocolate ice cream hit her smack on the mouth. Samantha blinked in surprise, and then wiped the ice cream off of her mouth. She licked the chocolate off of her fingers and gasped.

"Oh my…this is delicious!" Samantha said in amazement as she wiped her hand and walked over to the others.

"Well, you haven't eaten very much in the 50 or so years you've been a spirit. And I can't imagine the girl whose body you're using ate anything solid for a while either. So go nuts" Andrew said with a grin.

"They're actually out of nuts. But they've got sprinkles" Jess said cheerfully.

Samantha grabbed a spoon and tried a bite of strawberry.

Samantha let out a sigh of delight and said "I think I died and went to heaven"

"You've never had ice cream?" Andrew asked.

"I've been a spirit for the past 50 years you idiot!" Samantha growled as she shoveled down strawberry ice cream in large amounts.

"You may want to slow down, you might make yourself sick" Jess warned.

As if on cue, Samantha vomited onto the ground and slumped over the counter. Samantha groaned, but then smiled.

"Worth it" Samantha said as she tried the chocolate, at a slower pace.

Samantha ended up holding her frozen dairy desert this time, and the trio enjoyed themselves. At least until the Zombies attacked anyway.

The trio didn't notice the Zombies until Fluffy snarled and turned into her Hellhound form. She tore apart five Zombies before they ran out, Jess still holding a tub of orange sherbet ice cream.

Samantha whipped out both of her Ray Guns and fired into the nearby group of Nazi Zombies. Jess aimed her M115 Kollider and fired into the group of Zombies, scoring several headshots and killing about 12 of them. Andrew swung Reaper in an arc, slashing 4 Zombies in half with a single swing. Fluffy dashed about the horde, causing Zombies to explode in a shower of blood as she tore through them.

"Napalm Zombies!" Jess yelled as several large figures immersed in fire walked towards them.

Andrew pulled out Skullcrusher while Jess and Samantha reloaded. The trio opened fire on the flaming Zombies while Fluffy howled into the night.

**Meanwhile:**

Joe ducked under a slash and kicked the Zombie in the chest, sending it flying backwards. The Zombie jammed its arm into the ground to stop itself and slashed at Jax, who sidestepped the slash and shot it in the head with his PX2RG. The Zombie stumbled backwards, but was unfazed by it.

The newly dubbed Blade Zombie lashed out at Liam, who was hurled backwards and yell out in pain as he received a wide slash on his chest, which began to bleed.

"Liam!" Judith yelled out.

"I'm fine!" Liam grunted.

The Blade Zombie shivered and admired the blood now on its blood. The blood slid down the blade touched the Zombie's skin, which healed a nearby bullet wound. The group watched in horror as the Blade Zombie pointed its blade at Liam.

"Guys, keep looking. This thing wants to fight me" Liam said with a smirk as he drew his Sickle.

"You're not fighting this thing by yourself" Joe said.

"I can take him. Just focus on finding that node" Liam said.

Jax, Joe, and Judith nodded and quickly spread out, looking all over for any traces. Liam grinned and said "Your move"

The Zombie smiled evilly and lunged at Liam, who sidestepped his first slashed and jammed his Sickle into the Zombie's flesh and opened fire with his Afterburner in the other hand.

"Come on, we've got to find the node!" Jax said to the others.

"ROAAAAH!"

"Well, that's just fan-tucking-fastic" Joe said sarcastically as a Juggernaut lumbered out of a nearby clump of trees.

The Juggernaut charged at the group who spread out, opening fire from all sides. The Juggernaut swiped at Jax, who aimed his Zeus Cannon at the ground and blasted himself high into the air.

"Judith!" Joe yelled to the black-haired teen, which nodded and aimed her rifle.

Joe ran up to the Juggernaut and began blasting him with his Typhoid and Mary, causing the beast to look away from Jax and towards him. The Juggernaut grabbed a large rock left behind from the Porter battle and hurled it at Joe, who rolled out of the way hurled a Symtex grenade at the Zombie's feet.

"What the-?" the Zombie grunted.

A grenade exploded at the Juggernaut's feet, sending him to one knee. Jax fell back to earth and blasted the Juggernaut in the back with the Zeus Cannon once, sending him flying back into the air and sending the Juggernaut crashing onto the ground. Jax fell down to earth and blasted the Juggernaut again. Jax did this two more times; leaving the Juggernaut dazed and weakened from the repeated Wonder Weapon attacks.

Jax landed on the Zombies back and fired at its head four times with his Ray Gun before being hurled off by the Juggernaut. Joe had opened fired onto the Juggernaut during this entire maneuver, while Judith continued to take aim. Jax slowly got to his feet and reloaded his Zeus Cannon.

"RAAAAH!" the Juggernaut roared at Joe.

"Judith, if you would?" Joe said calmly.

"Eat it!" Judith yelled firing her L115 Isolator at the Juggernaut's skull.

The bullet went through the Juggernaut's head and the Zombie's eyes rolled into the back of its head and it fell to the ground. The group looked at each other for moment, and then at Liam, who was still battling the Blade Zombie.

Liam sidestepped a slash and kicked the Zombie in the shoulder before jumping back to avoid another slash.

"You're a lot tougher than the other Zombies, I'll give you that" Liam said with a tired grin as he reached for his Afterburner.

"REAAH!" the Blade Zombie roared as it charged towards Liam again.

Liam subtly dropped a Symtex grenade on the ground and raised his sickle to block a slash from the Blade Zombie. The Zombie grinned again and Liam yelled out in pain as the Zombie's other arm went through his stomach and out the other end.

"LIAM!" Judith screamed.

Liam grinned terribly and kicked the Zombie away from him, clutching his gaping wound which was now pouring blood. The Blade Zombie landed on the Symtex grenade and was engulfed in an explosion.

A huge blast of air burst from out of nowhere and sent the Blade Zombie flying even further backwards. The Zombie jammed its other blade arm into the ground while admiring the blood now coating its blade. Liam's blood flowed into the Blade Zombie and began to heal its wounds. Liam fell to the ground, coughing up blood.

"No! Liam!" Judith yelled out.

"Hold on! Joe, hold that thing off!" Jax yelled as he pulled out a small case, opened it up, and jammed a Quick Revive syringe into Liam's chest.

Judith glanced worriedly at Liam and then turned her L115 Isolator towards the Blade Zombie, which was now doing battle with Joe. Joe blasted at it quickly with his dual-wield Pack-A-Punched shotguns, but the Blade Zombie deflected most of the bullets, and was unfazed when one of the shots slipped through its guard.

Judith aimed her sniper rifle, and quietly attached a suppresser she got from Iva to it. She took aim as the Blade Zombie jumped back to avoid a Symtex grenade getting thrown at it. Judith fired her sniper rifle and caught the Blade Zombie in between the eyes.

The Blade Zombie staggered backwards in agony, allowing Joe to fire his shotguns and score several shots onto the Zombie. The Blade Zombie slashed at Joe, but was shot again in the head by Judith. The two teens repeated the process until the Blade Zombie finally collapsed onto the ground, riddled with bullet holes, and remained still.

Joe sighed and said "I think we can take a breather"

Liam slowly got to his feet, and Jax said "Slow down, take it easy"

"This is getting serious" Liam muttered.

"What?" Judith asked.

"John's dead. Nicholas almost died. Joe went into a coma and somehow magically woke up. If it weren't for the Quick Revive syringes, we'd probably be dead. This isn't a joke anymore…things are getting serious" Liam said reloading his Afterburner.

"Yep. And it's only going to get tougher from here on in" Jax said, and with that the group spread out and began to search the area.

**Meanwhile:**

"We didn't start the fire! It was always burning since the world's been turning!" Jess yelled as the Napalm Zombie hurled a fireball towards her.

"What the HELL are you talking about!?" Andrew asked as he fired another grenade at the flaming Zombie's, which seemed to be stronger than usual.

"DON'T BLAME ME, BLAME THE WRITER!" Jess yelled loudly as she opened fired with her M115 Kollider.

One of the Napalm Zombie let put a loud roar and began to run towards the group, hurling fireballs the whole time. Samantha growled angrily and said "FLUFFY!"

The Hellhound shot towards the Napalm Zombie which hurled a fireball at the Hellhound, which tackled the Zombie to the ground. The two rolled on the ground until Fluffy gained the upper hand and ripped out the Napalm Zombie's throat.

"Good girl! Jetzt beenden Sie sie ab!" Samantha ordered.

Fluffy growled and bounded towards the next Napalm Zombie and jumped into the air. The Napalm Zombie swung a flaming fist at the Hellhound, which went flying backwards in the air. Fluffy righted herself in the air and landed on her feet and snarled angrily.

"Think she can take him?" Andrew asked.

Fluff shot towards the Napalm Zombie and jumped into the air again and swung a paw at the Zombie's skull, beheading the flaming Zombie. Fluffy landed on the street and shot towards the third Napalm Zombie before the second one even fell to the ground.

"I'd like to say yes" Jess said as she ate another spoonful of ice cream.

"If you're done chatting, reload your weapons. We've got company" Samantha said reloading both of her Ray Guns.

Andrew and Jess looked behind them to see about a hundred Nazi Zombies slowly making their way towards them.

Andre grinned and pulled out Reaper while Jess pulled out her HK21 and reloaded it. Behind them, Fluffy had taken out the third Napalm Zombie and now heading towards the fourth one.

"Me first" Samantha said with a grin as she began firing both of her Ray Guns into the horde.

Andrew grinned and dashed ahead, the blade of Reaper gleamed brightly, as though it new that it's thirst for blood would be satisfied. Andrew swung his scythe forward and dismembered a row of Zombies and then flipped his scythe around and fired the spike and chain end of Reaper into the crowd of Zombies. Jess ducked under a swipe of a Zombie and unloaded onto the horde with her HK21, destroying a wave just by aiming for the heads.

Samantha began to charge up energy around her hands and fired several bursts of energy into the crowd of Zombies, destroying them by the dozens. The group quickly eliminated the horde, and continued to sweep the city.

**Air and Space Museum:**

"Keep an eye out…" Juliet muttered as Nicholas handed her Calamity as they entered the museum.

"WARNING. INTRUDER ALERT. SECURITY OVERIDE. PLEASE INPUT SECURITY CODE…CODE 115 INITIATED. LOCKING ALL DOORS" a woman's voice said from the speakers.

Iron bars slammed down behind them.

"DE-ACTIVATING GRAVITY."

"What? How is there no gravity in-" Juliet began to say before floating into the air.

"Richtofen's got to be here!" Nick yelled as he flew into the air.

"Stay still, we've got to WOAH!" Nicholas yelled as Juliet flipped towards him.

"My skirt!" Juliet yelled as her face turned bright red as she tried to hold down her dress, which was hard because she was now upside down.

"So...light blue with rabbits?" Nicholas asked with a grin.

Juliet growled and bashed Nicholas over the head with her chainsaw, causing him to howl in agony. Nick laughed loudly until he slammed face first into the wall.

"**Focus you dorks! We've got to-"** C.N. began to say before a loud thud echoed throughout the museum.

"Try to get down to the ground!" Nicholas yelled to the other two.

"How?" Nick asked.

Nicholas grabbed Juliet around the waist and fired his Galil upwards; using the recoil to blast them back to the ground.

"Why do always wear these things? " Juliet asked as she managed to get her dress to stay down.

"It doesn't matter what you wear, you always look great" Nicholas said.

Juliet walked over to Nicholas, kissed him on the cheek, and said "And that's why you got to look"

"You mean you did it…?" Nicholas trailed off with a grin, and Juliet nodded with an even bigger smile.

"Hey lovebirds, get intimate later. We've got guests" Nick said pointing at a figure staring down at them.

"What the…was he there a second ago?" Juliet asked as she looked at the figure looking down at them.

"Nick?_ Please_ tell me you've played Moon" Nicholas said quietly.

"Nope"

"SIGH….Dammit"

The figure watching them was dressed in full white astronaut gear. The figure stood at about Juliet's height, yet blood stained the outfit he wore. Electric blue eyes flashed out from behind the helmet.

"Astronaut Zombie…lovely" Nicholas said with a sigh.

Juliet nodded and said "OK, you two deal with him for a second. I'll go change"

Juliet grabbed Nicholas backpack and walked towards the restrooms. Nick and Nicholas looked at each other and said "What!?"

"I'm not fighting some undead A-hole in zero-gravity with a dress on. Besides, you two can take him…probably" Juliet said walking into the restroom.

"Wow, good catch there buddy" Nick said.

"**She's a keeper"** C.N. added.

"Look behind you" Nicholas said.

Nick glanced behind himself and saw the Astronaut Zombie cracking its knuckles. Nick yelled in fear as the Astronaut Zombie grabbed him by his shoulders and headbutted him about fifty feet away into a display.

"Nice job Sparky" Nicholas chuckled as he ducked under the Astronaut Zombie's punch and opened fire on him.

The Astronaut Zombie kicked off of the ground and flew into the air. Nicholas moved back in order to get better shot at the Zombie and felt something grab him from behind.

"What the-!?" Nicholas yelled, realizing it was another Astronaut Zombie.

BAM!

Nicholas sent flying into the wall, clutching his head in agony as it began to bleed. Nicholas slowly got to his feet and saw three Astronaut Zombie's advancing towards them.

"Juliet! Come on!" Nicholas yelled as the trio of Astronaut Zombie flew towards them.

"~Give me a minute!~" Juliet called in singsong voice.

"To hell with this!" Nicholas said kicking off of the ground.

Nicholas flipped in the air and landed upside down on the ceiling. Two of the Astronaut Zombies kicked off of the ground and towards Nicholas, who opened fire on one of them. Nicholas kicked back off of the ceiling and onto one of the hanging planes from the ceiling.

"Nicholas! Behind you!" Nick yelled as he ducked under the arms of an Astronaut Zombie and opened fired on him with his Calamity and Jane.

Nicholas spotted a fourth astronaut Zombie lunging at him from behind and kicked off of an airplane, flying through the air. Nicholas spun around and opened fire with his Galil into the Astronaut Zombie's skull as the Astronaut Zombie flew through the air after him.

Nicholas planted a Symtex grenade on the wall and jumped towards another nearby wall. The Astronaut Zombie landed on the wall and exploded violently with the Symtex grenade, spraying the ground in a shower of blood.

"There's too many!" Nick yelled as three more Astronaut Zombies joined into the fray.

Nicholas jumped through the air again, kicking one of the Astronaut Zombie's in the skull and firing at another one. The Astronaut Zombie he kicked grabbed him by the leg and hurled him into the wall. Nicholas slammed into wall and glanced at the five Astronaut Zombie's observing from below. Nicholas then glanced at the large spaceship hanging from the ceiling.

Nicholas sighed and said "Well, if Carolina can do it, then so can I"

Nicholas kicked hard off of the wall and flew towards the spaceship. Nicholas slapped a Symtex grenade onto the side of the spaceship and slashed at the cords connecting it to the ceiling and then dropped to the ground. The ship began to fall as the grenade exploded, causing the ship to fly towards the horde of Astronaut Zombies and crush all of them.

"And once again, watching Red vs. Blue religiously solves all my problems" Nicholas said cheerfully before being head-butted by an Astronaut Zombie.

Nick bashed an Astronaut Zombie in the head with C.N., killing it. He then whirled around and jabbed another Zombie with C.N,, causing it to explode violently. The explosion from the Zombie sent Nick flying into the arms of another Astronaut Zombie, which head-butted him into a display.

Nicholas was able to recover and he jumped back into the air. Grabbing onto one of the displays, he hurled his last Symtex grenade at an Astronaut Zombie flying towards him and watched as he exploded. Nicholas kicked off of the wall and pulled out his Bowie Knife. He flipped it in midair and hurled it into the skull of the Astronaut Zombie that had hit Nick. The Zombie exploded in a burst of air and blood, and Nick weakly got to his feet.

"You OK?" Nicholas said aiming his Galil, which was running very low on ammo.

"I've…been better" Nick grunted as he leaned against the wall, blood gushed from his skull.

"You've probably got a concussion. Juliet! Come on! Nick's hurt!" Nicholas yelled as he tried to fend off the now Ten Astronaut Zombies heading towards them.

"FINE! Just close your eyes! I'll take care of them!" Juliet yelled angrily as she revved her chainsaw from within the bathroom.

Nick closed his eyes tightly, and Nicholas shook his head and closed his eyes too. For a moment, the two teens just stood there, eyes closed as Juliet yelled and swung her chainsaw at the Zombies. Nicholas then sighed and said "You done?"

"Hold on! No peeking!" Juliet said cheerfully.

"This is some really weird form of torture, isn't it?" Nicholas said wryly.

"Not for you! You've probably seen her like this tons of times!" Nick said.

"I've known her for about 4 days" Nicholas stated.

"Oh yeah"

"GO TO HELL YOU FLOATY ZOMBIE DOUCHEBAGS!" Juliet yelled.

"So, how're those other stories going?" Nick asked.

"Really?"

"**How did you not see that coming?"**

"What else are we going to do? This is, after all, a rated T story. FlygonN couldn't just write in detail about a nude cheerleader slaughtering Zombies" Nick said.

"True, true. Well, I'm kinda waiting for school to get done before I do anymore work on them. You know how it goes" Nicholas said with a shrug.

"Cool" Nick said.

"I'm all done boys!" Juliet said cheerfully.

Nick and Nicholas opened their eyes, and several things happened at once.

One, Nicholas kicked Nick in the nuts for looking at Juliet, who had forgot to get dressed before telling them to open their eyes.

The gravity had turned back on, so the slain Astronaut Zombies fell onto the ground, drenched in blood.

And Juliet blushed dark red and hid behind a large potted plant.

"Well…this is awkward" Juliet said sheepishly.

Nicholas walked over to her and said "You OK?"

"Um…well, I'm standing butt naked in the middle of a museum with two guys and a horde of dead Zombies. So, yeah, I guess…kinda cold though." Juliet said with an embarrassed laugh.

Nicholas took off his coat and gave it to Juliet, who slipped it on. She buttoned up the coat, which went down to her knees, kissed Nicholas on the cheek, and skipped cheerfully over to the bathroom to finish changing.

"What the hell happened?" Nick groaned.

"Juliet forgot to get dressed" Nicholas explained.

"Whoa, look what she did!" Nick said as he got to his feet.

Nicholas and Nick starred at the giant blood drawing on the wall, which was a giant heart. Nicholas smiled and said "Even while destroying Space Zombies, she still finds time to be amazing"

"**Hey, look over there!"** C.N. said.

Nicholas glanced at Nick, who was still holding his head, and said "Come on, get on my back"

Nick sighed, but looked grateful.

The trio went over to a blank stretch of wall, which was perfectly clean. This struck them as odd, seeing as Juliet had bathed the place in the blood of the Astronaut Zombies. Nicholas looked at the wall closely. He then stuck his hand out towards the wall and leaned forward. His hand slowly went through the wall and out the other side.

"Now that's pretty cool" Nick said.

"Agreed" Nicholas said sitting Nick back on his feet.

"What's cool?"

Nick and Nicholas looked behind them and saw Juliet walking up to them, dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a black tank top and a blue and pink jacket, complete with her combat boots with a knife in them. She tied Hades back to her leg and handed Nicholas back his trench coat, which he put back on.

"I think this is where the lab is" Nicholas said moving closer to the wall.

He put his face through it and saw a pale white hallway, with a flight of stairs leading deeper underground. A Nazi banner was hanging on the wall a few feet down the stairs.

"Bingo" Nicholas breathed with a grin.

Juliet popped her head through the wall, leaning heavily on Nicholas. Nicked poked his head in and looked around in amazement, though he was leaning on Nicholas as well.

"Wow…" Juliet and Nick said.

"GET OFF ME!" Nicholas yelled as he lost his balance and tumbled down the stairs.

"UGH…someone please…call the marshmallow police" Nicholas groaned from the bottom of the stairs as the two other Zombie-slayers crushed him.

"**Whoops"** C.N. sniggered.

"My bad" Nick said.

"Sorry crushed you with my huge butt" Juliet said helping Nicholas get up.

"It's OK. Nick, are you feeling better?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah, way better. Why?" Nick replied.

"Go find the others. Juliet, we need to scout out this place. Make sure there are no other traps" Nicholas said, and Nick nodded and walked up the stairs and out of the Museum.

Nicholas sighed heavily and walked up the stairs, Juliet close behind him.

"Hey…" Juliet muttered to Nicholas.

"I don't want to talk about it, all right? I don't like thinking about it…" Nicholas muttered as he walked up to the second floor to look around.

Juliet sighed and ran up to Nicholas, grabbing him by the arm.

Juliet looked up at Nicholas and said "Just promise me something, OK?"

"What?" Nicholas said softly.

"That you won't let this consume you. Grief can do terrible things to good people, and I don't want that to happen to you" Juliet said quietly.

Nicholas walked up to Juliet and kissed her on the cheek, causing her to blush.

"I promise" Nicholas said with a small smile.

**Meanwhile:**

**Location: Unknown**

Two men were looking down on the city below, admiring the lights. It was utterly silent on the hill, for the men were speaking in tones so hushed that dead could sleep peacefully. But then, as a terrible piece of news reached the ears of one of those men, he screamed loudly, obliterating the silence and the calm.

"DAMN ZHEM!" Richtofen howled angrily as energy surged around him.

"I'm sorry Master Richtofen. It was the one called Joseph. He was somehow able to build a model of the Wunderwaffe DG-7 and used it to injure Porter. Samantha then ripped out his heart and absorbed his powers. There was nothing I could do" Illuzio finished.

"Porter…he vas loyal to zhe end" Richtofen said quietly as he clenched his fists.

"Yes, he was…Edward, do we really have to release _him_? He can't be trusted, and if we let him out…we may not be able to contain him again. It took my strongest binding spell to hold him the first time" Illuzio said.

"Yes, I know this. We need you here Illuzio, as for him…vell, I am hoping that he vill finish off that brat and her friends as soon as he's done dealing with the fools going after zhe other node in Tennessee" Richtofen said looking at the jester.

"When should I release him?" Illuzio said.

"Not yet. I'm curious as to whether or not zhey can find zhe node or not. If so, zhen they will have a surprise vaiting for zhem when they arrive" Richtofen said softly with a grin.

"Ah, you're referring to Experiment 7392. So I'm assuming the tests were successful?" Illuzio asked.

"Of course"

"Hmm…I suppose I'll take my leave then. I've got some experiments of my own that I need to do" Illuzio said to Richtofen, who smiled widely.

"Magic...Your love for magic and knowledge are very commendable mien Illuzio. It is why you are here now, and why you vill stand tall vith us when we conquer and rebuild this world"

Illuzio nodded and said "All I've ever wanted was to build a perfect world, where magic and science can work hand in hand. And with your plan, that will finally come true"

Richtofen looked up into the sky as Illuzio disappeared in a flash of green light, admiring the sky. Few people truly knew him, and one of things no one knew of him was that he enjoyed watching the night sky. There was a special beauty to it.

Richtofen then sensed someone else hiding nearby.

"Who's there!?" Richtofen said turning around extending a hand towards the disturbance, his hand charging wildly with energy.

A woman stepped out of the shadows, regarding Richtofen with a smile. She had short black hair and was very pretty, with skin the color of crème and twinkling green eyes. She was dressed in a lab coat with the 935 emblem on it.

"Edward" the woman said quietly.

Richtofen allowed the surging energy around him to fade and he walked over to the woman.

"You're late" Richtofen said simply.

"I couldn't find Sieger. He's disappeared" the woman said shaking her hair.

"Hmmm…he's unpredictable. It seems as though two of our number are vild cards" Richtofen muttered.

The woman smiled moved closer to Richtofen and wrapped her arms around his neck. Richtofen's expression softened as she kissed him gently on the lips. Richtofen smiled slightly as they separated and said "We're so close. A perfect world, ruled by us"

"We're close, but we still have a long way to go" the woman whispered as Richtofen wrapped his arms around her.

"True. How are you feeling?" Richtofen asked.

"Better, these powers you blessed me with take some getting used to. I think I finally have them under control" the woman said with a smile.

"I'm glad you're feeling better" Richtofen said with a smile.

"Hmm…Me, you, Illuzio, Sieger…and him. Not much of us left" the woman said as Richtofen wrapped his arms around her.

"Another reason why we must make Maxis's brat pay for what she did" Richtofen scowled.

"And when she falls…so will this pitiful world. And the Age of Richtofen shall begin" the woman said softly, causing Richtofen to smile demonically as his eyes glowed brighter blue.

**Meanwhile:**

"Down here" Juliet muttered to the others.

"I'll take the lead" Samantha offered, pulling out a Ray Gun.

The group slowly made their way down the hallway, which was as white as snow. The group had the feeling that they were being watched.

Samantha tightened her grip on her Ray Gun as she descended deeper into the white hallway. The rest of the group behind her reloaded their weapons as they walked, ready to attack. The hallway was silent as death though, and the silence began to gnaw on the teens nerves.

"**It's too quiet"** C.N. muttered.

"I know. It's driving me nuts" Judith said softly.

"Wait, here comes the end of the hallway" Joe said.

"Let's see where the rabbit hell-hole leads" Nicholas muttered as the group entered the room.

The group entered the room, and for a few moments, all they registered was what was directly in front of them. They were all staring at the test chamber filled with liquid in the center of the room. They failed to take in any of their surroundings, for how could they not stare at the chamber?

If they weren't looking at the chamber, then they would've seen that the room was very large and spacious, with various terminals and machines in them, as well as the metal gratings on the floor. They would've been curious as to why the room was so clean as well. There was a Nazi banner hanging on one side of the room, as well as a banner with the symbol of group 935 on it as well. But none of this mattered to the teens, who found themselves staring at the figure in the test chamber.

"This…this is impossible!" Joe yelled suddenly, shattering the silence and aiming his gun at the chamber.

The figure in the test chamber that horrified them all seemed to be sleeping, suspended in a tube filled with eerie blue water. He was dressed in a black flex suit and even seemed peaceful. He had light brown hair and seemed to just be floating there, but the group was still horrified all the same. Because each and every single one of them knew that face anywhere.

It was John.

End of Chapter:

_Grand Reveal! _

_OK, so hopefully we all don't die in the real life Zombie Apocalypse coming on the 21__st__. If we're not all dead by then, then I'll update on the one year anniversary of the story, which is January 4__th__._

_Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the change of pace and the new/old Zombies. Make sure you review and leave me your thoughts! _

_Also, in regards to the contest, once again, you only get one chance to guess who it is, so you can wait until I post 24 and then submit a guess. But basically, it's guess who the new upcoming villain in 935 is based off of. He's from a popular anime and he's freaking awesome. _

_Also since this is the last time I'm updating this story for the year, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy Holidays to all of you!_

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	23. MIA

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_So much for the Apocalypse. Oh well, maybe next time._

_In other news…I've been doing this story for a year now. _

_Wow…and I've apparently hit something pretty good, because for some reason people keep reading and reviewing this story that started out as a group of friends derping around in a band room out of sheer boredom, and has now evolved to this. So first of all, thanks to all of the awesome reviewers who send me feedback. Next I'd like to thank my awesome friends who give me support by reading my story and are constantly giving me feedback, you guys rock and I'm blessed have such great friends who've helped through the hardest two years of my life. And last but certainly not least, I'd like to thank the unsung heroes, my lovely readers. _

_Thanks. Seriously._

_So, the second round of the contest. So, this mystery character is a character mentioned in Black Ops, but is never given a face or personality, like Porter wasn't. Who this person is, you can guess, but you won't find out until the beginning of Chapter 25. So here's the second hint._

_ of his nicknames is the Abyss General_

_2. He can be considered both a hero and villain, depending on how you look at him._

_Also, I've now started work, so depending on how long I work, I may have to release the chapter a little later. So it'll somewhere between 2-3 weeks per chapter, at least until I can work out school, job, and writing schedules. _

_Also, I would've gotten further into working ahead on other chapters, but holy crap…Black Ops 2 is really fun. I've been playing the hell outta Zombies. I'll be incorporating some aspects of Tranzit into an upcoming chapter._

_Shoutout to the highest amount of reviewers I've had for a chapter to date, so big thanks to Trapinchh, mybrosdrivemecrazy, XilentApostle, Bu11etB1iss115, Thundermoney39, uig50, a guest review known as Guest, Otherworld Metal N, awesomeness 999 (aka tjelledge262), StaticBomb324, Devilbros666, and two guest reviewers known as Anonymous and the viewer, as well as three new reviewers known as CarriedCoin, RandomName3064, and kylecadwell.1. _

_I had a three week break for the holidays, back to the Zombie killing goodness._

_Enjoy!_

Chapter 23: M.I.A

John's eyes flickered open when Joe yelled out in surprise. To their horror, they were now electric blue, like Richtofen's. John drew back a hand and punched through the glass, causing the chamber to gush out liquid. John yanked the tubes in his body out and slowly broke out of the chamber. He fell onto his knees, and the group looked at each other.

"Is he a Zombie…or is he alive?" Jess asked.

"No telling with Richtofen. He could be both" Joe muttered.

"John…you OK buddy?" Jax asked.

John slowly got to his feet and cracked his neck loudly. John then smiled, his teeth now razor sharp and evil-looking. John chuckled and cracked his knuckles as he looked at his former friends.

"I don't think that's John anymore" Liam said quietly.

Nicholas took a step forward and said "John?"

John let out a yell and charged towards the group with a quick burst of speed The group didn't fire at their friend, even if he wasn't in his right mind. John tackled Nicholas to the ground and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying across the room. Nicholas yelled out as he crashed down on top of a terminal, coughing up blood.

"Damn it! He must have experimented on him!" Samantha snarled as she took a step back from John, who began to laugh in an ethereal tone.

"Guess who just lost **the game?" **John said with an evil smile as he took a step towards the group

"Nicholas! All right A-hole! You're going-!" Juliet yelled as she revved her chainsaw and swung it at John.

Judith grabbed the Chainsaw and yelled "Stop!"

"He's still our friend!" Judith yelled at Juliet, who sighed angrily and lowered her chainsaw.

John laughed and grabbed a Winter's Howl that was lying on a nearby table. Samantha scowled and lunged at John, who grabbed Samantha by the arm and hurled her into the wall.

"Fluffy!" Samantha yelled as she got back to her feet.

The Hellhound pounced on top of John, who threw the Hellhound off of him. Fluff righted herself in the air and transformed into her Hellhound form and charged at John. John grinned and shot at Fluffy five times, who howled in pain as its body became engulfed in ice. John grinned and turned his gun on his friends.

"John! Snap out of it!" Jess yelled.

John shot the Winter's Howl at Jess, who was knocked out of the way by Judith. John scowled and shot Judith in the head with the ice Wonder Weapon, freezing her solid.

"Judith!" Liam yelled.

Joe ran up to John and bashed in the head with Typhoid, causing him to stumble backwards in pain. Liam came from behind and put John in a Full Nelson. Joe dropped both of his guns to the ground and tackled John to the ground.

"John! Get ahold of yourself!" Joe yelled as he tried to contain the struggling teen.

John snarled angrily and elbowed Joe in the stomach before jumping to his feet. John grabbed Joe by the leg and hurled him forty feet and into a wall. Liam tried to punch John, but was blasted in the head by the Winter's Howl. Liam fell to the ground senseless as a chunk of ice.

Andrew ran up to John and kicked him in the hip before uppercutting him in the jaw, but John only stumbled backwards before shooting Andrew in the arm with the Winter's Howl.

"AGH!" Andrew yelled out as he clutched his frozen arm.

John grinned widely and shot Andrew in both of his legs, causing him to yell out in agony.

"J-john! Stop-" Andrew tried to say before getting shot in the head, encasing his head and upper torso in a chunk of ice.

Juliet ran up to John and kicked him in the chest and delivered a quick series of kicks to John, ending with a roundhouse kick to the skull. John stumbled to the ground while Samantha lunged at him.

Samantha grabbed John by the face and clamped both of her hands over John's head, as if to crush his skull. John screamed in anguish as green energy from him surged into Samantha. John tried to throw Samantha off, but she was able to keep ahold of him. Finally after a solid minute, John stopped struggling and went limp. Samantha's eyes turned bright green, but reverted to normal after a few moments.

"There…" Samantha said softly as she let go and took a few steps.

"John…you OK buddy?" Joe asked quietly.

John fell to his knees and with a groan fell onto the ground. Nicholas slowly got to his feet while Jax administered two Quick Revive syringes to his ribs, healing them of all damage. The others helped break those who had been frozen out of their blocks of ice. Fluffy shook her wet fur and growled angrily at John. John stayed where he was, staring downwards, lifeless and cold.

"You OK?" Liam asked Judith, who was shivering violently.

Judith nodded, and Liam turned to John with a scowl.

"What did you do to him?" Jess asked quietly as she walked over to him.

"I returned him to what he was before" Samantha replied simply.

John's head slowly lifted, revealing that his eyes were no longer bright blue. John frowned and said "W-what…what's going on?"

"John, we should be asking you the same question" Joe said with a grin.

Jess and Judith ran over to John and hugged him, glad to see he was alright. John looked at the group in horror though.

"NOOO! WHY!? WHY AM I BACK IN THIS GOD FORSAKEN STORY!?" John screamed to the heavens.

**Meanwhile:**

"Seriously?" the real John asked as he read the computer screen.

"Yep. You're in it for the long haul buddy" Nicholas said with grin, while Joe silently laughed behind John's back.

"Stop breaking the 4th wall" Nick said.

"Screw you! You do it constantly you Chuck Norris-obsessed leprechaun" Nicholas growled before turning around and continuing the chapter.

"I can't believe you put me back in this thing" John growled angrily.

Nicholas laughed again and began to type once more.

**Meanwhile:**

John sat there in surprise while the group filled him in on the events that had happened since his "death". John didn't remember anything after the explosion and he had no idea on how he survived.

"So, what's the plan now?" John asked he got to his feet.

"Well, how do you feel?" Jess asked.

"Pretty good. I think whatever they did to me gave me enhanced physical abilities. Even if Samantha removed the energies from me, the effects probably linger" John said.

"What makes you say that?" Andrew asked.

John walked over to Joe and slapped him upside the head, causing him to flip 360 degrees in the air and crash hard onto the ground face-first.

"Yep…that hurt" Joe groaned.

"Told you" John said cheerfully.

"Holy crap, you have no idea how much I missed that" Nicholas said giving his friend a bro-hug.

Jess tossed John her HK21, which he shouldered and said "OK, let's payback that a$$hole Nazi"

The group quickly searched the room for anything valuable, but found that the only thing of worth were odd dates and strange symbols that were shown on a monitor. The group headed towards a nearby tunnel, which seemed to lead downward into the belly of D.C.

"I hate being underground" Jess muttered, and Judith looked at her in surprise.

"Really?" Judith said.

"I'm a little claustrophobic. I mean, what if the entrance caved in? We'd be trapped" Jess said, slightly freaking out.

"What, like those Chilean miners?" John asked.

"Too soon" Joe replied.

"Too soon my a$$, they all survived!" John said in an annoyed tone.

"One of them and an affair, and now his life's ruined" Nick said.

Nicholas and Jess burst out laughing while the others snickered.

"Shouldn't his life be better now? He was trapped underground before, right?" Samantha asked

"Did he like, have an affair with one of the miner's down there?" Liam asked.

Everyone laughed at that, and Nicholas said "We're not going to make it out of here Steve…"

"I want you to take that pickaxe…" Nick said with a grin, trailing off suggestively, and the group laughed loudly.

Even John joined in, and the group shared a long overdue moment of laughter. After a few minutes of walking down the tunnel, Nicholas and Nick had to stop for a minute.

"Hey, Nick. Do you feel…weird, for some reason?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah, I feel…weaker. Like it'd only take a few hits from a Zombie to take me out" Nick muttered.

"Me too. And I feel…out of breath" Nicholas said tiredly.

"Hold on. Didn't you guys say you fought Astronaut Zombies back in the museum?" Jess asked.

Nicholas and Nick nodded, and Samantha said "How many times did they head-butt you?"

"Twice" Nicholas and Nick said.

"Hmmm…hold still" Samantha said walking over to Nick and grabbing him by the head.

Samantha starred into his eyes and said "Speed Cola and Mule Kick"

"Huh?"

"Those are the two perks you have right now" Samantha said walking over to Nicholas and looking into his eyes.

"Speed Cola and Mule Kick" Samantha said.

"If you look closely, there's a small glow in your eyes, which reflects which perks you have. There's a bright green and dark green glow in each of your eyes, meaning that Mule Kick and Speed Cola are still in effect" Samantha explained.

"Astronaut Zombies take away random perks when they head-butt you. It seems like they took your Juggernog and Stamin-Up away" Samantha said.

"Maybe Richtofen has a few bottles of the stuff stashed away?" Judith suggested to John.

"Anything is possible" John said with a shrug.

"How did you survive the explosion? Can you remember anything now?" Jess asked as the group continued walking.

John frowned, and said after about five minutes "I think Richtofen saved me…"

"What? Why?" Nicholas asked him.

John stood still for a moment and forced himself to remember…

**Flashback:**

The missiles were less than a minute away. Joe had fired them in an attempt to destroy Richtofen's lab. The group was running for their lives from an irate Edward Richtofen, who was now an insanely powerful living 115 conduit. Lightning crackled and surged around him as he ran towards the teens fleeing the lab.

"Guys, run! I'll hold him off!" John said firing both of his wonder weapons at the Nazi, blasting him with ice and 115 energies. John skidded to a stop and continued to blast at Richtofen, stopping him momentarily.

The group quickly ran outside and saw the missile, not even a hundred yards away.

"JOHN! GET OUT OF THERE!" Nicholas yelled at John, who smiled and shook his head sadly.

Richtofen saw the missile heading towards the lab and growled "You fools! Zhis is notzhing more zhan a minor setback!"

Richtofen broke free from the ice block he was encased in and ran at John. As the missiles flew closer, Richtofen grabbed John by the neck in a grip of iron, cutting off his supply of air. John went limp after a few moments and dropped his Winter's Fury and his Porter's X2 Ray Gun to the ground.

Richtofen snarled and said "You're coming vith me!"

Richtofen disappeared in a flash green lightning along with John, right before the missiles slammed into the lab and exploded, leaving nothing but rubble and fire behind, and leaving a group of teens distraught.

**Later:**

**Location: Unknown**

John was hurled against a wall while Richtofen snarled angrily.

"YOU! **HOW DARE YOU!?"** Richtofen bellowed as his voice became deeper and more ethereal.

"They'll stop you…there's no way you'll get away with this" John grunted.

Richtofen roared and shot a bolt of green lightning at John, who screamed in agony as the energy coursed through him.

"ILLUZIO!" Richtofen bellowed as he stopped his attack.

The jester appeared in a flash of light and said "Yes?"

"We have company" Richtofen said softly.

"You!" John yelled as he fell to the ground.

"Use a Life Tether spell. Now!" Richtofen ordered.

Illuzio nodded and murmured something under his breath. A flash of light shot from his hand and into John's chest. John yelled out in pain and said "What did you do?"

"Now as long as I live, you live. At least until I end the spell" Illuzio said.

"Meaning Richtofen can do anything he wants to you" Porter said from the corner of the room, grinning widely.

John looked at the Nazi in horror as he smiled widely. Richtofen's eyes flashed light blue and he fired a bolt of lightning at John, who screamed in pain.

Sometime later, Richtofen stopped the attack, and John slipped back into consciousness. He knew why Illuzio had done the spell. The pain would've killed him, and he had no doubts that he would die once the spell ended anyway. Illuzio walked over to John and said "Haios Lager"

John felt a warmth seep through his body and Illuzio said "Igulao"

The bond between Illuzio and John broke and John felt a pain like no other course through him. The damage done to him was healed, but the 115's effects still lingered and caused him intense pain. Richtofen walked over to him and bent down to whisper in his ears "I vill torture you…and you use to defeat those meddling friends of yours. You are mine now"

"No…they'll beat you…" John murmured.

"Ve'll see about zhat!" Richtofen said as his entire arm became charged with 115 energy, making Richtofen look like a living lightning rod.

John's eyes dilated in fear and he screamed as Richtofen blasted him again with 115 energy. Illuzio closed his eyes and sighed while Porter watched with a wide smile. Richtofen's expression never changed. The rage never left his face the entire time.

**Present:**

John shivered and said "Richtofen was…very true to his word"

"What all did he do to you?" Jess asked quietly.

"I…I'd rather not say. Let's say it was very…slow…" John muttered.

The group, now armed with the knowledge that their friend was tortured within an inch of his life, ventured down into the depths of the earth. Fluffy's ears perked up and Samantha murmured something in German. Fluffy darted ahead into a room at the end of the tunnel, and barked loudly.

"Come on" Samantha muttered as she went ahead with the group close behind.

The room they arrived in was very large and filled with complex machinery. Joe spotted a table with several documents and other things on it and said "You'd think they'd stop leaving important stuff like this out in the open"

"Anything good?" Jess asked as Joe looked at a large book.

"Can't read it. It looks like the kind of stuff you'd read in an old storybook or something" Joe muttered.

"Joe, I know you're not smart enough to read but come on" John said in an annoyed tone.

"No, I mean it's not in a language I can read. Look" Joe said showing them an old book.

The group gathered around the book, and saw that it was a very old and tattered thing. There were either pages missing or pages that were utterly eligible. What was legible was written in an old language that couldn't be read by any of them.

What they could tell, however, was that this book was very colorfully decorated, illustrating the properties of special crystals, as there were crystals of all shapes and sizes drawn across the pages.

"Why would Richtofen have this?" Jess asked.

"I don't know…this is…this isn't something that Richtofen would do…this book looks like it came from another world…another…" Samantha muttered.

Samantha gasped and said "No…it can't be…"

"What?"

"From another…time" Samantha whispered, surprising all of the teens.

"No way…you mean that Richtofen's time travelling again?" Joe asked.

John winced and said "Wait…I think I remember something else…something about those crystals…they're really important to Richtofen's plan…but why?"

"If we see Illuzio again, we'll have to ask him" Jess said.

"We can't trust Illuzio guys, he's using us" Liam said in an annoyed tone.

"I think we have other things to worry about than Illuzio. Remember that voice we keep hearing?" Nicholas reminded them.

"Yeah. Samantha, do you know who that is?" Jax asked.

Samantha shrugged and said "I have no clue who survived out of Group 935. I said earlier that I didn't kill any of them but…I don't really remember what happened when I first gained control of the Zombies…everything was such a blur…I think I managed to kill a few members of 935, but I have no clue who else could be alive. It could be anyone"

The group scoured the area for anything useful, but found nothing of worth besides the book, which Joe took. The node stood in the middle of the room, glowing bright green with energy. Samantha glared at it and said "Well, I can't kill Richtofen yet, so this will have to do"

"So, you found my lab after all" the mentioned Nazi said with a note of disapproval as his voice bounced off the walls..

"Richtofen!" John yelled angrily.

"Ah, Jonathan. You sound vell…it seems as though Samanzha vas able to free your will…next time I'll be sure to make zhee process irreversible" Richtofen growled.

"We found the node you demented Nazi! You're not getting away with this!" Liam yelled.

"Fools...zhee lot of you are fools. Still, you are courageous fools, and I commend you for your bravery and for surviving zhis long. Destroying zhee nodes von't save your world. I shall win zhis war" Richtofen said quietly.

"Why are you going back in time Richtofen!?" Joe yelled.

"Now, vhat makes you think I'm doing that?" Richtofen said with a chuckle.

"Edward!" Samantha snarled.

"You'll find out soon enough. And vhen you do…you'll truly wish you hadn't…"

Richtofen's presence vanished; and Samantha pulled out the Wunderwaffe and charged it up. Samantha fired it at the node, causing it to explode violently and hurling everyone to the other side of the room as the intense amounts of 115 energy was released all at once. The energy surged through all of them and caused them to yell out in agony for a few moments.

Eventually the pain passed and everyone slowly got to their feet as the glow died. Samantha screamed and kicked the wall angrily, shouting angrily in German.

"You OK?" Jax asked.

"I'll kill him…I'll kill them…every last of them…I'll make them suffer!" Samantha snarled before storming out of the room, Fluffy close behind.

"She's a little mad. Think it's her time of the month?" Joe asked jokingly.

Juliet, Judith, and Jess walked over to Joe and took turns kicking him in various parts of the body. The others stood nearby and whistled while Joe got the snot kicked out of him.

"Now that Joe's been humiliated, what's our next move?" Liam asked Nicholas.

"Rest. We need to rest and figure out how we're going at get to New York in one piece. Come on" Nicholas said following Samantha out of the room.

"Hey, Judith. Hold on a sec" Liam said as Joe limped out of the room.

Judith had a confused look on her face, and waited behind while the others went ahead. Liam sighed and said "Hey…we…"

"What's up?" Judith asked.

"We need to end it" Liam said finally.

"…w-what?" Judith asked in surprise.

"These past few months have been…well, amazing…but with how everything's going…we just can't be together" Liam said with a sigh.

"Liam…what are you saying?" Judith asked.

"What if I died? You wouldn't be able to think straight and you'd drag everyone down, and we've got a mission. This is to save the world Judith. And if you died…well, I'd drag everyone down because I'd be overwhelmed with loss…I think we need to just go back to being friends…" Liam said quietly.

"I can't believe you're saying this…" Judith murmured.

"I literally got stabbed in the chest about 40 minutes ago, if it weren't for those Quick Revive syringes I'd be lying dead in the grass. We could die at any moment…I just don't' want you to get hurt, OK?" Liam said softly.

"Liam…"

"I'm sorry it has to be this way. It's me, not you…" Liam said kissing Judith on the cheek before walking out of the room.

Judith leaned against the wall in shock, and after a few moments, began to sob. And while the lab wasn't the ideal place to be alone, it was enough for her. Illuzio watched from the shadows and sighed, recalling the woman he lost… and the memories that were all he had left.

**Meanwhile:**

Samantha grabbed a Nazi Zombie by the arm and hurled him down the street. She stormed over to the RV and leaned against it angrily. Fluffy whined and Samantha looked at her Hellhound and said "Sorry Fluffy…I just…I just wish I could do more to stop him…"

The others came walking out of the Museum a few minutes later, talking about something involving Liam, as he looked upset. As the others came closer, the realized that Samantha was still pissed.

"So, what now?" Joe asked Samantha.

"I don't know. We may as well rest for the night, we've taken a beating and we destroyed the node. Fluffy can keep watch" Samantha said angrily.

"Hold on, can I get some clothes? I really don't think this flex suit is exactly my style" John asked.

"Fine. We can look for some clothes for you while looking for a place we can all crash for the night" Nicholas said as Judith came out of the Museum, looking upset as well.

The group got back in the RV and searched the city for any survivors as well, but it looked as though they were the only ones left. Jess let out a scream of delight as she realized she had forgotten that she had salvaged her M72 LAW from the Monster Truck. Jess hopped into the shotgun seat and fired a rocket into a random building.

"Jess! Come on!" Jax said exasperatedly.

Jess aimed the rocket launcher at him and said "No."

"OK, OK! Go back to leveling our capital!...Jeez…" Jax said walking over to the couch and sitting down.

Jess giggled and fired another missile at a building, and to her surprise she heard someone yell "AAAH! 2012 CAME EARLY!"

"STOP THE CAR!" Jess screamed.

Liam slammed on the breaks, sending everyone crashing to the floor. Liam chuckled as everyone slowly got to their feet in an annoyed way. Joe walked up to the front of the RV and pressed the green button, causing Liam's skull to get slammed repeatedly into the dashboard.

Jess ran outside as the building she shot collapsed to the ground. Jess frantically searched through the rubble until a hand shot out of ground.

"Zombie! Kill it!" Nick yelled.

"**Shut up Nick"** C.N. said, speaking for the first time in about an hour.

"Come here and help me dig!" Jess yelled.

Jax walked over and blasted part of the rubble away with the Zeus Cannon, revealing none other than Marcus.

"What the hell? One minute I'm dreaming about riding a dragon while eating beef jerky, and then I get blown up!" Marcus said in amazement as Jax helped him out of the rubble.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! It's Marcus!" Jess said happily as she ran over to Marcus and gave him a hug.

"Hey Jess! Wow, you guys made it" Marcus said with a smile.

"I'm happy now. Thanks FlygonN!" Jess said cheerfully.

"You're welcome" Nicholas said before realizing he broke the fourth wall.

Nick walked up to Nicholas and said "This was planned, wasn't it?"

"How so?" Nicholas asked.

"Because I asked sarcastically in chapter 17 whether or not Jess would blow up a building and Marcus would pop out. Look it up" Nick said to the older Zombie slayer, who nodded.

"Shut it Nick" Liam said, and Nick stuck his tongue out in response.

John glanced at a nearby convenience store and said "Hey Andrew, come watch my back while I get some new clothes"

"Sure, come on" Andrew said pulling out Skullcrusher.

"So how's it been guys? Seems like forever since I saw you all last" Marcus said.

"It's been about 5 days" Judith said.

"Oh…seems longer" Marcus admitted.

"No kidding" Nicholas chuckled.

"So, how's the fight against Richtofen?" Marcus asked.

"I explained everything about what was going on when we were at the hospital yesterday" Jess said.

"We destroyed another one of his nodes, the next one is in New York" Nicholas said.

"You guys don't mind if I tag along then, do you?" Marcus asked.

"Sure, I-wait…what happened to your friends?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. Where are they?" Jess said.

Marcus looked down and said quietly "They…they didn't make it"

The group had a moment of silence for Marcus's fallen friends, and then began to search the city for a place to stay for the night. Disabling the node allowed the teens to have a respite from the carnage. The group found an abandoned hotel and gathered supplies, and got ready to settle down for the night.

**Sometime Later:**

**Location: Outskirts of D.C.**

Illuzio growled in annoyance.

"I hate this coat. It's so…itchy" Illuzio growled as he picked at the thick winter coat he wore with the 935 emblem on it.

A woman stepped out from the shadows, dressed in a lab coat with the 935 emblem on it, and said "There you are. I was wondering where you were Illuzio"

"I've been standing here, waiting for you, for about 3 hours" Illuzio muttered angrily.

"Well, I'm here now. That has to count for something, right?"

"No" Illuzio replied.

"Oh, you're no fun" the woman pouted.

"Sophia…"

The woman sighed and said "Richtofen needs you to go back in time again. He needs more of the gems"

"More? He has thousands upon thousands of the things, and magic doesn't guarantee I'll find more. What does he even need them for, as long as he has the nodes at full power, no one can stop him" Illuzio protested.

"You know how Edward is. Just find some more, OK? We're _so_ close" Sophia said quietly.

"Fine. But I'd like to know what he wants them for" Illuzio growled.

"And when you get back, you need to release the Broken One" Sophia added.

"I can't believe Richtofen wants to release him. Does he know how hard it was to contain him the first time?" Illuzio asked.

Sophia shrugged and said "There's more of us than him. Besides, Edward always has a backup plan"

"How did it happen?" Illuzio asked.

"How did what happen?" Sophia asked.

"You and Edward. He hated you nearly as much as he did Maxis, seeing as you distracted him from mass-producing the Wunderwaffe…so what changed?" Illuzio asked.

"At first, I hated him as well…But then I saw another side of him…he isn't as evil as those damn video games show he is…there's another side to him…and I fell in love" Sophia said softly.

Illuzio growled angrily and tore off his coat. He flung it into the air and shot a spark at it. The coat exploded in a massive burst of flames.

Sophia considered the jester a good friend of hers, though he was hard to read at times. One moment he was cheerful and playful, the next he was serious and cold. Sophia also knew that the 115 experiments on him had increased his magical abilities sevenfold, and that if he wanted to, he could probably kill her with a single spell.

"Unnecessary" Sophia muttered.

"Oh, it was very necessary. Tell Richtofen that his coats are itchy and just suck in general" Illuzio grumbled.

"If you wish…I'd recommend getting those gems. Edward has never exactly been…patient" Sophia said with a small smile.

"Tell me about it…Sophia, do you, by any chance know how I came to be in the service of Group 935?" Illuzio asked.

"I was just told that you were an old friend of Edward's. I know there's a bit of history between you two though" Sophia admitted.

"I met him several hundred years ago, in a small village in England. I came across him, sitting down on top of a rock, muttering to himself. He seemed quite mad at the time, and he explained that he came from the future. Naturally, I was interested and used my magic to see if he was telling the truth. To my amazement, I saw that he wasn't lying. I befriended him and I invited him into my home, and introduced him to my fiancé and showed him my abilities"

"I bet that intrigued him" Sophia said with a smile.

"It did. He explained that he performed many experiments concerning a mysterious substance, which is now known as Element 115. I used my magic, which at the time was not as potent as it is now, to help him in some his experiments. He had brought several items with him to test magic on, and for a while everything went well" Illuzio replied.

"Over the course of a year, we became very good friends. He even told me about the future. How it was at war and how everything was in turmoil. I asked him if there was anything we could do about it…and he said yes" Illuzio said.

"I've only had two loves my whole life. Elizabeth, my fiancé, and magic. All great magicians seek to increase their power and understanding of magic's great wonders. Richtofen told me how there is no magic in his world…I wondered why this was, but I now know thanks to my travels through time"

"Were there a lot of magic users in your timeline?" Sophia asked.

"Not plentiful, but there were enough of them. History does not remember them because of the Great Calamity" Illuzio said.

"Great Calamity?" Sophia asked.

Illuzio's face become sorrowful and bitter. He put his face in his hands and said "It was a spell that caused it…who cast it, I'll never know…but because of some wayward magician…everything was ruined. Because of that…I lost everything…I went with Richtofen to the future, and swore I would help him succeed in his dream. In the pursuit of knowledge and to increase my knowledge of magic, I left my old life behind and devoted my new life to helping Edward succeed"

Illuzio looked at Sophia, who was surprised to see a tear running down Illuzio's face.

"Sophia, Richtofen has changed. He was once a broken man, insane and power-hungry. He then became the man you fell in love with…and then he became what he is now. Take care that you remember that" Illuzio murmured as he snapped his fingers.

Illuzio began to fade away in a cloud of sparks, but not before saying "Releasing _him_ is Richtofen's greatest mistake. I doubt I can talk him out of it, but I'll try. But if I fail…then tread softly around the Broken One"

And with that, Illuzio vanished.

Sophia shivered in the cold night air and said "There's a scent of evil in the air...I just hope Illuzio isn't right…that releasing him isn't a mistake…"

Sophia burst into crimson flames and vanished on the spot as well. Meanwhile pair of eyes appeared from the shadows of a nearby tree.

"_Heheheh…at least they're not as narrowed-minded as Richtofen is…they're right to fear me. Soon, I'll get to wreak my havoc onto the world_…**and once I get started, there'll be no stopping my path of destruction! MUAHAHAHAHA!"** the voice laughed to himself before vanishing into the shadows once more.  
><strong>End of Chapter:<strong>

_So, for those of you who are familiar with the Zombie storyline, you know the backstory with Sophia and Dr. Maxis. If not, then don't worry about it, more will be explained later._

_Sorry about the long wait, next chapter will be up as soon as a can get it done._

_So that's all for now, happy belated New Year everyone, review and tell me what you thought! _

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	24. Proclamation of the Kingdom

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_The following contains me stretching the plot to a point where I had to ask my friends whether or not it was plausible. It escalated into a 1296 comment status on Facebook…_

_I never got my answer…_

_Also, I'm not sure if I've said this, but there are bits and pieces of the Zombie plot that I've put a twist on to make the story more interesting. Not all of this is canon with the story's lore, because Richtofen certainly didn't care for Sophia in Zombies. That'll be explained later._

_As for the contest, this will be your last chance to vote. I want to know from what anime and what character my new character is based off of. I need both of these answers, and both need to be correct. This is your last chance to guess, so go for it._

_Hints:_

_1. One of his nicknames is the Abyss General_

_2. He can be viewed as a hero or a villain, depending on how you look at him._

_3. His name backwards has meaning._

_Also, I'm aware I keep reusing the "reforming Zombie" thing, as seen later on in this chapter, but in my defense, the previous two boss Zombies were submitted by fans and this is my first original unkillable Zombie design. Also, for whoever wins the contest, try to keep it killable and non-reformable. Hard to hit or powerful, but very killable. My only request. Other than that, go nuts._

_Also, for those of you of strong political party affiliations, go easy on me in this chapter, OK? _

_Anyway, shoutout to the awesome people who reviewed last chapter, which included XilentApostle, Justplainawesome, mybrosdrivemecrazy, LSU DUDE, tjelledge262, Noskansho, Echostar 141,Trapinchh, a guest reviewer known as Guest,Bu11etB1iss115, Thundermonkey39, Devilbros666, Otherworld Metal N, as well as two new reviewers known as Serena and Abella, JayMan551, and CREATOR OF AWESOMNESS. Thanks a ton for the support everyone._

_Also, I may or may not get a twitter account soon, so be on the lookout for that within the future. If I do get a twitter, I'll post an update or have it on my profile. Anyway, enough ranting._

_Enjoy._

Chapter 24: Proclamation of the Kingdom

The group slept through the night, and recovered from both the physical and mental wounds they had suffered through. And for those of you who have been paying attention, unlike me, all of this has happened in the past few chapters and this has happened all in the same night.

Anyway, back to the plot.

Juliet woke up with a loud yawn and looked around. She saw her sleeping teammates, and wondered for the first time what it was like for the, when the Zombies first attacked. What it had been like to deal with chaos and devastation firsthand? To see your friends die around you…she couldn't imagine was it was like.

She looked over to where Nicholas had been sleeping, and saw him looking out the window, looking tired as he starred at the sunrise.

Juliet got up and walked over to him.

"You OK?" Juliet asked.

"I guess" Nicholas shrugged.

"What's wrong?" Juliet asked.

"Nightmares, insomnia. Nothing unusual for me, I've dealt with it for months now. Why are you up?" Nicholas asked.

Juliet pointed to Nick, who was snoring loudly with his mouth wide open. Nicholas smirked and said "Well, come join me then"

"So…ready to tell me what happened?" Juliet asked sitting down next to him, leaning against the wall.

"I suppose I may as well tell someone…" Nicholas muttered.

"The person I was talking about was someone very special to me, and to everyone in my family. She was someone who had the sort of strength spoken about in legends and fairy tales" Nicholas said with a small smile.

"Who was she?" Juliet asked.

"Well, she was my grandmother. She was always there for me and my brothers, and growing up, she was like a mother to us. Nothing would make us happier than to go visit her and my grandpa. She took care of me and my siblings while my parents worked…and for a while, everything was good" Nicholas said.

"And then she got older…and then…she started getting sick…every week, she'd be in the hospital…her body began to fail her…but her spirit…she was always smiling, even when she was hurting so much…she always put others before herself…she was an amazing person. Kind, caring, and so selfless"

"What…what happened to her?" Juliet asked quietly.

"She kept fighting…she was so strong…but…eventually they had to put her on life support because she couldn't breathe…and then the doctors had to took her off it" Nicholas whispered.

"The doctors said she'd die the first night…but no…my grandmother was a fighter until the end…they said she wouldn't last one night…she lasted four entire nights…and then…well…she went to a place that truly deserved to have someone like her…" Nicholas whispered as a tear rolled down his eyes.

"This past year has been so hard…she…she was so strong…she gave me strength to keep fighting like her, no matter what came my way…If she could do it, then I could too…and when she died…it was like a dagger to all of our hearts…" Nicholas said so quietly Juliet could barely hear.

Juliet hugged him tightly while Nicholas whispered "You never get over the pain…you just get used to having to endure it every single day…"

Juliet wrapped an arm around him while he silently grieved. After about five minutes, Nicholas wiped his face and said "I understand Illuzio's motives though…"

"I know what it's like to be driven by grief…it can give you the strength to do incredible things…and it can drive you over the edge…" Nicholas muttered as he regained his composure.

Juliet kissed him on the cheek and said "She's proud of you. I know she's watching you, and I bet she's smiling at how far you've come"

Nicholas looked at her in wonder and said "You think so?"

"I know so" Juliet smiled.

Nicholas smiled slightly, a flicker of hope in his eyes, and said "Maybe you're right…"

The others woke up and the group got their supplies ready for another rough day of surviving. Luckily the Zombies hadn't come during the time that they rested. Samantha fed Fluffy chunks of Zombie meat, which no one questioned because Samantha was still pissed.

The group quickly made it out onto the street and began to search for any survivors. After an hour of scouring the city, they decided it was pointless, and decided to spend that time recuperating and finding more supplies. The group sort of kept Liam and Judith apart, hoping to avoid any awkward situations.

Andrew sat down on top of a car, broken down and smoldering slightly, but he didn't care. He was impressed at how his fellow band-mates were holding up. He was especially impressed by John, who had withstood torture and didn't break. Andrew was a very fit teen, and as part of the band equipment crew, he did most of the heavy lifting. He was kind of a tough guy, but he considered his friends very dear to him, and he'd be damned if Richtofen hurt any of them.

For the first time since the attack, Andrew found himself reflecting on their adventure so far. So much blood, fear, and carnage….

And this was just the beginning. He wondered who survived the attack at their school, and flinched when he realized that most of the people he was friends with were now dead…or worse. Just the carnage of D.C. was enough to make him consider how lucky they were to be alive, and it made him truly sad to consider how many people died at the hands of Richtofen.

"There's got to be some way to stop all this…" Andrew muttered.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Samantha appeared out of the smoke from behind the vehicle and sat down next to him. Andrew smirked and said "Look who it is, our favorite ghost girl"

"I'm human now!...Er…sort of" Samantha relented.

"Uh huh. Now what do you want? I'm brooding" Andrew said.

"Look who's expanding his vocabulary" Samantha said in mock surprise.

"Thanks. I got bored and read a dictionary on the trip to D.C. It makes me a beast at Scrabble" Andrew said.

Samantha shook her head, smiling though, and said "It takes some time getting used to your eccentric personalities, but I have to admit…you've all grown on me"

"Even Nick?"

Samantha laughed and said "Yes, even him"

"Hey Sam, you mind if I ask you something…personal?" Andrew asked hesitantly.

Samantha looked at him curiously, and said "Sure"

"What was Richtofen like before?" Andrew asked.

"Before?"

"Before he became crazy. I'm assuming most of the Zombie storyline that can be read online is true, then he got schizophrenia when he touched the M.P.D. He wasn't evil like he is in Black Ops, was he?" Andrew asked.

Samantha frowned and said "Well…he was soft-spoken, patient, and driven. He was determined to perfect his Teleporter project, as well as get the Wunderwaffe mass-produced. My daddy didn't think much of it. I think he wanted to perfect the super-solider program, instead he just made Zombies. My dad liked a woman named Sophia, she was a researcher with Group spent a lot of time around my dad, and my dad got distracted when she was nearby. It's a little hard to remember the details; it was a long time ago"

"Didn't 935 work for the Nazi's?" Andrew asked.

"In a way. The Nazi's gave them funding, but it was more about researching Element 115 and its effects, and helping to make the world a better place. Though Richtofen had plenty of side projects to keep him busy" Samantha said.

"Like?"

"Who knows? Maybe he performed some experiments on himself, so he could become stronger. He wasn't all bad at first though…I used to call him Uncle Edward" Samantha said with a small frown, as if the man he became today was a personal insult to her, which it was.

"What was your dad like?" Andrew asked.

"My dad…he was very busy, what with his experiments…After my mom died, dad became obsessed with his projects. He didn't even notice when Edward began to experiment on me, injecting me with weird substances that made me angry and sick. When he did pay attention to me though, he was a very good father. He was gentle, kind, and he always took time to teach me something about the world. It could be anything from botany to the aftereffects of Element 115. Those times are the only good memories that I have" Samantha said quietly.

Heartache and loss welled up in Samantha, and she fought down the tears she had held back. She had to be tough. For her daddy.

Liam growled and said "Another!"

Juliet tossed another copy of Twilight in the air and Liam shot at it from forty feet away until it was a cloud of paper. Nicholas watched with a slight smile.

"As amusing as it is to watch him destroy Twilight in this manner, that still doesn't explain why he broke up with Judith" Joe said to Nicholas.

"Liam knows that it's only through luck, superpowers, and the power of Chuck Norris that we've survived this far. We could all die any time now, and he wants to try to make any ties he had with Judith disappear so she won't be as hurt if he dies. We can't afford to have anyone dragging us down" Nicholas said.

"That's not really saving Judith from any pain or anything" Joe commented.

"Well, he's more worried about how she'll react if he dies" Nicholas said as he watched Liam destroy a copy of "New Moon".

"I guess I can see that" Joe admitted as he pulled out a can of Dr. Pepper and started guzzling it down.

"Aren't you going to offer me any?" Nicholas asked, sounding offended. Joe knew very well that Nicholas loved Dr. Pepper.

"Nope" Joe said smugly as he dangled two more cans of Dr. Pepper from his hands.

Joe yelled out as his entire body became encased in a block of ice, including the Dr. Pepper. Nicholas smiled and glanced at John, now dressed in a white and grey American Eagle jacket and a pair of blue jeans.

John slowly chipped out the ice around Joe's hands, dislodging the two delicious frozen drinks.

" ~Dr. Pepper. What's the worst that can happen?~ " Nicholas and John sang cheerfully as they had a silent toast to just being that awesome. After a few minutes of admiring how Joe looked frozen, John decided that he was done tormenting him for the moment.

"How should we unthaw the dorkcicle? John snickered.

Judith, Jess, Marcus, Jax, and Nick walked down the streets of D.C., trying to find survivors. It was more to have something to do while they recovered from the endless fighting.

"Want to go to the White House?" Jax asked the others, who shrugged.

"Think Obama's here?" Jess asked.

"I hope not" Judith said dryly, and everyone looked at her.

"John isn't…fond of Obama. If John found out he's somehow still alive, he'd freak out, and when John gets started on politics…" Judith explained, and her friends nodded.

"If he gets started, then he won't stop" Jess said, remembering the last debate they had with politics with a wince.

"Well, let's check then" Marcus said walking towards the White House.

The front lawn was painted with blood, with hundreds of bodies lying on the front lawn, as though trying to force their way into the White House. The group walked in through the slightly open doors, and to their surprise they found all of the doors open.

The group searched the entire hallways, and there were no people in sight, alive or dead. Jess finally found the famous room where the President himself sat at his desk. Jess looked underneath the desk and began pressing herself against the desk.

"What are you doing?" Jax asked as the group walked into the room.

"I'm looking for clues. I'm thinking for the third National Treasure movie, they have to go to the Empire State building to find the sacred jewels of the Illuminati!" Jess said excitedly.

"What?" Nick said in confusion.

"In National Treasure 2, there was a clue in the President's Desk. Jess, come on, there's nothing hidden in-" Marcus began to say before the room turned utterly black with white lines of light zigzagging across the room.

"…it's as though the writer just likes screwing with us" Marcus said with a sigh.

"It's true you know. Right now he's smiling evilly while listening to 'Carrion'" Nick said.

"The song for Tranzit hasn't come out yet!" Jess said tossing a nearby globe at Nick's skull, somehow hitting him in the dark. Nick fell onto the ground and howled in agony.

"SHUT IT! Jeez…let's figure out how to get out of here" Jax said to the others.

"Night vision contacts! Remember? That's why I was able to hit Nick with that globe" Jess said as she skipped around the room happily.

"OK, then can you tell us what's up with the light show?" Jax asked.

"So, someone found my message" a familiar voice they all knew said quietly.

"Mr. PRESIDENT!?" everyone shouted, looking frantically around the room.

"I knew someone would check my desk. It was the only place obscure enough to hide this recording" the president said grimly.

"Mr. President! The next tunnel is ready!" a man said in the background.

"To those who are somehow still alive. I am leaving you this message, with hope that you can stop the man responsible for whatever atrocities he's committed as of you finding this message. This is a man I never thought would resurface during my time as President…Edward Richtofen" Obama said to the five awed teens.

"Those who came before me have always been on guard for him. I knew that precautions needed to be taken though. I saw the signs that he was coming back. Even President Bush saw that he was returning…and so, I helped finish what he started"

"It all started two days after I won the election…He confided in me a plan that he had started…in case of…a Zombie Apocalypse…this dawn of the dead, that would bring doom and destruction to not only the American people, but for the people of the world" the President said quietly.

"He told me about a secret plan he had, to create an army of Zombie killers. He knew that regular soldiers wouldn't work. Richtofen would see to it that they would be unable to come to the rescue of the US"

"So, he decided on a...different course of action"

"He decided to train the younger soldiers, the up and coming young men and women who would come to protect the country at its direst hour. Just two days after I won the Presidency, he told me his secret" Obama said.

"The new generation is going to have to save us Barrack…we have to train them, let them know what's going on. Let them know how much danger America is in a way that doesn't freak em' out. That Nazi is going to make his move soon…and we gotta be ready, Bush said desperately to me in this very office…"

"He and his most trusted advisors developed a plan to train the youth of America to become trained Zombie slayers in a way they didn't even realize. And what better way to do that…than in the form of a video game?"

"No f*cking way" Nick said in surprise.

"Just days after my victory over McCain, a video game called "World at War" became available for purchase in America. The Zombies mode on the game was created to increase interest in fighting Zombies, and to increase Zombie awareness. Bush pleaded that I continue the project, and to help subconsciously train an army that should never have to fight"

"I worked with Treyarch, who swore themselves to secrecy, along with Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki, as well as Jeff Crossbranch, to make a game that would detail the events that led to Richtofen gaining power. The two years later, Call of Duty: Black Ops would be created, with a Zombies mode detailing more of the events that transpired that led up to Richtofen becoming the great evil he is now. Of course, every person who played the game believed they were just killing Zombies and accomplishing tasks to get items…"

"That couldn't be further from the truth" Obama said quietly.

"Black Ops and World at War were nothing more than training for the youth of America. Richtofen is a powerful enemy, and it's up to you all to stop him. I am currently in an underground tunnel, along with 3000 residents of D.C. We'll make our way to Canada and from there; I shall go to the U.N. for assistance. I've let the American people down, I know I have…but, what else could I have done?"

Obama sighed and said "I leave this message and this order for you; the ones who've found this message. Save your country, stop this fiend at all costs. Do it for the men and women who've already perished thanks to the Doctor's scheme…good luck"

The transmission ended and the lights turned back on, and the group looked at each other in amazement. Jess managed to find the recording, which was a small black square-like device. Jess pocketed it, and said "So…"

"So..." Nick said.

"Wow…that was a bombshell" Jax said with a slight chuckle.

"Come on. Let's go find the others and show them this. They'll need to hear it too" Marcus said to the others, who nodded.

**2 Hours Later:**

"So…that was a bombshell" Nicholas said rubbing his temples.

"I said the same thing" Jax said.

"I can't believe Obama fled the country! What a pathetic piece of crap!" John began to yell angrily before Juliet walked over to him and kicked him in the stomach.

"Thanks Juliet. I HATE politics" Nicholas said with a grimace.

"So, now what?" Jess asked.

"The plan's still the same. We find the nodes and stop Richtofen. We do what we were supposedly trained to do" Nicholas said getting to his feet.

The night was approaching and the sun was now setting. The Zombies were now starting to come towards the capital, and the teens got ready for another long haul.

The group quickly regrouped and readied their weapons, and got ready to take on the horde of Zombies coming at them.

Jess aimed her Awful Lawton and fired arrow after arrow into the horde of Nazi Zombies, drawing them away and allowing the group to have a perfect opportunity to attack the distracted enemies.

"Hey Jess!" Marcus called from behind her.

Jess turned around and saw Marcus, who was holding two 12 packs of Molotov Cocktails.

Marcus handed one to Jess and hurled it into the Zombie horde. Jess grinned and tossed one as well.

"How'd you make those?" Jess asked as the Zombies screamed and burst into flames.

"It's a trick my dad showed me" Marcus grinned as he pulled out his pistols and opened fire.

Samantha charged up several balls of energy and shot them into the mass of Zombies coming at them, with Judith and Jax firing right behind her. Samantha's face slowly turned into a snarl.

"FLUFFY!" Samantha shouted.

The Hellhound howled and transformed, flaming radiating off of it, and charged into the mass of Zombies, cutting a solid line through them.

Nicholas and Juliet stood back to back, shooting and slashing at any Zombies trying to attack them.

"You take the ones on the left" Nicholas said.

"Aw, I wanted the ones on the right!" Juliet pouted as she dismembered a Zombie from the crotch up.

"There's twice as many on the right!" Nicholas laughed as he opened fire with Calamity and Jane, scoring about thirty headshots with the Pack-A-Punched pistols.

"I know" Juliet said quickly ducking under Nicholas's arm.

"What the-?" Nicholas said in surprise.

"CHAINSAW CANNON!" Juliet yelled as her chainsaw morphed into a huge cannon.

A huge burst of energy shot from the chainsaw, blowing a huge hole in the wall of Zombies coming at them. Juliet took about ten seconds to charge her Chainsaw again before firing it again.

Nicholas stared in shock as Juliet fired the Chainsaw Cannon over and over, killing about a hundred Zombies in about a minute.

"Juliet…you're amazing" Nicholas said breathlessly as Juliet brushed the hair out of her face.

Juliet winked and changed the Chainsaw back to its original form.

Andrew slashed and hacked through the Zombie horde with Nick by his side. Nick used the enchanted statue to mow down the hordes of the undead. Worried as he was about the condition of C.N., he needed to keep using him.

Andrew slammed the blade of Reaper into and ground and, still holding the grip of the scythe, slid under the legs of a Screecher Zombie. Andrew then yanked Reaper out of the ground and with an almighty swing slashed 13 Zombies in half in one slash.

Nick jabbed a Napalm Zombie with C.N. and jumped back as the flaming Zombie clutched its wound and exploded violently. Nick wasted no time and slaughtered another row of Nazi Zombies with little to no trouble.

John pulled out the Winter's Howl and fired a shot at the Napalm Zombies, causing them to temporarily fizzle out and allowed Jax to blast them away. Jax and John looked at each other and John tossed his Winter's Howl to him while Jax tossed John a Porter's X2 Ray Gun. Jax fired the Zeus Cannon and the Winter's Howl together, aimed at the same spot. The two Wonder Weapons attacks merged and created a large blizzard-like blast that caused five Napalm Zombies to fizzle out and explode on the spot.

Judith fired and fired into the crowd, standing at the back of the group. Another Juggernaut was coming towards the group from about half a mile away, but Judith was able to put it down long before it got even close to the group.

Joe unleashed shot after shot with his dual-wield Pack-A-Punched shotguns, the Typhoid and Mary. A Screecher Zombie came lunging at Joe, who spun around and blasted the Zombie to pieces. Joe quickly reloaded and walked over to Jess and Marcus, who were beginning to get pushed back from the Zombies, and with his help they regained the lost ground.

The group continued to fight off the Zombies for another hour and a half, with Samantha using her powers to generate Max Ammos for the group. Finally, the Zombies were subdued and the group was allowed a moment of peace.

"How much longer should be stay here?" Joe asked.

"Not much longer. We've got plenty of supplies, we should head to New York" Nicholas said to the others as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, despite the cold temperature.

"_ATTENTION! May I have your attention? Zhis is your new ruler speaking!" _a voice spoke in their heads.

"YOU!" Samantha snarled, glancing around her.

The group glanced around, aiming their weapons. It was clear that they had all heard the voice in their heads, but where was Richtofen? The Nazi then spoke, in a calm tone that seemed quite unlike him.

"_My name…is Doctor Edward Richtofen. Some of you may know me from zhat video game, but all of you vill know me now"_ the Doctor continued.

"_I am one the threshold of something…incredible. Absolute power…formed by the dead, the living, and magic"_ Richtofen continued.

"_I am alive and well, and am once again, I am trying to control this planet. In one week's time, everyone hearing this message vill be dead, and vill become part of my undead army"_

"_But, one cannot have a Kingdom without subjects, ja?"_

"_I offer the people of zhis world a choice. You pledge your life to me, and you vill be be spared. If not…" Richtofen trailed off._

"_Then you are mine enemy. And you will be destroyed like the vermin you are"_

"_If you wish to stand with me, a man who wishes for a world where death holds no meaning, where you can remain strong and young forever, then raise your hands into the air and pledge your life…no…your very soul to me…Edward Richtofen"_ the man said in a smooth tone.

"_The soldiers of your armies cannot help you. The forces of zhee supernatural are beyond their power, and when one of them is slain, they join me"_

"_The leaders of your nations cannot save you; they will be too busy trying to save themselves"_

"_There is nothing that can be done to stop me. It is pointless to even think of it"_ Richtofen said with a momentary smug tone.

Andrew's expression became angry as he thought of those who had died at the Nazi's hands.

"_For those of you who stand against me, and continue to fight my undead minions…"_ Richtofen said lowering his voice.

Jax scowled and tightened his grip of his Zeus Cannon.

"…_the fools who are trying to save your world…"_

Liam crossed him arms and looked into the sky with a look of defiance.

"…_who still believe zhat there is still good in it…"_

Marcus looked at Jess and they grabbed each other's hands for comfort.

"…_despite how corrupt and cruel it is…"_

Joe frowned and starred into the sky, wondering how far Richtofen would go for power.

"…_despite how evil and discord reign in every country in the world. How zhee good die in the name of wars that are pointless"_

Judith glanced at Liam, and then back into the sky.

"_This is a war that you cannot win. Join me, and take part in a Kingdom of acceptance and power…a Utopia where you are rule and protected by a ruler, who is practically a god"_

Nick glanced at C.N., and then into the sky where the man behind it all kept speaking.

"_One who has seen the cruelties of this world, and wishes nothing more than to cleanse this world of suffering._

John scowled at the man who had tortured him, and clenched his fists angrily.

"_For those who do not raise their hands to the sky…who defy me and cling to a world of corruption and darkness…"_

Nicholas sighed, thinking of the pain that he and his friends had been through so far. Juliet looked at him and grabbed his shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Nicholas then looked up into the sky and said "This world has its faults. The good die young while the evil seem to succeed. Yeah, it kinda sucks sometimes. But there's good in it too…good I believe in…I'm not giving in. Not now. Not ever"

"…_then only pain and suffering await you"_ Richtofen finished in a deadly whisper that brushed against each of their minds.

Samantha growled and said "Why? Why are you doing this Edward?"

"_As for my reasons for doing zhis, they are none of your concern. This world is not fit to continue its existence, and must be burned to zhee ground and be reborn from the ashes"_ the former Nazi continued.

"_One week is all you have. All who have not pledge themselves to me vill join my undead army. You can run…you can hide…but I WILL find you…and you vill die."_ Richtofen chuckled.

"_As for you…"_ Richtofen said redirecting his words to the group of teens defying his will. They could feel the 115 conduit's fury crashing down upon them in increasingly power waves.

"_You all will face your judgment soon enough. I leave one of my favorite creations for you to play with. Ta ta for now!"_ Richtofen cackled before the presence began to fade.

"What do you think he meant by that?" Judith asked quietly.

The group heard a rattle behind them, and turned to see a small black vortex opening up behind them. It looked as though it were just raw darkness, pure shadows manifesting themselves.

A figure began to rise from the darkness. It slowly rose into the air, as the darkness encircled it. It eventually settled and the darkness enveloping the figure took the form of a long black cloak that want down to its feet.

The figure looked at the group underneath the hood. A Zombie's face was visible, and held out one of its hands, which looked skeletal. Andrew yelled out as his scythe went flying from his grip and into the outstretched hand of the Zombie, whose skin decayed and its grotesque face turned into a terrifying grin. The Zombie's flesh slowly rotted away before their eyes, revealing a grinning skull in a hood.

"Oh my god…" Jess whispered.

"Is that…?" Marcus muttered.

"It looks like the Grim Reaper" Nick said with a shiver.

"Reaper Zombie? Yeah…yeah, that fits" Jess remarked quietly as she tightened her grip on her gun.

The Reaper Zombie drew in a deep rattling breath and its eyes flashed bright blue. It suddenly swung its scythe at Liam, who jumped back to avoid it. The Zombie flew towards him and slashed at him again, but this time he brought up his Sickle. The Sickle went flying into the air and Liam clutched his bleeding hand in agony as the Reaper swung again. Liam rolled to the side while Judith fired a shot into the Reaper's skull, catching it in its left eye-socket.

"Nice headshot!" Marcus yelled as he aimed his pistols at the Reaper.

"Dang. Cut myself with my own sickle" Liam grunted as he tore a piece of his sleeve off and wrapped it around the wound.

The Reaper's head remained still, stunned from the gunshot. Its head then cracked back into place and the Reaper Zombie's face contorted into an even more sinister smile.

"OPEN FIRE!" Samantha yelled as she fired her Ray Guns.

All of the teens fired at the new Zombie, who became engulfed in gunfire. The smoke soon cleared, revealing a floating Zombie in a tattered cloak with blood gushing from all over its body.

"Did we…?" Jess asked, trailing off.

The Reaper's head cracked into place and the blood flowed back into its body. Black lines flowed from the dark area around their surroundings and flowed into the Zombie, somehow causing the cloak that covered the Zombie to repair itself.

"Shadows and blood…" Samantha whispered in horror.

The Reaper Zombie went on the offensive, slashing at hacking at the group with an insane burst of speed. Marcus pulled out a Molotov Cocktail and yelled "Fire in the hole!"

The teen hurled the bottle at the Reaper Zombie, who caught the explosive drink in midair. It regarded Marcus with an evil grin and drank the explosive concoction.

"Wow…and I thought my constitution was high" Marcus said, sounding impressed.

The Reaper Zombie leaned forward and a huge burst of flames shot from its mouth, causing the teens to yell out and retreat.

Juliet ran forward and began to exchange blows with the Zombie, who was quick and powerful like Juliet. The Reaper Zombie gained the upper-hand and disarmed Juliet with a flick of its hand, sending her chainsaw crashing onto the ground.

Juliet ducked under the Reaper's hands and kicked off of the ground, shooting into the air. She kicked the Reaper Zombie in the chest while pulling the trigger of the Hades strapped to her leg. The Reaper Zombie groaned as it was shot at point-blank and became engulfed in flames, causing it to float a few feet away. Juliet jumped back as she landed on the ground, but yelled out a silver spike shot from the scythe of the Reaper and clipped her in the hip, slicing through her flesh as if it were made of paper. Juliet went limp with a groan and fell onto the ground, panting heavily as she clutched her bleeding hip.

"Juliet!" Nicholas yelled, opening fire with Calamity and Jane.

"Hold on!" Andrew yelled as he pulled out his Quick Revive kit and jammed a syringe in Juliet's wound.

"I'm f-fine" Juliet said trying to get to get to her feet, but feeling as though all the energy had been sucked out of her.

"What IS that thing? Juliet muttered as Nicholas slung her over his shoulders and carried her to safety.

The Reaper Zombie continued to eat bullets and gunfire, but it just kept coming at them. Andrew ended up getting injured like Juliet, though this time from a direct hit from the Reaper Zombie's scythe, which was radiating with a red aura. Andrew crashed onto the ground, senseless, and Jax had to revive him.

"Guys, be careful! This thing can take you out with just one hit!" Nicholas yelled as he set Juliet on the ground. Nicholas glanced worriedly at Juliet, but saw that she was slowly getting to her feet. Nicholas extended an arm so she could lean on him without exasperating the wound on her hip.

Jess frowned and said to everyone "Stand back"

Jess aimed the M72 LAW at the Reaper, which cackled frighteningly and advanced towards them. Jess fired a single rocket at the Reaper, who readied his scythe.

"MOLOTOVS MOTHERF***ER!"

The Reaper looked at the source of the voice and was surprised to see Marcus hurl another Molotov towards it. The Reaper could do nothing as the explosive shattered at its feet and exploded, causing the Zombie to burst into flames. Jess's rocket slammed into the Reaper, causing it to explode into little bits and pieces.

"Nice teamwork!" Jax said with a grin, and Jess yelled happily while Marcus watched the spot where the Zombie had died…or did it?'

"Guys, I hate to be a wet blanket, but look" Marcus said, pointing a pistol at the scorch mark on the ground.

The blood and gore around the area began to move once again. The group watched in horror as the shadows, gore, and blood flowed together, like a river of carnage, and reformed the Reaper Zombie.

"Any ideas?" Joe asked Samantha.

"No…this thing just healed itself using the very shadows around us…" Samantha said with a growl of annoyance.

"Maybe the Wunderwaffe can kill it?" John suggested.

"Worth a shot" Samantha said pulling out the Wonder Weapon and charging it up.

"Marcus, Liam…go get the RV" Nicholas muttered to the two teens, who nodded and sprinted towards the vehicle.

Samantha let out a yell as the Wonder Weapon fired a massive burst of lightning from its tip, slamming into the Reaper Zombie and causing the entire area around them to become engulfed in a bright white light. Samantha shook her arm as it went numb from the electrical discharge from the Wonder Weapon.

The group shielded their eyes from the light and waited for it to die down. When the yslowly opened their eyes, they saw Samantha aiming the Wunderwaffe at the Reaper Zombie, who had exploded in a shower of blood.

"Bye bye" Samantha said with a smile.

"_If only it were that easy, you __**stupid little girl!**_" the voice that had been taunting them laughed loudly, changing from a quiet humor to a deeper, more threatening deeper voice with a slightly musical tone.

The bits of Zombie flesh that were blown everywhere began to reform itself. The blood flowed back to the spot where it had been standing while the shadows of the nearby objects in the streets left where they were supposed to be and flowed into the same spot the blood did.

"H-h-how!?" Samantha demanded.

The Reaper Zombie reformed itself, and the taunting voice said _"I told you…you can't kill the shadows around you. This foe is unkillable…__**now what are you going to do!?**__"_

The RV came from behind them and screeched to a halt. The weapons mounted on the RV turned towards the Reaper and fired. The Zombie was overwhelmed by the barrage of gunfire and explosions, allowing the group to get into the RV and escape. The Reaper reformed and with a cackle and vanished into its own shadow, which went streaking towards the RV.

Illuzio watched over the city from a branch in a tree, looking depressed. He truly wished that he didn't have to release _him_ upon the world…he knew that once he was released, there'd be no stopping him unless Richtofen's scheme succeeded.

Illuzio watched as the RV drove out of sight before vanishing on the spot in a flash of light, going back to a place where a demon waited for his return.

End of Chapter:

_Last chapter until the contest is over. Vote while you can. The next chapter will be up in two weeks or so. _

_Please review and tell me what you thought! Like always, I love getting feedback and every review keeps the story going strong!_

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	25. Shadows and Blood

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_WARNING. RANT INCOMING._

_So, the contest is now over. In this chapter, the new character will be revealed, and the winner shall be chosen. Also, I've been debating whether or not to give something to the people who guessed the character right AFTER it had been already guessed, and I WAS going to do it…But it's just too many people guessed it, and I felt that I shouldn't go back on what I said when I first announced the contest._

_Sorry guys. _

_Also, I felt the need to respond a comment in the review section. Surely I wouldn't invent an unkillable Zombie? _

_Oh yes I would. But I'd like to point out that unkillable and unstoppable are two different things. There's very little I'm not willing to do with this story, but my rule is…I'll do it if I like it, and if it WORKS. Like an unkillable Zombie. _

_Another response to a review left last chapter, putting Percy Jackson and other Olympians in the story. Sadly, it wouldn't make any sense if I did that, not that I'm not a huge fan of the series. In fact, I'm a big fan of the original five, haven't read the rest. Wouldn't really work well with what I'm doing, so I'l pass on that._

_I do like suggestions though. Keep sending them, I like knowing what you guys are thinking and some of your suggestions do impact the story. :D_

_Also, I finally have my own account on the PSN, so if you message me your PS3 username or leave it in the review section of this story, I'll add you or try to add you as a friend(there's a margin of error because I'm not...tech savvy). Strictly Zombies though, mainly Black Ops 2 Tranzit, and I only have PS3. I'd prefer to add people with a headset or something, so I can communicate and coordinate strategy and stuff with my own headset, but if you don't have one that's fine. Just message me if you're interested and I'll give you more info. Or you can leave your PS3 username in the review section and I'll friend request you. I'll only add those who have actually reviewed my story though. And before anyone asks, I'm pretty good at Zombies. I'm not spectacular, but I'm pretty good._

_As to what I'm doing for Revolution (more specifically Die Rise), I'll know when I actually get the map on PS3. I'll have to see. Once I play it for myself. Looks amazing though. _

_Shoutout to the reviewers from last chapter, which included XilentApostle, Thundermonkey39, tjelledge262, LSU DUDE, Trapinchh, Serena and Abella (thanks for the three reviews), CREATOR OF AWESOMNESS, uig50, Echostar 141, Bu11etB1iss115, mybrosdrivemecrazy, Otherworld Metal N, Devilbros666, and Justplainawesome, as well as two new guest reviewers, Unkillable and Gimli115. Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. :D_

_The song "When You're Evil" belongs to Voltaire. I debated whether or not to have such an evil OC's main appearance have a part where he sings, but if you looked up a musical tribute for the anime character I'll mention later and type in "_ When You're Evil Tribute", the results are all pretty much what inspired me to do this character the way I did. _

_The following chapter contains __**serious gore.**__It gets a little hardcore, so I'm warning you now. My co-writer and best friend, JC785, thought some parts may have been a bit much. But, I didn't edit anything out. This is probably the most gore I've done in one chapter._

_I rant a lot!_

_Enjoy._

Chapter 25: Shadows and Blood

"Katoi…no..tori…acto…Katoi…no…tori…actovo…" Illuzio murmured under his breath.

Richtofen and Sophia stood nearby, watching as Illuzio literally worked his magic. Unsealing something took intense magic and concentration, and the smallest mistake could be fatal.

"Bonds beyond time and bonds beyond space. Release the dark one into this place. Bonds beyond love and bonds beyond hate…Bonds beyond darkness and bonds beyond fate. Release the corrupted one from my spell, and let forth the demon from the darkness of HELL!"" Illuzio shouted, flinging his arms downwards.

The circle surrounding the man in the straightjacket flashed white and began to spin around and around at an incredible speed. Illuzio cried out and was hurled across the room where he remained still. The intricate circle underneath the man then turned crimson, and then turned black as night. The chains holding the man to the ceiling snapped.

"Free…**I'M FREE!"** the man said with glee as the straightjacket unraveled and he fell to the ground.

The man slowly got to his feet, and he regarded the group watching him with a wide smile. He then fell to his knees, as though unable to stand up properly.

"Hello there…did you miss me?" the man asked as he looked at the others with a maniac gleam in his crimson eyes.

"Harvey Yena" Sophia whispered, moving behind Richtofen, who smiled comfortingly at her.

Yena stood at about six foot five, and had a very slim build. He was dressed in a skintight black shirt and black pants, wearing black combat boots with blood soaked in the soles. His body was as pale as the moon, with upside down crosses burned into his palms, glowing dark red occasionally. His shaggy long hair went down to his waist, and was black as the night sky. He could be considered handsome, if not for the obvious evil in his eyes. One of the eyes was a bright red; the other was a dark crimson color. The man's crimson red eyes regarded the group with disinterest.

"So, I'm not going to pretend that I don't know what you want. You want me to go stop those fools attacking that other lab, in Tennessee was it?" Yena asked with a knowing smirk.

Yena took a step forward, but grunted and fell to his knees. Richtofen smiled, feeling smug. As powerful as Yena was, he was weak now.

Richtofen slowly walked forward. He pulled off the glove of his left hand, revealing a crisscrossing collection of scars as a result of the various experiments that he had performed on himself. Richtofen pulled out a small knife from his boot and pricked open a vein, letting the black blood spill onto the floor.

"Drink" Richtofen commanded.

Yena scowled at Richtofen and then placed his hand in the black liquid. Yena coughed and gagged, as if choking, and said "Your tainted blood is acid to me Edward….You know this…no…I shall not take your blood"

Yena got to his feet shakily and said "No…I will find a suitable meal, and then I shall go…I assume you've prepared my gear?"

"Zhee Crow and Wolf are locked and loaded, and your battle attire has been prepared" Richtofen said with a small smile.

Yena smiled slightly and said "You have no idea what horrors you've unleashed Edward. I proved it to you once, and I'll gladly do it again. If you wish to stop me, you'll have to do it now"

"_Edward…don't do this!"_ Illuzio begged Edward via telepathy, but Richtofen smiled and said "Go. Kill zhem all"

Yena grinned, revealing a row of razor sharp demon-like teeth. Yena chuckled and said "Yes. To kill…to feel the warmth of fresh blood, rushing through my veins once more! I will go…I will go and slaughter the ones who stand before you. My…Master…" Yena said bowing mockingly before his shadow rose up and engulfed him whole.

"Edward, you know we'll regret this" Illuzio said angrily as he got to his feet.

"We'll deal vith him later" Richtofen said with a smile.

"He's a monster. And you released him. How in the world are you going to control him?" Illuzio asked angrily.

Richtofen chuckled and said "I'm not going to control him"

"What?" Sophia and Illuzio said in surprise.

"All vill be clear in due time. Any news concerning Sieger?" Richtofen asked.

Sophia frowned and said "No. He's still gone. No traces at all"

"He vas always good at hiding" Richtofen scowled.

"Well, I have to go. Magic and experiments, and blah blah blah" Illuzio said warping on the spot.

"So, you're not worried about what Yena will do?" Sophia asked as she walked over to Richtofen.

"Don't worry my dear. That beast vill not dare attack us…at least, not yet. I am far stronger now than Yena has ever been. It would take the blood of thousands to bring him to anywhere close to my level" Richtofen murmured comfortingly, and Sophia smiled and embraced Richtofen.

**Meanwhile:**

"OK. So it's raining, right?" Liam said to Nick, who nodded.

"And you're driving your car. You pass a bus stop, and there's three people standing there. Your most loyal and closest friend, a pregnant woman who needs to go to the hospital, and the girl of your dreams. Now your smart car can only hold two people in it. What do you do?" Liam asked Nick.

"Oh, oh! I know this one! You give your car to your best friend, and he takes the pregnant woman to the hospital, while you stay at the bus stop with the girl of your dreams" Nick said with a superior grin.

Liam got up and walked over to Nick.

"No…" Liam said.

"You go home and REEVALUATE YOUR F*CKING LIFE! YOU…BOUGHT…A SMART CAR!" Liam screamed at Nick as he strangled him.

"Is this normal?" Marcus asked Jess, who was sitting in the shotgun seat while he drove.

"Yep" Jess said as she tried not to fall asleep.

"You should get some sleep" Marcus said.

"I'm gooooooood" Jess yawned.

"Uh huh. Go take a nap in the bedroom"

"I can't. Nicholas and Juliet are in there" Jess said.

The group went quiet and heard Juliet moan from the other room. The teens looked at each other, and Nick got up and walked over to the door and knocked on it.

"Go away! We're busy" Juliet yelled.

"I'll deal with this" Nicholas said from the other side of the door.

Nick grinned perversely and cracked open the door.

"Come on, what are you two doing that's-OH DEAR GOD!" Nick screamed as he cracked the door open, shielding his eyes.

"THEY BURN! THEY BUUUUUURRRRN!" Nick howled clutching his eyes and rolling on the floor in agony.

Nicholas closed the door, clutching the laptop he had in his hands.

What was that about?" Juliet asked as she got up from the bed, still fully dressed and not naked. Jeez people, get your mind out of the gutter.

Nicholas shrugged and said "I think they thought we were doing it. So I showed Nick a link on my laptop to make him freak out and GTFO"

"What was it?" Juliet asked.

"Er…"

"Tell me"

"Meatspin"

"Ah…"

"Yeah, hence why he screamed"

"You know every person who's never heard of it is going to look it up" Juliet said.

"…crap…I hope FlygonN tells people who DON'T know of the site to not go on it" Nicholas said with a sigh.

_AN: Seriously, don't look it up if you don't know what it is. If you do, I warned you. -_-_

"So, want to finish giving me that massage?" Juliet said sitting back down on the bed.

"Sure" Nicholas said with a shrug.

"Oh my god…and you're sure you never did this before?" Juliet sighed as Nicholas massaged her shoulders.

"Nope" Nicholas laughed.

"REAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Nicholas tensed and hopped off of the bed, glancing around the room. He and Juliet heard the laugh again.

"What the hell?" Nicholas muttered as he grabbed his Galil and ran out into the main room, where the others were looking around. Juliet sprang off the bed and grabbed her Chainsaw and followed Nicholas.

"What the hell was that?" Joe asked the others.

"I don't know. We're going faster than any Zombie, and faster than most Hellhounds" Marcus said from the driver's seat.

Judith screamed and pointed towards the rear window, where the group beheld something disturbing.

The Reaper Zombie was now soaring through the sky towards them, and was cackling madly. The Zombie flew over to the side of the window and swung its scythe towards the RV, slamming the blade through the wall.

"MARCUS!" Nicholas yelled.

"On it. Jess, blast that idiot to hell" Marcus said as he floored the RV down the highway.

Jess ran over to the window and leaned out the side of the RV, aiming her M72 LAW at the Reaper.

"THIS ONE'S FOR TAYLOR JONES!" Jess yelled, firing a rocket at the Reaper Zombie, which took the explosion head-on.

The Reaper exploded in a shower of blood and darkness, and reformed on the spot and hurled the scythe at the RV, causing the scythe to slam into the back of the RV.

"HEY! WE DON'T HAVE INSURANCE ON THIS THING!" Liam yelled.

"We don't need insurance Liam" Judith pointed out dryly.

"We don't even needs licenses" Marcus said with a grin.

"Wait, you don't have a license?" Liam asked Marcus, who shook his head.

"Great. Could this get any worse?" Liam asked.

The Reaper yanked the scythe out of the back of the bus and flew in front of the RV and slammed the blade in through the windshield.

"EVERYONE HOLD ON!" Marcus yelled as he slammed on the brakes.

Everyone slammed onto the floor, but the Reaper went flying down the highway, scythe in hand.

"Hey, I actually know where we are! I used to live near here!" Marcus said in surprise as he drove down the exit ramp.

"Place looks like it hasn't been sacked yet. Either the Zombies already killed everyone here or they haven't hit the place yet" Marcus muttered.

"Know anywhere we can get some more ammo? We're all pretty much out after fighting that thing back in town, and I can't make any more Max Ammos for a while" Samantha said to the others.

"Why?" Nick asked.

"I have my limits" Samantha admitted quietly, showing them her burned looking hands.

"REAHAHAHAHAHA!" came the Reaper's laugh from somewhere ahead of them.

"Dammit. Joe, how much ammo is left in those turrets on the RV?" John asked.

"Not much. We've used a good amount of it. We need to find a way to kill this thing" Joe said.

"You can't kill the darkness Joe" Samantha muttered, causing everyone to look at her.

"Back at D.C., that man, whoever he is, mentioned that you can't kill this Zombie. And he's right, this thing has reformed every time we should've killed it. This thing is made of shadows and blood, and it can't be killed" Samantha explained.

"Just because it's unkillable, doesn't mean it's unstoppable" Nicholas pointed out.

"Everything's got a weakness. We've just got to find it" Juliet said to the others, who nodded.

The Reaper suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and Marcus swerved towards it, engulfing it in the headlights.

The Reaper let out an inhuman scream and shielded its eyes. The RV slammed into the Reaper, causing it to burst into a shower of darkness and blood once again.

"WE DID IT!" Jess yelled happily.

"Light…maybe light can weaken it" Marcus said to the others, who nodded.

The Reaper reformed and chased after them. Marcus turned the RV around and caught the Reaper in the headlights again. The Zombie shrieked in agony like last time, but it then turned into a ball of darkness and sank into its own shadow.

"What the hell?" Nicholas said as the Reaper's shadow quickly moved out of range of the headlights.

"This thing can hide in its own shadow to escape the light, which makes the shadow longer when light hits an object at an angle. Whoever made this Zombie is a genius" John muttered to himself.

"We're lowing low on gas guys, we need to make a stand against this thing soon" Marcus said.

The group quickly stopped next to an abandoned elementary school. Marcus looked at the place and said "I used to play football with my friends here, years ago. There used to be this amazing football field next to the school too"

The group got out of the RV and readied the last of their ammo as the Reaper rose from the shadows around them, its skull contorted into a horrifying grin.

**Flashback:**

**Richtofen's Lab:**

**Many Years Ago…**

"Damn Americans" Richtofen muttered as he admired the unconscious form of Dempsey in the chair in front of him.

This man was the last survivor of the Marines that had been sent to rescue Peter McCain. Richtofen had found that this American had quite a strong spirit. The man was resisting most of his attempts at being broken, though he had already been experimented on. It was only a matter of time before the serum kicked in, and it would turn him into a super-soldier worthy of serving him.

Richtofen turned his attention to Group 935. Maxis and his brat would have to go soon, and he figured the best way to do it was to kill the both of them at the same time…but how?

Richtofen discarded that thought for now, and then turned his attention to an even more pressing issue, the loyalty of the remaining members of 935. He figured he could trust all but the American members. He had arranged for Peter McCain to be transferred to the Asylum, but had him killed and his hand severed when he heard that a crack team of American Marines had been sent to rescue him.

Dempsey had been the only one to survive, and so, he was back to his current dilemma. There was one more American member of 935, one whose loyalty he was unsure of.

"Peter has been taken care of…but what of Yena? Hmm…Illuzio!" Richtofen called.

The jester appeared a flash of light, grinning widely.

"Hello there Doctor. How may I assist you today my friend?" Illuzio asked.

Illuzio himself was dressed in a colorful jester's outfit with a cheerful hat. Richtofen smiled, and jester's antics often made him smile. He knew he had the jester's complete trust.

For now anyway.

"I must confide in you. You're the only one I know I can trust in Group 935 without any reserve" Richtofen said to the Jester, who nodded.

"What's the matter?" Illuzio asked.

"Maxis has not been mass-producing the Wunderwaffe DG-2. His…romance, with Sophia is slowing down our progress. I don't care much for his super-soldier program neither. I myself am having mixed effects" Richtofen said.

"Mixed effects?" Illuzio asked.

"Like so"

Richtofen whirled around and kicked a support beam, tearing through the entire reinforced steel like it was paper.

"That was incredible! You're a genius Edward!" Illuzio said with a laugh.

Richtofen drew his leg back and sat down in a chair. He smiled and said "Yes. I believe that my own projects are far more…fruitful than Maxis's endeavors"

"But back to the point. I need you to spy on Yena. Try to determine where his loyalties lie. To the Americans, to Group 935, to Maxis…or to me" Richtofen ordered, not realizing the Dempsey was beginning to stir.

"Of course. I'll let you know as soon as I find something" Illuzio said disappearing with a snap of his fingers.

"Ough…wha…you!? I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR A$$ INTO NEXT WEEK YOU FRIGGIN NAZI!" Dempsey roared as he broke one of the restraints on the chair.

"Oh shut up already!" Richtofen yelled kicking Dempsey in the stomach, causing his to cough up blood and slump over weakly in his chair.

"Hmm. Seems as though my own experiments are working a little…too vell" Richtofen muttered with a grin as he flexed his fingers experimentally.

A few hours later, Harvey Yena himself walked into Richtofen's Secret Lab. He came as soon as Illuzio spoke to him, and he walked up to Richtofen and said "So…you have doubts?"

Yena had a slightly tanned tone to his skin, and his blue eyes regarded Richtofen with suspicion. His long black hair was tied in a ponytail, and he crossed his slim white arms as he looked at Richtofen.

"The way I see it, you are either vith me….or against me." Richtofen said, pulling out an M1911 and aiming it at Yena's heart.

Yena smiled and said "Edward. I came from America because I know 935 will pave the way to something truly incredible. Maxis seems to want to squander this chance for power on feeble romance. You however, want to take the reins out of his hands so to speak, and take the project in a whole new direction. I think..." Yena smiled slightly.

"You think that…?" Richtofen said.

Yena smiled and said "You're planning on disposing of Maxis soon, as well as Samantha, right?"

"Yes…in due time of course, if he does not mass produce the Wunderwaffe DG-2" Richtofen replied uneasily.

"Excellent. Now, you're testing the Teleporter soon, right?" Yena asked.

"Yes, how do you know this?" Richtofen asked.

Yena smiled and revealed a Ray Gun attached to his belt and quick as a flash, he was aiming it at Richtofen.

"You're a genius, but you're a fool if you underestimate me. Peter thought me and him were on the same page, spies for the Americans. That is not the case, my loyalty is only to you, Edward Richtofen" Yena said with a wide grin.

Richtofen chuckled and said "Very well. Let us discuss this, like gentleman"

Yena didn't lower his weapon, and neither did Richtofen. They both laughed for a moment before Yena said "Maxis doesn't think much of the Teleporter, does he?"

"No. He thinks teleporting a walnut isn't much of an achievement. Seducing Sophia is a greater goal in his mind" Richtofen scowled.

"What better way to kill him and Samantha, than to use the very device that Maxis scorns?" Yena said softly.

"Yena…why are you telling me this?" Richtofen asked.

He was distrustful of Americans, but he actually liked Yena. He was intelligent, calm, and polite. He also knew that the scientist was very cunning and dangerous, all of the qualities he admired in a person.

"Because, I don't care much for Maxis or his brat, and I feel as though 935 would become greater under your leadership. Though I suppose there's another reason…well…it's just"

"It's just vhat?" Richtofen asked.

Yena chuckled and said "It's just so easy when you you're evil"

**Meanwhile:**

"AGH!" Joe yelled as the Reaper slashed him in the hip with his scythe, downing him.

"We CAN'T kill this thing!" Juliet said exhaustedly as she picked up her chainsaw.

They had been fighting the Reaper for 30 solid minutes, and Jax and Andrew were nearly out of Quick Revive Syringes, and each one of them had been downed at least three times each.

Nicholas ducked as the Reaper swung its scythe at him and pulled out Calamity. He pulled the trigger and the gun clicked uselessly as the bullets had finally run out.

"Son of a-!" Nicholas yelled before rolling out of the way of a double-handled swing that could've sliced his head off.

"Juliet! Try to break the scythe with your chainsaw!" Andrew yelled.

"No chance. That thing is infused with 115 energies. As far as we're considered, that thing's unbreakable" Samantha said tiredly as she opened fire with her Ray Guns.

The Reaper cackled loudly and swung the scythe downward at Samantha. Samantha darted around the blade and punched the Zombie in the skull. She then grabbed the scythe from its hands and proceeded to slash the Reaper into little bits and pieces.

"We need to come up with a plan" Marcus panted as Jax quickly revived Joe.

"This thing can't be killed!" Liam snapped.

"You're right, it can't be killed…but…" John trailed off with a wide grin, as though having a revelation.

"Hey, you said there was a football field nearby, right Marcus?" John asked the teen, who nodded.

"Lead us to it. I have a plan" John said with a grin.

Marcus led the group towards the abandoned football field, which was now empty and, surprisingly, free of bodies. The group was able to inhale the scent of fresh grass and clean air for once, instead of fire and carrion. The Reaper Zombie was beginning to pull itself together once more.

"Where are the controls for the lights and sound?" John asked.

"Um…over there!" Marcus said pointing to a small booth about fifty yards away.

The field was strangely built, with two sets of bleachers at the end of the field. Tall light posts surrounded the field on all sides. A large light was aimed at the very middle of the 50 yard line, connected in the air by a series of wires.

John was talking to Samantha the entire time, and she smiled at John when she heard his plan and said "It's good to have you fighting with us again"

John smiled and said "Good to be back Sam"

"OK. Joe, come with me. You guys, keep that thing in the middle of the field. Samantha, get ready with the Wunderwaffe and when I give the signal, get ready" John instructed.

"Reaaah…reahashahaha!" the Reaper Zombie hissed as it flew towards them.

The group tiredly reloaded their weapons and got ready for another rough fight. John and Joe found the door to the power locked, but John kicked the door in with his enhanced strength.

"OK, here's the controls for the sound it looks like" Joe said walking over to the control panels.

"All right. Here's what we need to do" John said.

The group continued to battle the unkillable Zombie, which took everything they dished out and kept coming. Judith was scoring headshot after headshot against this Zombie, and it kept coming. Nick had done a power attack on the Reaper, but it reformed again. Juliet had dismembered the Reaper to bits, but it kept coming for more. The Zombie slowly battered down the teens, who couldn't keep fighting this thing forever. Juliet finally sank to the ground tiredly as the Reaper came towards her.

"Juliet!" Nicholas yelled as he pushed her out of the way, getting a large gash on his back.

Nicholas collapsed senselessly onto the ground and Juliet screamed as the Reaper flew downwards, going in for the kill.

Jax jumped in front of Nicholas and fired his last shot of his Zeus Cannon, sending the Reaper flying away. Jax quickly revived Nicholas, who was helped up by Juliet. The Reaper flew back down to earth, slashed Jax in the chest and came towards Nicholas and Juliet, who stood together and were ready to go down fighting.

"SAMANTHA!" John yelled desperately form the booth.

"Fluffy!" Samantha yelled.

Fluffy spawned in a huge bolt of lightning and burst into flames as she tackled the Reaper in midair, intercepting the attack. She sank her teeth into the Reaper, which groaned and tore the Hellhound off of itself, sending her flying. Fluffy righted herself in midair and charged at the Reaper, who cackled horrifyingly at the Hellhound.

The Reaper twirled its scythe in the air and brought it down onto the Hellhounds back. Fluffy howled and exploded violently into thin air.

"No!" Jess yelled in concern.

"Don't worry. She'll reform in a few moments!" Samantha said as she ran towards Joe in the power booth.

The Reaper went after John, who had run onto the middle of the field. The others, who were utterly out of ammo at this point, could do nothing but watch helplessly as the Reaper chased John. It raised its scythe into the air, and John barely avoided getting decapitated and fell onto the 40 yard line while the Reaper advanced towards him. John fired several shots with his Winter's Howl, which the specter took head on, laughing loudly.

"SAMANTHA! JOE! NOW!" John yelled.

Joe turned on all of the lights while Samantha fired the Wunderwaffe at the power box, supercharging the entire thing. Every single light turned towards the center of the field and shot a harsh beam of light towards John and the Reaper.

The Reaper roared as the lights blasted it from every angle, engulfing it in a beam of fluorescent lights that were supercharged by a Wonder Weapon. The Reaper groaned and crouched on the ground, using its scythe to hold itself up. Nicholas stepped towards it cautiously, and then walked within attacking range for the Reaper.

The Zombie didn't move though, it only starred as Nicholas smiled widely.

"So, if you hit it with lights from every angle as well as from above, this will reduce the shadows around it. It can't move, it can't reform. It looks as though it's stuck here…John, you're a genius" Nicholas said with a grin.

"It's a gift" John said tiredly.

"Come on guys, let's get back in the RV. We should try and find a place where we can get ammo while we're at it" Nicholas said to the others, who tiredly agreed.

A giant fireball appeared in front of them and a bolt of lightning crashed down, revealing Fluffy. The dog landed on the ground, panting happily.

"See? Told you" Samantha said petting her beloved dog, which licked her face.

The group made their way back to the RV, while the Reaper watched them, caught in a cage of light which destroyed its shadow. Trapped in a crisscrossing trap of light, and the Reaper watched silently as the teens drove away happy and alive.

For now.

**Meanwhile**

Yena stepped from the shadows and looked down upon the hidden laboratory of Richtofen's.

It was a small bunker that was mostly Underground, though the fleet of motorcycles and cars outside gave away that this was where the idiots he was looking for had holed themselves up, at least until they destroyed Richtofen's node.

Yena licked his lips, still fresh from his first meal in decades. It was enough...no, it wasn't. He wanted…no…he needed more blood. Carnage, destruction, crushing the bones of the weak beneath him. That…was what he truly desired.

Yena was now dressed in a pitch black charcoal suit, sporting a crimson colored cravat. His black trench coat had an intricate pattern of blood-red at the hem of it. His red fedora was tipped downwards, covering his face and his evil eyes.

Yena pulled out two heavy-looking pistols, infused with 115 energies and made from meteorite metals and titanium, and the bullets in them were made of similar materials. Both of them had been Pack-A-Punched, over and over and over again, until Richtofen was unsure the pistols could be any stronger without them exploding, which had happened in the past. They could pierce the thickest armor and could kill with one shot.

One of them was black, and was the stronger of the two, capable of destroying anything that stood in its way. That was the Crow. The other pistol was a white and had a silver streak running down the side. This pistol was Yena's main weapon of choice, and had seen much more bloodshed than its brother. This was used on regular enemies, those who were weak and mortal. This was the Wolf.

Yena looked up into the sky, where the full moon shined down upon him. Yena smiled and said "Well…"

Yena's eyes flashed bright red and he said in a deeper tone **"Time to kill…kill everything in sight!"**

Two of the survivors from the hospital stood guard outside the lab while the others went inside to deal with the Zombies protecting the place. They saw the lone man walking towards them, armed with just two big pistols.

"Stop! Who are you?" one of the survivors asked, aiming his gun at the man.

Yena smiled from under his hat.

This reminded him of a time in Germany, when a foolhardy group of American soldiers had asked him the same question. He remembered the song that he sang to himself afterwards, as he cleaned up the mess the fight had left behind.

"How did that tune go again?" Yena asked himself as the soldiers glanced at each other.

"Oh right" Yena said after a moment.

_When the devil is too busy,_

_And Death's a bit too much._

_They call on me, by name you see,_

_For my special touch._

The two men exchanged glances as the man moved closer, and when he was thirty yards away, they both opened fire.

_To the gentleman I'm Miss fortune._

_To the ladies I'm Sir Prize._

_But call me by any name,_

_Any…way…it's all the same…_

Yena weaved in out of the gunfire as he sang and fired two shots with the Wolf, causing both men's head to explode in a burst of blood and gore. The blood from the two men seeped out of them…and then flowed into Yena's skin.

"Yes…yes…with every kill…**the darkness grows…"** Yena whispered as the blood flowed into his skin, disappearing into his very pores.

Yena didn't consider himself a vampire, because he wasn't one. He didn't suck out blood, and certainly didn't sparkle. But he was powered by blood…shadows and blood to be precise. The more blood he had stored in his body, the stronger he was. As of now, he was very weak, but soon…

He then stepped inside of the lab, where more than a hundred armed survivors turned to look at him.

Yena smiled widely, and his shadow began to move of its own accord towards the survivors, who opened fire at the shadows and the man. The man moved his hat slightly so the fighters could see his bloodlust-filled eyes, full of malice and evil.

_I'm the fly in your soup,_

_I'm the pebble in your shoe._

_I'm the demon in your bed,_

_I'm a bump on every head._

_I'm the peel on which you slip,_

_I'm a pin in every hip._

_I'm the thorn in your side,_

_Makes you wriggle and writhe!_

The shadows rose into the air and blocked all of the oncoming bullets, causing every shot to go astray. Yena carelessly fired a single shot with Crow, killing a man and his wife fighting beside him in a single shot. Their bodies fell to the ground in a heap and they entered the next life together. Yena stepped over the bodies, still singing his evil song.

Yena smiled widely and vanished in a spurt of darkness. He weaved in and out of the gunfire, firing a few shots in to the crowd of people trying to fend him off. Each of the men who were hit exploded in a shower of blood and fell to the ground dead. Each shot was a gong of death, and each one was another breath of fresh air for Yena as the blood flowed into him.

_And it's so easy when you're evil._

_This is the life, you see,_

_The Devil tips his hat to me._

_I do it all because I'm evil._

_And I do it all for free…_

_Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need!_

Yena dropped to the ground and kicked off of it, flipping into the air so he was on the ceiling. He ran along the ceiling, firing straight ahead and killing the amazed survivors with ruthless enthusiasm. Blood flowed like water as Yena continued to slaughter people right and left with a horrifying grin. Yena kicked off of the ceiling, decapitating a woman with a spin kick to the head and landed on the ground, where he was blasted with gunfire that did nothing to stop the monster.

Yena lashed out with his shadow, slaughtering another fresh row of survivors like pigs. Yena then grabbed a small teen, no more than 14 years old, holding a pistol and too scared to run, and ripped his head off. The survivors looked on in horror as Yena opened his mouth and drank the freely flowing blood gushing from the teen's neck.

_While there's children to make sad._

_While there's candy to be had._

_While there's pockets left to pick._

_While there's grannies left to trip down the stairs,_

_I'll be there; I'll be waiting 'round the corner,_

_It's a game. I'm glad I'm in it._

_'Cause there's one born every minute!_

Kevin, the survivor's leader, pulled out a Symtex grenade and hurled it at Yena. Yena caught it and crushed it in his hand, causing it to explode. The smoke form the explosion engulfed the hallway, and the group was temporarily blinded from the smoke.

"Did we get him?" one of the survivors asked Kevin.

A dark tendril of shadows pierced the survivor's chest, impaling his heart on the end. Kevin jumped back to avoid a similar fate. Kevin watched in horror as the shadows pumped into the heart until it exploded in a burst of blood. Yena continued to sing as he fired several shots from the smoke, downing five more survivors like it was nothing.

All of the blood flowed towards the 935 scientist, whose eyes began to glow even brighter. He reloaded his pistols slowly, as though deliberately giving the enemy a chance to attack, knowing they couldn't hurt him.

_And it's so easy when you're evil._

_This is the life, you see,_

_The Devil tips his hat to me_

_I do it all because I'm evil._

_And I do it all for free_

_Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need!_

"BRING IN THE BIG GUNS! HOLD THIS GUY OFF UNTIL WE DESTROY THE NODE!" Kevin yelled as he hurled another grenade at Yena, who caught it and crushed it, as though relishing in the explosions that did not harm him.

Yena cackled as the group opened fire with more machine guns, but this once again deflected by his shield of shadows. The group realized in horror that their weapons were useless, and tried running. Yena smiled and vanished.

"W-where did he go!?" one of the men yelled.

"Who cares!? RUN!" another one of them yelled.

Yena appeared in a flash of black and lunged forward, driving both of his hands into each of the men's chest. Yena smiled as the men's faces turned to utter fear as Yena reached into their chests twisted their hearts until they came free from their bodies. Yena laughed as the blood seeped into his hands, terrifying the survivors out of their wits.

_I…pledge…my allegiance, to…all things dark,_

_And I promise on my damned soul…_

_To…do as I am told…Lord Beelzebub_

_Has never seen…a soldier quite like me._

_Not only does his job, but does it happily!_

"What's the ETA on the bombs?" Kevin muttered.

"45 seconds in counting" a man replied.

"Good" Kevin said shakily as Yena faced him.

Kevin reloaded his pistols and the ten men that were left did the same. Yena cracked his neck, still singing.

_I'm the fear that keeps you awake!_

Yena tore the arms off another survivor and shot them in the heart.

_I'm the shadows on the wall!_

Yena impaled a young teen with an AK47 through the skull with a shadow tendril, tearing his brain apart.

_I'm the monsters they become!_

Yena tore open the ribcage of a woman trying to protect their husband, who was shot in the head shortly afterwards as he screamed in horror.

_I'm the nightmare in your skull!_

Yena vanished into his own shadow and reappeared behind one of the survivors, who screamed in agony as Yena plunged his hand through his back and tore through back and through his front.

_I'm the dagger in your back!_

Yena grabbed a survivor who was trying to stab him and hurled him into the nearby while and shot him twice in each arm with the Wolf before shooting him the skull with Crow.

_An extra turn upon the rack!_

Yena whirled around and fired several shots at the remaining survivors, who were joined by several more survivors carrying RPK's and HK21's. Each shot fired by Yena struck its target and each victim exploded in a shower of blood.

_I'm the quivering of your heart._

_A stabbing pain,_

_a sudden start!_

Yena reloaded his pistols as the few remaining survivors opened fire, somehow hitting the deranged monster who was attacking him, who didn't even seemed bothered to dodge. The man's body became ravaged with gunshots and he slumped to the ground, still slowly reloading his pistols.

_And it's so easy when you're evil._

_This is the life, you see._

_The Devil tips his hat to me._

_I do it all because I'm evil._

_And I do it all for free,_

_Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need!_

Yena's body began to repair itself, and the blood spilt by his victims flowed down the hallway and into Yena, slowly repairing each wound. Yena smiled widely and fired with both of his pistols, blasting the heads off of the remaining survivors.

_And I do it all for free,_

_Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need!_

Kevin growled and said "You monster! How can you do this!? They were trying to protect themselves!"

Yena ignored his pleas and shot at his feet causing him to jump back. Yena fired again, this time blowing his entire left knee off, causing Kevin to scream in agony and fall to the ground.

_And I do it all for free,_

_Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need!_

Yena slowly walked towards Kevin, looking at him with a pitiful expression. Kevin was gasping from the pain, and Yena frowned at the sight of the brave leader of the survivors, brought down to this.

_It gets so lonely being evil._

_What I'd do to see a smile,_

_Even for a little while._

_And no one loves you when you're evil…_

Kevin looked up at Yena, who was offering him a hand. Kevin shook his head and tried to shoot Yena with his pistol, but found a silver pistol already in his face.

_I'm lying through my teeth!_

_Your tears are all the company I need!_

Yena blew Kevin's head clear off of his body, and he slowly got to his feet and admired his handiwork, the bodies of the survivors looked like a monument to the devil himself.

"Not bad. A little slower than usual, but it's about time I got to enjoy myself for once" Yena remarked.

"_WARNING! WARNING! SYSTEM MELTDOWN! PLEASE EVACUATE ALL PERSONNEL!"_

"Well…fu-" Yena began to say before the entire building exploded violently.

115 energy surged through the entire complex and Yena was hurled down the hallway by the explosion. His entire body was blown to pieces, and it was sometime later before he could reform himself. He pulled himself together, laughing madly the entire time, and put his unmarked hat back on his body.

"Thank goodness that I'm made of shadows. And that my clothing is made of the very shadows and blood that sustain me" Yena remarked with a chuckle.

Yena walked outside of the base with a slightly amused look on his face. One the one hand, he failed to save the node. It was long gone, as were any traces of Richtofen's work and projects. On the other hand, he was free and he had the best time he had had in over 40 years! Yena then laughed loudly, his voice echoing in the silent forest.

"Could this day get any better?" Yena asked himself as he whipped a small bit of ash from his shoulder.

A huge Big Rig came screeching in through the forest, and a rocket flew at him. Yena's eyes widened in surprise and he snarled as the headlights engulfed him and the rocket exploded at his feet. Yena flew backwards and crashed onto the ground, drenched in his own blood.

"OOORAAAAH!" Dempsey yelled as he slammed on the breaks.

"Score one for vodka" Nikolai said with a grin.

"Nice one Papa!" Iva said with a grin.

"That…hurt…" Yena said in disbelief.

"You…caused me pain?" Yena muttered as he eyed the blood running down his arms, which dissolved back into his own skin, leaving it unmarked.

"Oh my god…dad, look what happened" Chan said quietly, pointing the two slaughtered guards whose bodies still remained fresh from life.

"Oh them…yes, I killed them. And everyone else who was inside. I just missed the node if it's any consolation, it's destroyed now. Edward's not going to be happy, but then again…you won't live to see him again" Yena said as he got to his feet.

"Who are you?" Kara asked the man, who smiled widely.

Yena's expression became more sinister, his smile viler and his eyes turned dark crimson.

"I am the Broken One. The Bloodlust Hound of Group 935. The Hyena of Darkness. The Phantom of Shadows! I am Harvey Yena, and you will all die" Yena said as he raised both of his pistols with a wide smile on his face.

"Lock and load kids. It's playtime!" Dempsey said busting out a HAMR and an RPD and aiming them at the 935 Scientist.

"Foul demon! You shall pay for what you've done!" Takeo said pulling out a PX2 Ray Gun and aiming it at Yena.

Nikolai reloaded his M72 Anarchy, and took a swig of vodka and then said "This Soviet is ready for war, Shadow Man"

Iva growled as she pulled out her Skullcrusher and yelled "We're taking you down!"

"Get some!" Kara said whipping out a Galil.

"Time to slay this demon!" Chan said pulling out her Tokyo and Rose.

"I've waited so long for this moment…it makes me feel…_alive_. **Fight me with everything you've got! Make my blood rush and make the shadows boil!"** Yena yelled as his eyes glowed even brighter, almost illuminating the darkness.

"You're the one that spoke to us at the hospital, weren't you?" Chan asked.

"Yes. I could sense each of you, through the 115 energies that flow through me. Sadly, this will be the end of our discussion. I have to report back and then find those little wretches who dared challenge my power" Yena said softly as he calmed down suddenly, as if switching between two different personalities.

"Not happening. We're sending you back to that Kraut in body bag!" Dempsey yelled.

Yena looked up at the moon, and said quietly "Such a beautiful night…"

Yena snarled as tremors shook through his body and his eyes became red shining beacons. Yena's shadow writhed and turned into a giant doglike beast, made of pure darkness. Yena let out a feral roar and glared hungrily at his enemies, the fools that dared oppose him.

Yena sprinted towards the Zombie slayers and their daughters, who opened fire.

End of Chapter:

_So the contest is over. The character I based Yena off of was Alucard, from Hellsing. One of the coolest anime's out there, and a personal favorite of mine. Also, I finally found an English dub of Hellsing Ultimate. So yay me. :D_

_And for TeamFourStar fans out there, yes, I'll be doing some Hellsing Abridged references. And for Hellsing fans who have no idea what Hellsing Ultimate Abridged is, search it on YouTube and look for takahata101. You won't regret it._

_This means that RandomName3064 won the contest, and will be having a customized Zombie sometime soon in the story. I'll message you when I need the Zombie idea, until then just refine it to peak awesomeness._

_So that's it for now, next chapter will probably be my longest yet, as it is a chapter I've been waiting forever to get to. After playing Black Ops 2, I realized I have to incorporate several aspects of Tranzit into this map. Anyway, expect about 3 or more weeks for this upcoming chapter. _

_I think I tend to rant when I do author's notes. Oh well…_

_Don't forget to leave your PS3 username in the review section if you're interested in playing Tranzit with me. Or you can message me it if you want. I'll send everyone who leaves their username a friend request and a message to let you know that it's me, though my username should give it away. It's not FlygonN, because it was taken, but it's as close as I could get. I just started this account three days ago as of this chapter, so pardon the crappy ranking I'm at. o.O_

**_POST EDIT: Now at Blue Skull with Knife. Booyah._**

**_**_POST EDIT: Chapter will take longer than expected. Sorry, but College has to go first. I'll get it done as soon as a I can._**_**

_Tell me what you thought of this chapter in the form of a review!_

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	26. City of Evil

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Sorry about the delay, and for being a massive NGF. _

_Disclaimer, Urban Dictionary is a wonderful thing, and if you don't recognize something on the internet and are somewhat wary of it, check urban dictionary first. Just a word of advice._

_ANYWAY._

_This past month has been really hard for writing, simply because homework for college has stepped up, and because I'm finding it hard not to play Black Ops II whenever I have free time. Also, I've discovered that I'm actually GOOD AT MULTIPLAYER. WTF? I'm a Zombies guy, how the hell did this happen? I was dissing it a month ago, yet here I am…_

_But I digress, I'll try to get the next few chapters up a little earlier to make up for it. No promises, but I'll try._

_In this past month, I finally got a Season Pass, as well as Die Rise and Nuketown Zombies. Nuketown Zombies was pretty cool, certainly worth getting a Season Pass for. And I have Die Rise now, which is NUTS. Fun, but nuts. I highly recommend getting a Season Pass, it's worth every cent._

_Also, in a few chapters, I'll be announcing something awesome for my upcoming Pokémon Story, "Second Chances". No spoilers, but awesome stuff along the way._

_This entire chapter was inspired by my favorite song, "Beast and the Harlot" by Avenged Sevenfold. The song belongs to them, and I really suggest listening to it while reading the part where the song gets activated. Don't listen to the music video, find the song itself. The music video is weird. I've actually had this chapter planned out since about chapter 12. (Well, I had the idea for the chapter since then anyway)_

_Shoutout to everyone who reviewed last chapter, which included XilentApostle, Lord rage quit, mybrosdrivemecrazy,_ _xAnimePrincess101x, Echostar 141,_ _tjelledge262,_ _Unkillable, LSU DUDE, a guest reviewer known as Guest,uig50, StaticBomb324, a guest reviewer known as Anonymous, Unkillable again, Bu11etB1iss115, another guest reviewer known as Guest, Dustchu, Otherworld Metal N, and Unkillable again._

_And for those who reviewed on the update, that was Lord rage quit again and Justplainawesome. Thanks again everyone._

_Special shoutout to Dustchu, who is not only my 200__th__ reviewer, but he reviewed every single chapter of the story. Needless to say, I was surprised and happy. Thanks again to all of you who support this story, sorry again for the long wait everyone._

_*Note, due to some of the Pack-A-Punched guns in Black Ops II having insanely long names, they will be shortened or abbreviated. Guns that are abbreviated will have a * by them for this chapter. All abbreviated guns are upgraded. _

_This is the halfway point for the story. This is where things become serious and the plot gets heavy. _

_Enjoy!_

Chapter 26: City of Evil

The group continued to drive, mainly taking side roads to avoid the Zombie hordes. This took much longer, but it was worth the extra time because it allowed the teens some time to rest a little more. After three hours, the group stopped at a Burger King and promptly blew it to Kingdom Come for no reason.

"~Have it your way!~" Jess sang as the building crashed to the ground, the others just ate their Whoppers in silence.

"IN HELL! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!" Marcus yelled manically while standing at the foot of the rubble as his hair blew in the wind.

"Guys?" Jess said.

"Yeah?" Liam said.

"That's my future husband" Jess said with a dreamy look on her face as she starred at Marcus.

"Jeez, get a room you two" Nick snickered.

"I still have a few shots left in my rocket launcher Nick" Jess said gesturing to the M72 LAW on her back.

"Oh…um…right"

"Yeah, thought so"

"I'm glad that place got blown to kingdom come, the fries were a total rip-off." Joe said, as took a bite from a chicken sandwich still in its wrapper. "I do have to admit though; the chicken is not that bad."

The group eventually got back on the RV, refreshed and ready to tackle the undead hordes. Samantha was sleeping soundly as they drove down the highway. She looked peaceful, so the group remained quiet so she could have her rest.

Eventually the group drove off of the highway, and when asked he was stopping, Liam said "We need to keep looking for survivors, shouldn't we? Richtofen or not, we've got an advantage over other survivors and we need to help them"

The group agreed with this and decided to pull over next to a convenience store with a small clothing section. The group managed to find replicas of all their clothing since all of them had not showered in a week and the clothes they were wearing before had zombie blood and guts all over it.

As Judith walked out of the store with all the stuff that she needed, she noticed a small light in the distance.

"Hey guys, you need to come see this!" Judith called out to the others.

The group rushed outside to see the remnants of a large city, with medium sized building, a water tower, and a small suburb district. It was hard to see from a distance, but there were piles of bodies laid across the streets, blood trailing down into the sewers.

"Guys, look, up there!" Andrew said, pointing to the water tower. From the distance, it looked like 2 figures fighting off a group of crawler zombies crawling up the side of the tower. When looked at through Judith's sniper rifle, it was a father and a son, the father holding an M16, and the son a pistol.

"Judith, do you think you can help them out?" Nicholas asked quickly.

"It's too late…" Judith said.

She handed Nicholas the sniper rifle, and Nicholas took a look at what was happening. One of the crawlers had snuck up behind the son and tackled him, causing the kid to stumble forward and fall off the edge of the tower. The father tried to reach out for his son, but another crawler came up from where the son fell and tackled the father. What could only be described then is the rest of the crawlers ripping the father limb from limb, showing no mercy or remorse.

Nicholas took the scope away from his eye and handed the rifle back to Judith. Nicholas growled furiously and hurled his Galil on the ground. Juliet put a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down. "Nicholas…"

"Everywhere we've gone so far, there has been nothing but chaos and destruction. Our homes and lives were ripped away from us! We may not be able to save everyone, but we still have to do what we can for those we can save. We have to stop Richtofen…no matter what." Nicholas finished.

A few seconds later, the group heard clapping coming from behind them. They all turned around to see the very man that caused all this torment…Edward Richtofen.

His entire body seemed to be made entirely of green electricity; the group could feel raw energy radiating from him. His face smiling pleasantly at them. He tipped his Nazi hat to the teens and said "I'm amazed you made it zhis far. Killing Porter was no easy feat. I commend you for your bravery, though in the end, it is pointless"

"EDWARD! GET OUT OF HERE!" Samantha roared.

"Still the same brat you've always been Samantha, I see" Richtofen said with a chuckle.

"You'll pay for what you've done to these people! They don't deserve this!" Samantha yelled.

Richtofen's eyes then closed and said "I am very aware of zhis Samantha. I did not wish to start zhis war, but now that it has been started, there is no going back"

"What?" Samantha said, caught off guard.

Richtofen didn't sound evil, or smug, or even boastful. He seemed very tired, but determined to do what he thought was right. He didn't even look that angry or sinister, he seemed…sad?

"I am not the insane scientist I was vhen I killed your father. The voices have been silenced, and haff been so for many years. Since that time, I haff thought long and hard about vhat I must do, and now, I vill see my plan through to zhe end. Samantha, if you give up now…I vill allow you to rejoin your father peacefully, and your friends shall not be harmed further" Richtofen said quietly.

"How dare you speak of him!" Samantha snarled.

"SILENCE! Maxis was no saint, you little brat! He was more interested in his experiments than he was with you! Your father was weak! And for that, he is paying for his crimes!" Richtofen growled angrily.

"At least he didn't slaughter thousands upon thousands of innocent people!" Joe yelled.

"You have no idea what it's like, do you? To watch those you care about die around you!" Nicholas yelled at the Nazi.

Richtofen gave Nicholas a look that could only be described as complete and utter anger, and if Samantha hadn't pushed him out of the way, he would've been killed on the spot. A bolt of lightning that burst from Richtofen's palms nearly struck Nicholas in the skull.

"You vill pay for those words…" Richtofen whispered as he hands began to crackle with energy and an evil black and green aura surrounded him.

Richtofen vanished on the spot and yelled "YOU VILL ALL PAY!"

"Guys, run to the city!" Nicholas shouted as a wicked series of explosion began to rip through the area.

The group then ran for their lives as the irate Doctor tried to killed them all.

"BURN AND DIE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Richtofen cackled as a series of explosions ripped through the area.

Samantha charged up a ball of energy and hurled it at the nearby town down the hill. The ball exploded as it hit the sign advertising the town's name, causing it to explode. The entire area city became engulfed in a green dome of energy, which then became murky and opaque.

"What the heck?" Joe said.

"RUN FOR IT!" Samantha yelled as she bolted towards the town, which the group quickly realized was now the next place they would experience a Zombie Map Training Scenario.

"IT'S THE END, OF THE WORLD, AS WE KNOW IT!" Nick screamed/sang as the explosions came closer and closer.

Joe ran through the force field, followed by Judith, Nick, Liam, John, Jess, and Andrew. Nicholas almost went through, but he realized that Samantha, Jax, Marcus, and Juliet hadn't made it through yet. He turned around to see the trio getting closer, but when each of them were a mere 20 feet from each other, another explosion ripped through the area, sending Nicholas into the force field, and sending the others back the way they came.

Leaving Jax, Juliet, Marcus, and Samantha in a very awkward situation as they weakly got to their feet.

"RUN FOR IT!" Marcus bellowed as he turned and began to run along the edge of the force field.

"Fools! Now you're trapped…and zhis time…we play by MY RULES!" the Doctor laughed as he gained control over the newly formed map.

A woman appeared from the shadows of a nearby tree and smiled at the retreating figures running from the Doctor. She was tempted to follow them, but realized that it'd be better to help kill the others.

"Oh Edward. You're adorable when you get like that" Sophia giggled as she walked in after the Zombie Slayers, walking though the force field like it was nothing.

**City:**

The group reappeared in a wicked burst of lightning in the middle of a town square. Nick, Joe, Judith, Liam, Jess, John, and Andrew all glanced at their surroundings with surprise.

"This place was destroyed just a few seconds ago" Jess said in wonder.

The city that now lay open before them looked like a paradise. The houses were all beautifully built and didn't even look American. They looked more like the Greek and Roman houses that the teens had seen in their history books, and made even those look trashy. They had a strange beauty to them in a way. A huge lake was visible in the distance, which complemented the whole scene of Paradise.

This only made the teens wary, for they knew what horrors lay in another place that seemed to be a Paradise. Shangri-La was another map that had been deceptive in its name, for it too seemed like a paradise. The group couldn't help but wonder what sort of surprises lay in store for them.

Nicholas then appeared from another bolt of lightning, sprawled down on the ground in pain. He slowly sat up, looking singed and dazed.

"Nicholas, what happened? Where are the others?" John asked.

"They got separated from us by Richtofen… I guess they're on their own for now" Nicholas said as Joe helped him get on his feet. Nicholas tried to shake off damage the point blank explosion had done to him. His arm was throbbing and he felt as though he could barely walk.

Nothing a little Stamin-Up and Juggernog wouldn't fix.

Each one of them was armed with two grenades, an M1911, and a combat knife. John sighed, holding up his crappy pistol and said "I hope I can find another Winter's Howl. I'll be honest, I kinda liked that gun"

"It really did suit you. It was like your own signature gun" Judith added.

"Yeah, I really hope I can get another one" John repeated with a small smile.

"You will. FlygonN wouldn't neglect that kind of plothole" Jess said.

"Oh yes he would" Nick said, earning a slap in the head from Nicholas.

"_You are now in my world, and you will play by my rules"_ Richtofen said to all of them.

(Round I)

A Zombie emerged out of the earth, only to be shot six times by Andre and then stabbed in the head. Everyone simply knifed and slashed at the Zombies, some of them taking the five/SIX shots and then knife approach to maximize the amount of points they got.

"Hey, look over there!" Judith said pointing to something glowing blue on a nearby wall.

It was an M14, stuck to the side of the wall surrounded by a chalk outline, but it was immersed in a glowing blue aura. The group slowly walked over to it, and John muttered "Richtofen's made some changes"

"The M14 looks like it's a newer model" Judith said as she bought it and readied the gun.

Jess sprinted over to the side of a building, spotting another glowing blue light, and she grabbed an Olympia. Jess shouldered the shotgun and said" Let's look around"

"Behind you" Nicholas said calmly, pointing to the last Zombie limping towards her.

Jess spun around and blasted the Nazi Zombie in the face, causing it head to explode in a shower of blood, ending the round.

(Round II)

The group began to explore their surroundings, trying to get a feel for the area.

They seemed to be in a town square-like setting, with buildings on both sides of them. There was a set of large stairs in the middle of the town, leading up to a sort of pedestal-like structure.

And on top of it was the Pack-A-Punch machine.

"OK, this is waaaay to easy" Nick said as he walked over to it.

"Watch it Nick, it could a tra…actually, never mind. Go ahead. I'm sure it has candy in it too" Liam said.

"I'm may be an idiot sir, but there is one thing I am not, and that sir, is an idiot" Nick said as he walked over to the Pack-A-Punch Machine.

It seemed to just be sitting there, which struck the group as odd. The group made a mental note of the location of the Pack-A-Punch machine for later, due to lack of points, as well as the Quick Revive machine that was propped up against a Doric column placed next to wall next to the Olympia. They would need to get the power running first, and then get perks.

They then noticed a strange looking object in the middle of a long road, leading into a thick white mist that obscured their vision and made seeing any more of the map impossible. It was an enormous black carriage, with two black robotic horses snorting and neighing at the front. A robotic driver, complete with a hat, was sitting on a black cushioned seat. The driver's eyes were glowing blue, and he was utterly still.

"OK, that must be there to help us get to other parts of the map" John said to the others as the Zombies began to attack.

"So what's with the mist?" Judith asked.

"Not sure. Anyone wanna brave going in it?" Joe asked as he knifed a Zombie in the chest twice, earning 130 points.

"I'll do it" Nick volunteered.

Liam smiled like Christmas had come, and the group quickly eliminated the remaining Zombies save for one, which Jess was keeping occupied by running around in a circle. Nick stood at the edge of the road, about thirty yards in front of the carriage, and he stared into the mist uncertainly.

"Well…YOLO" Nick said walking into the mist.

"So…anyone wanna make a bet on how long he lasts?" Liam asked.

"I'll take some of that action" John said.

"Me too" Joe, Andrew, and Nicholas said as well.

Nicholas thought Nick would last ten seconds or survive, while Andrew bet longer than that. Liam bet he'd die, or at least down in the fog, while Joe bet that he would down and then spectate, and John thought that he'd come running back here and then down.

Five seconds after the bet had been made, they heard Nick scream shrilly.

Nick burst out of the mist with a small gnarled Zombies slashing and dry humping his face. Nick was screaming in terror and pain, and was jabbing the creature with his knife.

"Get em' off! Get em' off! Get em' off! He smells like Zombie ass! Get him off!" Nick screamed as he fell to the ground, bashing the Zombie against a pillar.

The creature finally died and burst into dust, and Nick collapsed on the ground. Everyone tried to hold in their laughter, save for Liam, who was cackling merrily.

"That was amazing" Liam said wiping tears from his eyes.

"I was…violated" Nick said hysterically in a high pitched voice.

Jess then fired five shots into the Zombies skull, ending the round.

(Round 3)

"So, who wants to ride in the carriage?" Nicholas asked.

"Sounds good to me" Andrew said as he walked over to the carriage and opening a small fence with 750 points.

"WELCOME. I AM YOUR AUTOMATED DRIVER! PLEASE HAVE A SEAT AND TAKE A LOAD OFF, OR ELSE YOU'LL BE TORN TO PIECES BY THE UNDEAD HORDES. THANK YOU, AND HAVE A NICE DAY" the robot said cheerfully.

"OK, scary much?" Judith said as she started blasting the heads off three Zombies with her M14.

Nicholas looked over at Nick, who was still looking disgruntled at what he had been subjected to.

"You OK?" Nicholas asked humorously.

"I just got molested by a feet tall Zombie. I may need some time to recover"

"After this is all over, I'll buy you a milkshake from Steak N' Shake" Nicholas offered.

"And like that, I'm recovered" Nick said cheerfully.

"So, was it…weird, or what? I mean, it was on your face, and you're a little...shaken up" Nicholas asked curiously.

"Technically it didn't have a penis, so it couldn't STICK anything anywhere…but it was the fact that it was _trying _that frightened me" Nick said with a shudder.

The group continued to fire at the Zombies as they slowly piled onto the carriage. The driver said "WELCOME. THANK YOU FOR BOARDING THE APOCALYPSE CARRIAGE. PLEASE KEEP YOUR ARMS AND LEGS INSIDE OF THE CARRIAGE, AND WE'LL BE DEPARTING FOR THE DOWNTOWN BABYLON"

"Babylon?" Judith said questioningly.

"Weird name. Think there's any significance to it?" John asked Nicholas, who closed his eyes thoughtfully.

"Babylon…there's something to this" Nicholas said with a frown.

The group then started as the carriage began to move. The remaining Zombies then leapt onto the side of the carriage and began to tear at the windows, ripping the black wooden boards on it. Nick and Andrew began to stab the Zombies with their knives, keeping them from damaging the carriage further.

Nicholas then noticed a faint bluish glow coming from the ceiling. He looked up and saw an MP5 stuck to the ceiling. When he pointed this out to the others, Jess and John both bought the SMG, reducing their points by a thousand.

The group then came to a large, grand looking bridge, which was only visible because the strange mist had lifted. Nicholas then spotted something strange in the distance as they drove along the bridge. Nicholas opened the carriage doors and without a second thought, jumped out of the carriage.

"Nicholas!" Jess yelled out.

Andrew jumped out of the carriage as well, sprinting through the fog after Nicholas. When Andrew stopped, he realized there was a very good reason Nicholas jumped off.

The sea of the bridge they were now on had very little fog surrounding it, and there was both a Perk-A-Cola machine here and a M16 attached to one of the support beams to the bridge, glowing slightly.

"See?" Nicholas said with a grin as he bought the M16.

Andrew shrugged and bought the gun as well, taking note of the Invizi-Fizz machine for later. The Zombies that had been chasing the bus were now coming after them, and the duo managed to pick off the remaining Zombies by blasting their heads off with the M16.

(Round 4)

Andrew and Nicholas both warily stood their ground as the Zombies burst from the mist and ran at them. Luckily, the M16 was strong enough to kill a Zombie in one shot at this point if one aimed for the head, so the two teens were able to easily keep the Zombies at bay. They also noticed that more Zombies than usual were coming at them.

"I guess if we stray from the main group, more of the main horde will come after us" Nicholas stated as he kicked a Zombie in the chest, sending it tumbling backwards. Nicholas then flipped his knife in the air and tossed it at the Zombies skull, downing it.

"Makes sense to me" Andrew said as he continued to blast at the horde.

The others had reached a new series of buildings, even grander than the ones they had seen in the main district of Babylon. There were large Gothic-style spires at the top of a huge church in the distance.

The group burst out of the carriage and quickly shot the Zombies that were sticking to the carriage off. They then set to explore their surroundings. There were two large buildings with open-able doors, each cost 750 points. Judith opened the first door, revealing an abandoned pub that was for some reason, utterly spotless. They noticed a workbench set to the side of the room as well, which drew Joe's attention.

"What's this?" Joe said walking over to the workbench and picking up a small pamphlet.

"Turbine, Harbinger, Power Ramp, Zombie Shield…I guess these are things that we can build? Good thing this came with instructions, as well as what we need and where to find them" Joe said as he scanned the page.

"Or maybe FlygonN is-" Nick began to say before John kicked him in the shin.

"Since Nicholas isn't here, I get to be the one to kick the crap out of you for breaking the fourth wall" John said.

"Well, it says here that we need to find some parts to make a turbine, which we can use to give power to certain things. Devastator parts are scattered throughout the map. Zombie shield parts are found where we first spawned, and the Power Ramp parts can be found at the docks" Joe said showing them what they needed to make a turbine.

A Fan.

A tail.

And a mannequin.

Easy enough.

The group spread out, going in pairs for safety's sake, and began to search the downtown area for the parts. The group kept a crawler alive for the sake of having some peace to search.

Jess opened the door to the other building and found the fan in a rundown bowling alley, which happened to be where Juggernog was.

Judith found the tail propped up against the fence next to the bus.

And John found the mannequin piece inside of the room with the workbench.

Joe began to build the turbine, with Jess keeping the crawler distracted. Just as Joe finished making the turbine, Jess shot the crawler, killing it.

"Why did you do that?" Joe asked.

"Why didn't you?" Jess countered.

"…"

"Exactly"

(Round 5)

The group continued to explore the downtown area, thankful that all of the doors were now open. So far they had found Juggernog, a strange Perk-A-Cola known as Tombstone, and a pistol on the wall, which turned out to be a B23R. Everyone except for Jess and John grabbed the 3-round burst pistol and used it to hold off the undead hordes coming at them.

Nicholas ducked under a Zombies swipe and bashed the empty M16 against the Zombies skull, sending it tumbling backwards.

"A Max Ammo would be real nice right about now" Andrew replied dryly as he emptied his final M1911 clip into a Zombie's skull, killing it.

"_**Insta-Kill!"**_ Richtofen called down.

"That'll work!" Nicholas and Andrew yelled with a grin as they slashed and hacked at the 20 Zombies surrounding them.

As the final Zombie fell, Nicholas said to Andrew "We need to get back to the others"

"You mean run through that mist?" Andrew asked pointing into the fog.

Nicholas nodded and said "Yep. And the only way we can do that-_**Max Ammo!"**_ Richtofen interrupted.

"Scratch that. We should be able to make it through the mist unscathed if we're quicker than the things chasing us. Right?" Nicholas said as he reloaded his M16.

Andrew reloaded both of his guns and nodded, and the duo quickly ran into the mist and heard two screeches. Andrew turned around and could see two small Zombies rushing towards them, quickly gaining on them as well. Andrew took aim and fired a few shots with his M16, shooting off both creatures.

"Nice!" Nicholas said with a laugh of relief, his injured legs screaming in agony.

"Reahhaaa! Reahhaaa!"

"Knew it wouldn't be that easy" Andrew sighed angrily as he fired another burst of bullets.

The duo quickly ran along the path, trying to keep the creatures off of them. The eventually burst through the mist and into a small area where they saw the others shooting at the Zombies that were bursting through the barriers in the buildings.

"Well, well, well, look who decided to join us" Joe said as he blew a Nazi Zombie's skull off.

"Hey, I did that for a reason. There's an M16 and an Invizi-Fizz back at a safe zone on the bridge" Nicholas said as he limped towards them.

"You OK?" Judith asked.

"I'll be fine once we get the power on and get Juggernog and Stamin-Up" Nicholas said with a tired smile.

"Juggernog's over there, and I think we can turn it on using this" Joe said pointing to the small turbine strapped to his back.

Joe explained the concept of buildable's to the others, and Nicholas sighed and said "OK, so in theory we can turn on the Perk-A-Cola machines?"

"In theory. Whether or not it'll work is debatable" John said with a shrug as he fired three rounds at a Zombie woman trying to charge at him. She fell to the ground with a groan as John reloaded his pistol.

John and Nicholas walked over to the Juggernog machine as Joe set down the turbine, which began to spin wildly and radiate electricity to the area around them. The Juggernog machine turned on and all of the teens bought a bottle, choking down the spicy drink. As soon as they drank the concoction however, they didn't feel the rush of energy that normally accompanied drinking Juggernog.

"What gives?" Andrew said with an annoyed scowl.

"I guess we have to turn on the power" Nicholas said as he fired a few bursts of the M16 at a few Zombies roaming into the room, ending the round.

(Round 6)

A Nuke appeared when the last Zombie fell, and Nick quickly ran through it, causing an explosion to sound off in each of their ears and a flash to blind them.

"_**Kaboom!"**_ Richtofen said gleefully.

"Shut up Richtofen!" Jess yelled angrily.

"_**FETCH ME THEIR SOULS!"**_ Richtofen growled angrily.

The sky suddenly grew dark and the group heard the sound of dogs growling. They ran out of the room and saw the Hellhounds come down in streaks of blue lightning, growling and snarling loudly.

"Everyone stay right here. They'll all come towards us from the front, and we can work together to kill them all" Nicholas said as he quickly reloaded his M16.

The group opened fired onto the Hellhounds, which weren't much of a challenge at round 6. The group quickly ended the round and after reloading all of their weapons, Jess walked through the Max Ammo.

"_**Max Ammo!"**_ Richtofen called, sounding still cheerful.

(Round 7)

"What a nutjob" Jess said.

"Yep. Come on, let's get back to the carriage" Nicholas said, walking back towards the carriage.

As they were walking, Nick noticed a long pole sticking up out of the ground. It was pure white, and was glowing slightly. He walked over to it and heard a strange noise, and he tapped the pole. The pole made a activation sound that was associated with Easter Egg songs, and Nick grinned.

"WELL, I HAVE TO ADMIT. DIDN'T THINK YOU'D SURVIVE THIS LONG" the driver admitted as the group piled into the carriage.

Jess walked over to the driver and slashed him with her knife. The driver didn't respond, though when Jess knifed him for the fourth time, he turned around, his eyes now glowing and said "PLEASE DON'T DISTRACT THE AUTOMATED DRIVER"

"Jess, leave him alone. Let him do his job" Nicholas said as the others began to fire out of the windows of the carriage, keeping the undead at bay.

"NOW DEPARTING FOR THE BABYLON DOCKS"

The carriage began to move forward and the group sat down, taking a moment to relax.

"Hey look, the Zombies are running!" Joe laughed as he pointed out the back window.

The Zombies were in fact running now, well, more like running at a full sprint like hell had come. It looked so absurd that Jess and Judith burst out laughing. Nicholas and Joe decided to make a game out of it and began to fire their guns at the Zombies, trying to kill them as they ran, which proved to be a pretty effective strategy. Joe ended up killing five Zombies before they got to the docks while Nicholas killed seven.

"Suck it! I won!" Nicholas said triumphantly.

"I was lagging" Joe replied.

"Joe, that excuse won't work here" Nick said.

"Oh my god, wouldn't it be amazing if there was a glitch on this map?" Andrew said with a wide grin on his face.

"Does Richtofen know about those?" Jess asked.

"Nope. And let's keep it that way" Nicholas said as he stepped out onto the street once more.

They were now at a series of docks overlooking the lake. There was a large warehouse in front of them, made of some sort of beautiful simmering stone-like material. Judith opened the gates of the warehouse and the group looked inside, surveying their new surroundings.

The inside of the warehouse was mostly empty, with several large metal crates stacked neatly throughout the room. A shotgun chalk outline was on the wall next to a deactivated Speed Cola machine. There were several power cords leading outside, which Joe took note of immediately.

"Come on! This way!" Joe said running towards an opening which led to a small dirt road.

As Joe turned the corner, a Screecher Zombie rounded the corner and swiped at Joe twice in the chest, downing him. Jess fired a few bursts with her MP5 and blew the Zombie's skull off. Jess ran over to Joe and pulled out a small syringe, and inserted it into the claw marks, and while it slowly healed the wound, it just wasn't as effective as a Quick Revive syringe.

Joe muttered "Thanks" and followed the cords that led to a small shack, which Joe opened. A small chalk arrow that looked like a lightning bolt was pointing downwards, which meant that this was the route one should take if they wanted to turn on the power.

Nicholas eyed the tall, wicked looking tower looming above them. It looked like a demonic cell phone tower of some kind, and he made note of it for later.

Joe eyed the drop into the strange room by the shack and said "Who wants to follow me?"

Andrew and Nick volunteered, while the others continued to search outside for more weapons and perks. Joe dropped down the hole, followed by Andrew and Nick.

"Come on, while they mess with the power, we should keep these Zombies off their backs.

The group settled down next to the shack, firing at anything that came near them. The round ended fairly quickly, and ended when Judith fired twice at a Screecher's skull with her M16.

(Round 8)

Nicholas walked away from the group and began to look around. John and Judith joined him while the others stayed behind. Nicholas spotted a small worktable like they had seen a the last stop, and he walked over to it and said "If Joe can do it, so can we"

Nicholas picked up a small manual and said "Ramp…"

John and Judith looked over Nicholas's shoulder and saw the parts required. A metal clamp, support beam, and a large board.

John found the ramp as he ducked under a Screecher's arm and fired an entire clip into its chest. The Screecher dropped a Double Points, which he grabbed.

"_**Double Points!"**_ Richtofen proclaimed.

John grabbed the ramp and quickly hauled it over to the workbench and placed it on top of it. Judith found the metal clamp at the foot of the stairs, and she quickly brought that over to the ramp and attached it to the end of it. Nicholas found the support beam just outside of the warehouse and brought it over to the workbench, and the trio began to fire at the Zombies, reducing the number attacking them by aiming for the heads. Nicholas grabbed the third and final piece to the ramp and attached it to the proper place, which was indicated by several chalk marks. Nicholas set down the ramp and noticed that it led to the second floor of the warehouse, where not only did he find Claymores, but a strange chalk outline that showed a pair of brass knuckles.

"What are these?" Nicholas said as he walked over to the knuckles.

"6000 points!? Jeez..." Nicholas said, examine g the knuckles.

"It's still kinda early, so they have to be good still, plus they're double what the Bowie Knife is worth…I'll get em'" Nicholas decided as he bought the Galvaknuckles.

Nicholas grinned as a slim jolt of electricity crackled in between the knuckles. Nicholas walked down the ramp and showed off his Galvaknuckles to John and Judith, who didn't have enough points to get them, and had no inclination to get them.

"Still, kinda cool though" Judith admitted as Nicholas punched a Zombie in the skull and killed it instantly, hearing a satisfying sizzling sound as the electrical melee weapon made contact with Zombie flesh.

Nicholas chuckled, and without thinking, punched his open palm with the Galvaknuckles. Nicholas howled in agony and began to shake his hand wildly while Judith and John snickered at him.

"SON OF A B!TCH!" Nicholas yelped as he shook his hand.

Meanwhile: 

Joe jumped down the hole and landed in a pure white room filled with pure white panels. He walked down the small hallway and noticed that they hallway was leading towards the large lake. The hallway was very long, and the more they followed it, the further out under the lake the trio got. Eventually, they came out to a large room with an electrical dynamo in it, which consisted of a large tube with a large 115 meteorite in it.

Nick, Joe, and Andrew walked down a small stairway and walked along a small catwalk before seeing another workbench, this time displaying what they needed in order to build a Power Switch.

"Power Box. Handle…Hand!? Really?" Joe asked in surprise.

"Gross" Nick said.

"Come on you pansies, let's look around" Andrew said as he walked over to the side of the room and began to scan around for anything of use.

Nick offered to run down the hallway and check to see if anything was down there. Joe found the hand right off the bat to his displeasure, and jammed his knife through it to gingerly pick it up. He tossed it onto the workbench and Andrew shook his head with a smirk. Andrew found the Power Box by the container housing the 115 Meteorite, and hauled it over to the workbench and began to attach it to the wall.

Nick walked down the hallway and he eventually found a handle to the Power Switch. He also found what looked like to be the frame of a large gun in the hallway. It looked like a cross between a Thundergun and a bazooka. He then saw the Group 935 emblem on the side of it, and he realized that this chunk of metal was special. Nick made a note to grab it before they left before sprinting down the hallway.

"Guys, I found what looked like the frame to a weapon in that hallway" Nick said.

"Really?" Andrew said with interest.

"Good job man. Did you get the handle?" Joe asked, and Nick nodded and walked over to the workbench and attached the handle to the Power Box, and then the hand to the Power Box.

"Let me get that frame first. I may not be able to get it once we turn on the power" Nick said.

Andre and Joe frowned and said "What makes you say that?"

"Nothing. Just hold on" Nick said as he sprinted down the hallway. Nick returned with the device attached to his back. He gave the two teens a thumbs up and Andrew pulled down on the switch.

ZZZZZZTTT!

The generator fired up, and a wall of electricity appeared, blocking their path back. However, a small door opened in the side of the all.

"Told ya" Nick said with a grin.

Meanwhile:

A lone man walked down a destroyed highway, his stride purposeful and strong. He had his hands in his pockets and he was whistling a faint tune. He had short spikey black hair, a very handsome face, and had on black sunglasses, which was odd, due to the darkness of night surrounding him. He wore a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and a thick leather jacket. He eyed the destruction around him with distaste, and said "The Doctor's war on humanity is pretty one sided"

RAAH!

A Juggernaut suddenly burst from the earth and clawed at the young man, who scowled angrily at the Zombie. The Juggernaut burst from the earth and threw a punch at the young man, who ducked under the punch with an inhumane burst of speed and did a backwards handspring to avoid a powerful backhanded slap.

"Away with you!" the young man yelled as he pulled out a glowing white pistol and shot the Zombie in the head three times, killing it.

"I hope Illuzio can come through with those guys he was talking about. Otherwise, there'll be no stopping him or Yena" the young man muttered as he put away his pistol.

"_Sieger, when the time comes, I know they can save this world. I know it"_ Illuzio's words echoed in his mind.

The breeze then picked up, and the young man shivered. He zipped up his black leather jacket and continued to his walk.

"I don't really need to walk, not when I can teleport, but it does wonders for the mind" the young man mused as he walked around a destroyed car.

Vrrom!

"What the-? A running vehicle? There should be no more survivors in this area" the young man said as he turned around.

A young woman riding a battered motorcycle was flying down the hallway. She had dirty blond hair splashed with blood and had a Pack-A-Punched gun on her back, and zoomed by. She had a terrified expression on her face, like she was fleeing from the pits of hell, and a host of demons were chasing her. The girl didn't pay the man any mind, but the young man recognized her, and he noticed the trail of blood that she was leaving behind from her injured leg.

"Someone's in a hurry…wait, she looks like…" the man said with a smile.

"She's supposed to be with…damn him!" the man swore before he vanished in a burst of black flames.

Meanwhile:

Nicholas felt a rush of energy flow through him as the power flickered on. The lights on the warehouse began to turn on and off before finally turning and staying on. The rush of energy, Nicholas realized, was Juggernog taking effect. John and Judith let out a sigh of relief as the Perk-A-Cola took effect.

Nicholas swung around and sucker-punched a Zombie in the stomach before punching a Nazi Zombie in the skull. Nicholas let out a laugh as he mowed down a wave of 12 Zombies with no effort, gaining points like mad. John and Judith continued to blast the heads of Zombies, with the final Zombie downing when John shot its head with two bursts of the B23R.

(Round 9)

Joe's voice could be heard coming from above them, and Joe suddenly fell from a hole in the top of the warehouse. He let out a yell before landing comfortably on a pink mattress conveniently there.

"Hey guys. Power's on" Joe said.

"We noticed numbnuts" Nicholas said.

Jess's head popped around the corner and giggled "Hehe…numbnuts"

"AAHHHH!"

Nick suddenly plummeted from the ceiling and crashed into Joe, downing the two of them. Andrew's head popped out of the hole in the ceiling and said "Yep, not going to fall for it, literally, like these two dorks"

Andrew dropped down from the ceiling, landing next to the two teens now getting revived.

"Watch where you land next time" Joe grumbled.

"Blah blah blah, your needs" Nick said sticking his tongue out.

Joe scowled and walked over to the shotgun outline on the wall, buying it. Joe cocked the Remington experimentally and said "I can live with this"

The others joined the group in the warehouse, and Nicholas said "OK, who wants Speed Cola?" just as the Zombies began to come into the warehouse and the warehouse barriers.

The group was able to both fend off the Zombies and get people Speed Cola. Nicholas, Joe, John, Jess, and Liam all bought it while simultaneously fending off the Zombies. It was obvious Richtofen was playing for keeps, as the Zombies continued to stream into the Warehouse.

"Fall back to the Carriage!" Nicholas yelled as he as he punched a Zombie in the head, crushing its skull and killing it.

Joe swiftly reloaded the Remington and fired shot after shot at the horde now coming at them. Nick was the first one on the bus, and yelled "COME ON!"

Judith quickly jumped onto the carriage, followed by Jess, Liam, Andrew, and John. Joe and Nicholas were slowly backing up towards the carriage, shooting at the Zombies still coming at them.

"Remember that one time at Band Camp…" Nicholas began to say as he quickly dived into the horde and punched three Zombies with the Galvaknuckles, killing them instantly.

"Which time?" Joe asked with a laugh as he implemented "shotgun to the face" to a Screecher. And by that, I mean he bashed his shotgun into a Screecher's skull.

"The time when I said you'd die in a Zombie outbreak" Nicholas said.

"Oh yeah, good times" Joe said with a grin as he ran back and quickly reloaded.

"Well, I was wrong. You aren't going to be the guy who cries like a baby and then gets torn apart by the undead hordes" Nicholas said.

"Wow…thanks. Way to make a guy feel important" Joe said sarcastically.

"No prob buddy. It's what I'm here for" Nicholas said.

Joe noticed a Insta-Kill nearby, so he grabbed it and promptly began shooting at the Zombies with his B23R.

"_**Insta-Kill!"**_ Richtofen proclaimed.

Nicholas was about to ask why he was shooting, but then he realized the Zombies were still pouring out, so he resorted to finishing off the horde with his M16 as the well. The others assisted by firing from the windows of the Carriage. The round ended shortly after that, and Joe and Nicholas hopped back on the carriage.

"NOW DEPARTING FOR THE BABYLON THE GREAT, MARKETING DISTRICT" the driver said.

(Round 10)

The group sat on the bus and took a moment to catch their breath, reloading their guns and getting ready for another wave. Judith noticed some Zombies chasing the bus, and took this moment to use the last bit of her M14 ammo. She began to pick off the Zombies chasing the bus one by one, and eventually the carriage made its way out of the mist and arrived at the Babylon Marketing District.

The group quickly burst out of the carriage, guns drawn. The Zombies were now bursting out of the ground and through the windows of the shops, and the group got ready to fight.

The Marketing District was similar to the downtown area of the city. Well-built and made of incredible materials. Some of the buildings seemed to be made of jewels and gold. Fine tapestries adorned the walls of the one already opened shop in the city, which housed the Bowie Knife, which Andrew and Liam both grabbed gleefully.

Nicholas ducked under a Nazi Zombie swipe and kicked it in the chest while punching a Zombie woman in the skull before spinning around and uppercutting the first Zombie in the jaw, tearing the skull right off of its neck.

John stood back to back with Nick, firing and blasting at anything that came near them. Nick noticed a huge pillar of blue light in the distance, and Nick ran towards the light. Nick opened the door and found the Mystery Box sitting there, next to a Perk-A-Cola known as Who's Who in the corner of a small shop.

Nick walked over to the Box and rolled. All of the other teens heard the music from the Box and slowly made their way to the Box just as Nick rolled again.

"Huh. Dual-Five Sevens and a Commando? Works for me" Nick said cheerfully as walked over to Who's Who and bought a bottle, downing the drink and spending the last of his points.

"Wow. Bubbly" Nick commented as he tossed the bottle on the ground.

"Litterbug!" Jess yelled angrily as Nick ran out of the room, ready to fight again.

Judith rolled and got the FAL, which she grabbed with a shrug.

Nicholas rolled on the Box and got a huge turret looking gun, which turned out to the RPD. Nicholas hefted the gun with a grin and said "Hehehe, nice!"

Jess rolled and got a SMR, which she took with a shrug.

Joe rolled on the Box and got a Python.

John rolled on the Box and got-

BOOM.

"_**Heahahahaha! Bye Bye!" **_Richtofen said cheerfully.

"Damn it Joe" John scowled as he reloaded his MP5.

"Hehehe, suck it nerd" Joe said with a laugh as he blew apart a Screecher with the six-shooter.

The group stepped back out into the Marketplace and continued to fight off the Zombies. Those who had gotten new weapons used them to great effect on the Zombies. Liam, Andrew, and Nicholas continued to knife and punch the Zombies, earning 130 points for each kill. Nicholas was particularly effective, easily getting enough points to replace those he had spent on the Galvaknuckles in the first place. The round ended when Joe blew apart a Screecher's skull with his Python with a point-blank shot.

(Round 11)

"The Mystery Box moved to the next spot" Jess said pointing to the fog.

"Let's get on the Carriage" Nicholas said to the others, who nodded.

"_**Fetch me their souls!"**_ Richtofen called down as the Hellhounds began to spawn around them, circling them.

The group quickly bunched together in a circle and fired at the Hellhounds as they charged from all sides. Nicholas, Liam, and Andrew slashed and punched the Dogs, killing them with ease. The group heard an audible growl of annoyance from Richtofen as Joe walked through the Max Ammo.

"_**Max Ammo!"**_ Richtofen called down.

"Shut it you psychotic Nazi" Judith snapped.

"You OK?" Andrew asked.

Judith scoffed and walked towards the carriage, but not before giving Liam a hard glare. Liam sighed and said "I thought it was a good idea…you know, breaking up with her"

"I can see your logic in it. But it really doesn't make things any better" John said, following Judith.

(Round 12)

The next area of Babylon the group arrived at were the slums of the city, which were somehow still pleasant to be around. Another huge tower stood in the distance, looking out of place and looming over them all.

They arrived at a street that led down into a series of lower alleyways. The stone paths that led down were very narrow, with very tight corners to turn down. Nicholas led the way, punching anything that came near them. Judith noticed the 2nd glowing white pole making a strange noise and tapped it with her FN, causing it to activate. She smirked and sprinted to catch up with the others.

John, Jess, and Nick took out the Zombies that were dropping down from the roof tops while the others advanced down the side street. After opening a blocked pathway, the group came into a small town's square, which had to large buildings in it, one of which housed the Mystery Box. The group fired nonstop as they spread out and searched the area. Nick took the initiative and started a rave train in the middle of the town square, allowing the others to buy new things without being mauled by the horde.

Joe found the box inside of an old pottery shop, where he already saw a few Zombies roaming around. He pulled out his Python and fired the pistol at each of the Zombies, blowing their heads to pieces. Joe then saw a few Zombies trying to break through the barrier on the side of the bar. A few well-aimed shots later, the Zombies fell to the ground.

Judith rolled again and got an SVU-AU, which she took silently. She passed Liam as he walked into the room, giving him another cold glare. Judith huffily walked out of the room, sniper rifle over her shoulder.

"I kinda feel like a jerk" Liam said with an embarrassed chuckle.

"You kinda are" Joe said unhelpfully, earning a kick in the nuts courtesy of Liam.

"Prick. OK, let's roll" Liam said as he rolled on the Box, and he ended up getting a strange kind of grenade.

"What the hell are these?" Liam asked as he clipped three of the grenades to his belt.

"EMP grenades according to the Zombie wikia section on Black Ops II" Jess said.

"That page doesn't even exist yet!" Nicholas grunted, earning a giggle from Jess.

"My turn!" Jess yelled as she ran to the Box and rolled.

Jess ended up getting a rather odd looking gun. It had a large bottle attached to it, and looking like it was haphazardly built from junk. It looked like a weird sort of squirt gun. Jess ran over to the Mule Kick in the corner of the room, bought a bottle, chugged it down, and grabbed her new gun. She grinned and pulled the trigger at Joe.

A huge spray of purple liquid splashed at Joe's feet. Joe only had time to yell before he slipped and slammed down face first on the floor.

Hard.

"…whoops"

"That…f*cking…hurt" Joe said as best as he could through a face full of floor.

"That's the best gun ever!" Liam cackled.

"Of all time!" Nick yelled as he continued to ran around in a circle.

Jess, who had dubbed the new gun the Sliquifier, ran out into the town square and fired the gun again, this time causing about ten Zombies to dissolve/explode as the purple liquid doused them. She fired it again at a spot that Nick crossed a few seconds later, causing him to slip. Unlike Joe, who fell on the ground, Nick slipped and slammed into a nearby pole, which then knocked him to the ground.

He was promptly torn apart by Zombies.

As the now downed Nick lay there in the town's square, the others opened fire on the Zombies running at them. Meanwhile, Nick reappeared from behind the group, not looking pleased. He was glowing white for some reason, and his downed self was still lying out in the Town Square, with a bemused expression on his face.

"Thanks for the assist, a$$holes" the 2nd Nick said sarcastically.

"OH MY GOD THERE'S TWO OF THEM!? IT'S AN EPIDEMIC!" Liam screamed in horror.

Judith ended the round by sniping several Zombies heads off. Nick walked over and revived himself, explaining the Who's Who perk pretty well. As long as you could make it back to yourself and revive yourself successfully, you could keep your perks and weapons. If not, then your second self, which was armed with what you started the game with, could act as your second life.

As the last Zombie died, Nicholas noticed something odd that he hadn't noticed until now. Every time they killed a Zombie, ever since this whole mess began, a green light would flow out of the Zombies that they killed and fly out of the sky. He wondered what those lights were…

(Round 13)

Judith bought a bottle of Mule Kick as well, and said "Come on guys, let's move on to the next area"

"We should make the Box move first" Nicholas said, gesturing to the Mystery Box with his RPD.

John walked over to the Box and rolled, getting a Galil. He rolled again and got to his delight, a Winter's Howl.

"Wishes do come true" John said cheerfully as he held the Wonder Weapon with a grin.

Jess rolled on the box and traded her SMR for an RPG.

"Great, once again the nuttiest member of the team has the most powerful weapons" Nick said dryly.

Jess sprayed the ground at his feet, causing him to slip and fall down onto the ground, bashing his head on the wood floor.

"Ow…"

"Don't mess with Jess…heh, that rhymed" Jess laughed happily.

Nicholas rolled on the box and got-

BOOM.

"_**Heahahahah…Bye Bye!" **_Richtofen cackled.

The group decided to check out the other building, which housed Double Tap II. What the II meant, I don't even know, or really care. What did happen though is Joe bought a bottle of it while the others shot and slaughtered Zombies, which were coming hard in all directions. Nicholas punched a Zombie hard in the skull with his Galvakuckles, and was surprised when the Zombie growled and swiped at him back, sending him stumbling backwards. Nicholas punched the Zombie in the chest and said "I guess these are just a one-hit kill up to Round 13. Oh well"

"Come on you dorks, let's go!" Judith said as she ran back towards the Carriage.

The ground ran back towards the carriage, desperately trying to keep the Zombies away from them. Andrew grabbed an Insta-Kill somehow through the madness.

"_**Insta-Kill!"**_ Richtofen called.

Andrew and Liam ran ahead, slashing and slicing at anything that came near them, clearing a route to the bus. Nicholas continued to punch Zombies, glad that his Galvaknuckles were a one hit kill again, at least for the moment. Judith and Jess jumped into the Carriage and crouched down in the back of it and began to fire from the Carriage as the Insta-Kill expired.

The carriage began to move just as the last person, Nicholas, hopped onto the Carriage. The group aimed through the back window and fired at the hordes of Zombies chasing them, trying to cut down the horde somewhat. To their surprise, the round ended shortly after Nick fired a hole through a Screecher's skull.

(Round 14)

The arrived at the final unexplored section of the city of Babylon the Great, the Historical District. There was a huge statue of a giant seven headed dog, with a beautiful naked woman sitting down on top of it. At the base of the statue, there was a large inscription.

"Here lies the causation of the fall of Babylon The Great. This statue is dedicated to the Harlot of Babylon, who caused the ruin of this beautiful city. Babylon was once a paradise, with the greatest architects, sailor, navigators, artists, and musicians this world had ever seen. Upon the arrival of the Harlot, the descent into Hell began. The city fell, but it's legend and ruin lives on" Nicholas read.

"Weird. This is like that old bible story then. Babylon the Great. I wonder how this city exists though. It doesn't look like any kind of ancient city I've seen, and it doesn't look ruined…" John said.

"That is because this town is from another fold in reality, and doesn't apply to your realms laws either"

The group looked up in surprise and saw Illuzio sitting down on top of a small arch. He sighed and said "Just so you all know, I hate my job sometimes"

"What are you doing here?" Liam asked angrily.

"To help you" Illuzio replied.

"What did you mean this town is in a fold in reality?" John asked curiously.

"Like the dimension of Slenderman, this town lies in an alternate reality, not far from this one, in another dimension. The truth of what you see shall be revealed when this 'Easter Egg' is completed" Illuzio said, using air quotes when he said Easter Egg.

"Easter Egg?" Judith asked.

"Extra stuff in a Zombies Map" Liam clarified.

"I know what it is!" Judith snapped.

"Calm down already. Illuzio, why are you helping us?" Nicholas asked.

"I can't say. But the only way to get out is to unlock the secret of Babylon" Illuzio responded.

"How do we do it?" Jess asked curiously.

"I will give you instructions on how to escape this deceptive town. You are smart to be wary of it, for it is not what it seems. To escape Babylon, you must power up the four Spires of Light. One of you must harness the power of lightning, and strike the source of power to the Spires, but not before severing and replenishing the energy from within the city. You must then find and build the Wonder Weapon known as the Devastator. Unleash the power of the Devastator onto the point where the Spire's light combine and the path forward will be revealed" Illuzio recited.

"That's helpful" Nick said with a sigh.

"Be glad I helped you now instead of at round 45. Besides, I'm keeping the Zombies away while we talk" Illuzio replied.

"That's all I can do for you, at last for now. You're lucky Richtofen is more concerned with keeping you occupied than trying to kill you. Ciao!" Illuzio said as he snapped his fingers and vanished.

"That jester is really weird" John said shaking his head.

"Let's explore this section of the city, and then we'll come up with plan" Nicholas said to the others, who nodded.

A small square area around them held very little besides the statue of the Harlot. There was a souvenir shop that contained an AK74u and a Stamin-Up in it, but that was about it. Everyone but Joe bought a bottle of the perk, and Liam grabbed a AK74u off the wall.

The group quickly got out of the shop and ran back towards the carriage, where the horde of Zombies was coming for them.

Jess ran to the front and sprayed the crowd of Zombies with the Sliquifier, causing them all too confusedly fall onto the ground as they slipped in the purple muck. All of the affected Zombies then exploded violently.

"What kind of OP bullcrap is this?" Joe said in amazement.

"Someone's jealous" Jess said with a laugh as she walked towards the Carriage.

Nick sprinted by and jumped into the carriage, and by the time the others had managed to fight their way to it, it was already rolling away!

"Sayonara b!tches!" Nick said with a laugh as he rolled away on the carriage.

"That idiot" Nicholas sighed.

"Give me a sec, I wanna try somethin'" Liam said with a grin as he pulled out an EMP grenade and hurled it at the retreating carriage.

The grenade exploded in a blue electrical wave, shorting out the carriage and bringing it to a stop in the middle of the fog. Nick yelled angrily, and Liam smirked triumphantly.

"Run through the fog!" Nicholas yelled as he sprinted down the road.

Everyone but Joe easily made their way back to the bus, due to the fortune of having Stamin-Up. Nick was sitting down on the seat of the carriage, fuming silently.

"Next time you try that, I'm going to shove this EMP Grenade up your a-" Liam began to say before Joe placed a Turbine on the bus, starting it up again.

"YOU IDIOTS ARE WEARING ON MY NERVES" the driver said as the bus started back up, allowing them to escape the Zombie horde pursuing them.

"OK, the four spires have to be those tall metal towers at are scattered throughout the map. We should split into pairs and spread out across the map. I'll find the source of power to the spires, with Judith coming with me to activate the spire. Joe and John, go back the way we came and go the spire by the Docks. Liam and Nick, you head to the Downtown Area and check out the spire there. Andrew and Jess, you two need to go to the Slums. We should all go get any perks we need, as well as Pack-A-Punch our guns" Nicholas said to the others, who nodded in agreement.

The group arrived back at the Town Hall area, where they had once started. The Zombies were now coming in full force, and the group managed to keep the hordes of the undead at bay while they made their way to the Pack-A-Punch and Quick Revive. During the fight, John managed to snag a giant golden price tag.

"_**Time for a Fire Sale!"**_ Richtofen said music began to play and Box spawned everywhere.

Nicholas ran towards the closest Box, with everyone else firing at and killing Zombies, and rolled, getting a SMR. He scowled and rolled again, getting an RPG. He rolled again, and grabbed a machine gun that he liked the feel of.

"That's an M27" Jess said with a grin.

"You've got to keep off of the Internet. It's a bad place" Nicholas said shaking his head as he put the RPD on his back and held the M27 in his hands, testing the weight of it, which was lessened by the power of Stamin-Up. Nicholas felt a Zombie coming from behind him and was able to kill it when Liam appeared from behind it and slit its throat, assassin style.

"Like a ninja" Liam grinned as he twirled his Bowie Knife with a laugh.

"Come on Ninja Master, let's go!" Nicholas said as he ran towards Pack-A-Punch.

Nick spotted a strange looking series of wires and glowing parts attached to a small panel on the ground at his feet, and pointed that out to Judith, who grabbed it.

"Might be a part for that Devastator. Good job" Judith said with a slight smile as she walked over to the Pack-A-Punch.

Several members of the group managed to grab a bottle of Quick Revive. John, Andrew, Joe, and Judith all bought and choked down the fishy drink while the others took turns Pack-A-Punching their weapons.

Nicholas Pack-A-Punched the M27, getting the Mystifier. He Pack-A-Punched the RPD as well, and got the Relativistic Punishment Device (*RPD). Nick Pack-A-Punched the Dual-Five Sevens and got the Ultra and Violet, as well as Pack-A-Punching the Commando, getting the Predator.

Liam Pack-A-Punched the AK74u and got the AK74fu2, as well as upgrading the B23R to the B24R. Liam put away the AK74fu2 and held a Bowie Knife in one hand and the B24R in the other hand.

Judith upgraded her FN to the WN and the SVU-AS for the Shadowy Veil Utilizer (*SVU). Judith put away the WN and held the SVU in her hands, her fingers gripped tight around it.

Jess upgraded her MP5 to the MP115 Kollider, as well as upgrading her RPG to the Rocket Propelled Grievance (*RPG). Jess put the RPG on her back, the Sliquifier on her sidearm slot, and the MP115 Kollider in her hands. Jess eyed the Zombies with an eager smile

Joe Pack-A-Punched his Remington to the Rettified-870 Mechanical Cranium Sequencer.(*RMCS).Joe held his shotgun with a grin and said "This is going to be epic"

John Pack-A-Punched the Galil to the Lamentation and his Winter's Howl to the Winter's Fury, which he took back with a happy expression his face at finally having his favorite gun back

Andrew Pack-A-Punched his M16 to the Skullcrusher. As he put away his Pack-A-Punched gun, he smiled and put inthe Bowie Knife. The knife went into the machine, and out of it came a wicked looking serrated sword with black designs flowing down it, with grinning red skull symbol on the hilt of the sword. Andrew gleefully took it and swung the sword in an arc, relishing in it.

"I dub thee, Gutripper!" Andrew said with a grin.

"Feh. Not that cool" Liam said in a bored tone.

"All right everyone, get whatever perks you need. This won't be easy, but we've got to get out of here!" Nicholas said, and the others nodded as the last Zombie fell and the round ended.

(Round 15)

Meanwhile:

"We need to get in there!" Juliet yelled angrily as she kicked the barrier again.

"Juliet, why do you keep kicking it?" Jax asked curiously as he sat down on the ground.

"Because, it makes a really weird sound when I kick it. See?"

Juliet kicked the barrier, which made a "WOMWOMWOMWOMWOMWOM!" sound. Juliet growled angrily and pulled out her chainsaw and tried to tear through the barrier, but it had no effect.

Samantha angrily placed the palms of her hands onto the barrier and said "Come on, there's got to be a weak point in this thing somewhere"

"What are you searching for?" Marcus asked as he reloaded his gun.

"Any flaws in the barrier. It's immensely difficult to maintain a field like this. Richtofen gained control of this one, and so he has to deal with running it, which he has never done before, as far as I know. He doesn't know that there are some flaws in the design of this field, and I will find it before he realizes this…"

"Meaning?" Marcus asked.

"Meaning he is distracted, and that gives me time to look for a way in" Samantha said with an evil grin.

A few Zombies stumbled in from the woods, groaning and moaning as they moved towards the teens. Juliet revved her chainsaw and was readying herself to dismember the Zombies when Jax blasted them all away with a burst from his Zeus Cannon.

"Maybe next time" Jax said with a grin as he walked back over towards Samantha.

Juliet pouted and said "No fair"

Marcus shrugged and said "Do you ever think the author of this thing thinks he's being smart or witty at any point in this story?"

"Oh come on! Not Marcus too!" a voice yelled from within the Zombie Map.

"Probably, though if he does, he's an idiot. A very, very handsome idiot" Juliet said fondly.

"Seriously? Jeez, FlygonN, you've lowered the bar yet again" Jax said.

"I will kill you all in your sleep!" the voice yelled again from the force field covering the town.

Samantha told the others to wait there while she walked around the force field, still trying to find a flaw in the barrier. Samantha walked by about five times in the next hour, while the others picked off a few Zombies in the area.

At the sixth time, Marcus sighed and said "OK, seriously? Samantha, we're kinda bored. Did you find any flaws in the design?"

"Yes…and no…" Samantha aid slowly.

"What do you mean?" Juliet asked.

"I mean there is a weak spot in the field, and I can break through it given some time. But, it's at the top of the field, several hundred feet in the air. Not easy to get to" Samantha added.

Marcus pulled out a grappling hook and a sickle and handed it to Samantha.

"Get climbing" Marcus said with a laugh.

"What?"

"You're the only one who can get in there. Go help them, and make sure they get out safe" Juliet said, nodding to her.

Samantha nodded and began to climb. It took a while, but she finally made to the spot in the barrier that was weakest spot. Samantha smiled evilly and sang "Stupid Edward, you screwed up again…"

Meanwhile:

(Round 19)

John spammed his Winter's Fury, trying to stem the horde of Zombies that were coming at him. Joe frantically opened the small pathway to the spire and sprinted that way while John tried to hold the Zombies off.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!" John yelled as he switched to his Lamentation and began firing nonstop at the heads of the Zombies, which eventually managed to quell the tide of Zombies.

"Thank god" John sighed as he walked over to where Joe is.

"OK, Now that that's done and over with, we've got to activate this spire, and we've got to turn the power off, and then on again" Joe explained, and John nodded.

"I'll go down to the Power Room again, and I'll wait there until everyone's in position" Joe said.

"Then I'll stay up here" John said, and Joe walked over to the shack and jumped down the hole.

"Idiot" John muttered as he stood there by himself.

The group had managed to survive until Round 19, getting perks and obtaining the Plasma Stone, the third and final part to the Devastator. The finished gun was sleek and wicked looking, similar in size to the Thundergun but slimmer and longer, the Devastator was the coolest looking Wonder Weapon they had found so far. The gun itself was black with flowing red designs running down the sides of it, with the Group 935 Emblem carved into the side of it. The Plasma Stone was embed in the top of the gun, and could be fired fifty times, with five shots in reserve before becoming depleted.

Meanwhile, Jess and Andrew were trying to hold off the Zombie waves attacking them. Jess was particularly good at using her RPG, and while Andrew slashed and stabbed at the Zombies with Gutripper, she went up to a nearby ledge and began firing at the Zombies. After about a minute and a half of shooting, Jess realized something. She noticed that the Zombies that were coming towards her couldn't quite reach her, nor could they go around.

"Oh my god, I'm in a glitch!" Jess said happily as she set her RPG on the ground and looked at the growing crowd of Zombies gathering near her.

"The hell? Jess, are you in a glitch?"

"Yep. No boys allowed!" Jess said.

"Seriously!?"

"Yep"

The crowd of Zombies, realizing they couldn't kill Jess, turned to Andrew, who got into a stance with Gutripper.

"Bring it" Andrew said with a smirk.

Andrew slashed, stabbed, hacked, and decapitated as the Zombies charged from all sides. If possible, the Gutripper was an even better melee weapon than the Reaper was. The steel sword was effectively still a one-hit-kill weapon, even at Round 19. Andrew decapitated a row of Zombies before stabbing a Screecher through the skull, yanking the sword out in a spray of blood.

More Zombies spawned around him, and Andrew laughed and said "Bring all the meat heads you want to, you stupid Nazi. I'm going to cut each one to pieces!"

"And while he's distracted, I'll go over to the spire" Jess said happily as she skipped over to the large tower I the distance, setting down two claymores as she walked.

"I'm in position" Jess said.

"That's what she said" Joe said.

"Joe, I'm going to punch you in the head for that" Judith said in an annoyed tone over the radios they were talking in.

Nick continued to fire with his Ultra and Violet, blasting his way through to the Spire in the distance. They had not to finish the Easter Egg, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before they got out. Nick ducked under a Zombies swipe and pistol whipped the Zombie before blowing out its neck.

"Come on!" Nick yelled to Liam, who was mowing down a Rave Train of Nazi Zombies with his B24R.

Liam pulled out an EMP grenade and hurled it at the horde, causing them all to stop moving and stand around in confusion. Liam pulled out his AK74fu2 and opened fire at the distracted Zombies, finishing them off.

"Good, now if you're done playing, we can get back to work" Nick said with a laugh, to which Liam scowled.

"Watch out!" Liam yelled, pointing above him.

"Not going to fall for that" Nick scoffed as he walked back towards the Spire.

BAM!

Nick groaned as he fell to the ground, not downing, but still injured, as a Screecher lunged from the ceiling and pinned him to the ground.

"REAAAAH!" The Screecher screeched, deafening Nick with its powerful shriek.

Slinkkk!

Liam snarled as he decapitated a Screecher with a swish of his Bowie Knife. As its head fell onto the ground, Nick looked up at him in surprise. Liam had just saved his life, even though they pretty much argued and stuff every day back at school.

"Why did you save me?" Nick asked.

"I'm not letting any of you guys die. Not freakin' happening. Even though you're an idiot, you're still my friend. I'd rather die than let a friend down" Liam replied as he walked down to the spire, leaving Nick with his thoughts.

Liam walked over to the tower and said "I'm in position"

"Me too" Joe said, and John said "Yeah, I am too"

"How about you Nicholas?"

Nicholas sucker-punched a Zombie in the skull and kicked it to the ground, pulling out the RPD as he did. The crowd of Zombies was waiting for him to make a movie. Nicholas grinned and said "Come on you slimy morons. Make my day!"

The Zombie ran towards him and Nicholas opened fire with his RPD, blasting the heads off of the Zombies, tearing through them with little difficulty, even at Round 19. Judith stood at the back, calmly sniping at the Zombies from afar from a crouched position. Every time she fired her SVU, she blew a hole through a row of Zombies with the Pack-A-Punched sniper rifle. The group had decided that Judith would be the one to wield the Devastator, which was strapped to her back. Judith angrily fired at the Zombies, still annoyed and agitated about being dumped. She knew why it had to be done, but some resentment was still there.

Judith sighed deeply, calming down, and said "I just hope things between us can get fixed when this mess blows over…"

Nicholas ducked under a Zombie swipe and pulled out a small circular device that was strapped to his wrist.

"All right, time to see if this thing works Joe!" Nicholas said, slapping the device.

A huge circular shield expanded from the device, forming into a shield with a diameter of three feet. Luckily it was very light, so Nicholas could easily move with it. Finding the parts to it was easy when they could run through the fog, thanks to Stamin-Up and their Pack-A-Punched weapons. Nicholas bashed a Zombie over the head with Aegis, his shield, and punched it square in the jaw with his Galvaknuckles.

Judith reloaded her sniper rifle, getting up and making her way towards the spire, which was behind the spot where they had spawned at. She saw a small lever at the base of the tower, and went to wait by it until the others were ready.

Judith then noticed that she was standing next to another glowing white pole. Judith tapped it with her SVU, causing the Pole to activate. The song didn't play though.

"Weird. I wonder if it'll start playing once we finish the Easter Egg?" Judith asked herself.

Nicholas finally killed the last Zombie, and as the round ended, he ran over to the Box and said "Is everyone ready?"

"Yep!" everyone said at the same time.

"Joe, you're first"

"Got it" Joe said as he pulled down the switch in the Power Room, causing the whole city to go dark. Joe turned the power back on, causing the generator in the room he was in to reactivate.

"OK, now everyone turn on the spires!" Nicholas yelled, getting ready to punch the Power Box.

All four of the teens at the spires pulled the levers, causing the spires to surge and give off a wicked white light, with a burst of white electricity charging at the tip of the spires. Nicholas ran at the Power Box and punched the opening in it, causing a surge to go through the towers. A burst of lightning shot from each of the four towers on the map, causing them all to collide and converge at a spot above the middle part of the Lake.

"Judith!" Nicholas called to the black haired girl, who nodded and pulled out the Devastator.

Judith charged up the newest Wonder Weapon and fired it. A huge red burst of energy soared from the Devastator and flew across the lake, striking the glowing ball of white lightning above the lake. The ball flashed golden, and everyone felt a rush of energy go through them.

"Good job guys. And I think we just got a free perk for doing the Easter Egg" Nicholas said with a grin.

As it turned out, they did get a free random perk for completing the Easter Egg.

Nicholas had bought Juggernog, Speed Cola, Stamin-Up, and Invizi-Fizz, and had received Tombstone as his random perk.

Joe had got Juggernog, Speed Cola, Quick Revive, and Double Tap II, and had received Mule Kick as his perk.

Jess bought Juggernog, Speed Cola, Stamin-Up, Mule Kick, and had received Invizi-Fizz as her perk.

Judith had got Juggernog, Mule Kick, Quick Revive, Stamin-Up, and had received Speed Cola.

Liam had gotten Juggernog, Speed Cola, Stamin-Up, Invizi-Fizz, and had got Tombstone.

Andrew bought Juggernog, Quick Revive, Invizi-Fizz-, and Stamin-Up, and had received Speed Cola as his random perk

John had bought Juggernog, Speed Cola, Stamin-Up, and Quick Revive, and had received Tombstone.

Nick had bought Juggernog, Who's Who, Speed Cola, Stamin-Up, and had Tombstone. The others wondered how he could possibly use two perks that really only applied to Zombie Map scenario's, but they discarded that thought for now.

John had bought Juggernog, Speed Cola, Stamin-Up, and Quick Revive, and had received Tombstone.

"Kinda cool, but what was the point of that?" Joe asked the others, who continued to look at the glowing ball of light above the lake.

All of a sudden, a bolt of blue lightning streak down from the sky and crashed down next to Nicholas and Judith. It was Samantha, who shook her head and gathered her senses, and then realized she was now holding both an M1911 and a Wunderwaffe. Samantha looked at the two teens and said "Are you two OK?"

"Never better" Nicholas said with a laugh.

"Eh" Judith shrugged.

"We've been trying to get in. I managed to make a hole in the barrier long enough so I could get into the Map. It seems as though I'm part of this game too" Samantha said showing them, her knife.

Samantha closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She then suddenly flashed red, yellow, orange, green, dark green, light green, blue, Light Blue, and purple.

"There, every perk available on the map" Samantha muttered.

"Did you just hack the game?" Nicholas asked.

"I've been calling the shots in these things for way longer than Edward has" Samantha said with a grin.

The ball suddenly flashed white and then sank into the lake slowly, which made the teens uneasy. All of a sudden, the water in the lake exploded violently, and the entire City of Babylon began to explode over and over and over again, destroying the city and encircling it with a ring of flames. The explosions sent the teens crashing onto the ground, even Samantha was knocked off her feet.

_**(Start "Beast and the Harlot" by Avenged Sevenfold)**_

Dramatic and explosive music began to play as the smoke around them began to clear. The city around them looked ragged and destroyed, with veins of fire and lava flowing freely now. The city was hardly a place worth living. Rather, it looked like a place demons would haunt and roam. It looked as though it were truly a city of evil.

From the lake rose a gigantic mass, with raging and angry flames running down the length of it. To the group's horror, it was an enormous seven-headed Hellhound, with each head sprouting jagged and deadly horns on its head that could easily impale them. On top of the beast stood a woman, cloaked in bright red and yellow flames. She didn't seem to be wearing anything but the flames, but she looked down on the teens with an expression of coldness.

"Kill zhem my dear. Kill zhem all" Richtofen whispered softly in Sophia's ear, and she nodded.

"RUN!" Samantha yelled as the Beast roared loudly and every one of the heads lunged at them.

The group scattered and naturally opened fire on the heads of the Beast from the every corner of the map.

"So what's the plan?" Joe asked Nicholas.

"THIS!" Samantha snarled and she pulled the trigger of her Wunderwaffe, charging a small white ball of lighting at the tip and firing it, sending it towards the Beast. The lightning from the blast shocked the Beast, causing all seven heads to roar loudly in pain while the woman on top of the Beast cringed in pain.

"Judith, do you have the Devastator?" Samantha asked, somehow knowing of the weapon.

"Yep" Judith said, showing her the gun.

"Good. I've going to overcharge the spires. We have to reactivate them, again, and overcharge the system with the Wunderwaffe. Judith, you Liam, Andrew, and Nick stay here and attack the Beast, keep it distracted. Judith, keep the Beast at bay with the Devastator. Nicholas, Liam, Jess, John. Go to the spires. I'll stay here and help put this Hellhound down" Samantha said as she strode over to the Pack-A-Punch Machine, putting in her M1911 and getting a Mustang and Sally.

_This shining city built of gold, _

_a far cry from innocence,_

_There's more than meets the eye round here, _

_look to the waters of the deep._

_A city of evil!_

Scatter!" Samantha screamed as the Beast descended upon the teens, though they were scattered, they were vulnerable.

Judith yelled as the Beast opened its maw and sprayed liquid flames down on a spot not even a foot away from her. Judith spun around and fired several bursts of the Devastator, causing the head to snarl angrily and back off, several black holes blasted into it face. Nicholas and Samantha jumped in front of her and opened fire with their weapons, trying to keep the now three heads attacking them from tearing them to pieces.

_There sat a seven-headed beast, _

_ten horns raised from his head._

_Symbolic woman sits on his throne,_

_but hatred strips her and leaves her naked._

_The Beast and the Harlot._

_Wooooooah!_

_She's a dwelling place for demons._

_She's a cage for every unclean spirit, _

_every filthy bird,_

_and makes us drink the poisoned wine to _

_fornicating with our kings._

_Fallen now is Babylon the Great._

Joe and John jumped to the sides to avoid the Beast as it snapped at them, its head lunging forward and tearing the warehouse to pieces. The once graceful structure was now utterly destroyed and on fire, and Beast snarled angrily as its head reared and opened, revealing a charging blast of fire.

"John!" Joe yelled desperately, his fingers clicking the empty trigger of his recently acquired and Pack-A-Punched MTAR uselessly.

John took aim and carefully fired continuously at the ball of energy charging up in the mouth of the Beast with his Winter's Fury. Eventually, the ball exploded violently, causing the Beast to snarl and roar angrily. The woman on top of the Beast slid down the Beast's neck and flung her arms down at the two teens, massive coils of flames rolling from her. John let out a yell as the flames singed him, almost downing him. Joe grabbed a Symtex Grenade, purchased earlier in another section of the Slums that they had missed before, and hurling it at the woman. She sidestepped it, but retreated on the Hellhound's head. Another Beast's head took its place, this one with two jagged horns on its head.

_The city dressed in jewels and gold, _

_fine linen, myrrh with pearls._

_Her plagues have come all at once _

_as her mourners watch her burn._

_Destroyed in an hour._

Liam continued to open fire on the Hellhound, with Nick backing him up with extra gunfire. The two had managed to secure C.N from the Mystery Box, listening to him gripe for being stuck in it for 18 Rounds, and were now effectively using him to wave off the flames, using him like some sort of psychic wand shield or something. Nick managed to get a good hit on the snout of another two-horned Hellhound, making it snarl at snap at them. A Devastator blast slammed into its skull, causing it to road in agony as blood rushed down from the wound.

_Merchants and captains of the world, _

_Sailors, navigators too._

_Will weep and mourn this loss_

_With her sins piled to the sky,_

_The Beast and the Harlot._

_Woooah!_

Andrew slashed and hacked at the Head of the monster, trying desperately to keep it away. Jess had already blinded the head that was attacking them with the Sliquifier, which was how Andrew could get so close. Andrew delivered a powerful backhanded swing to the Beast's skull before taking a few steps back and taking a running leap at the head, jamming Gutripper into the nose of the Hellhound, which snarled angrily in agony and flung Andrew on the ground, dislodging Gutripper as well.

_She's a dwelling place for demons._

_She's a cage for every unclean spirit, _

_every filthy bird_

_and makes us drink the poisoned wine _

_to fornicating with our kings._

_Fallen now is Babylon the Great._

Nicholas barely avoided being devoured by the Hellhound and was saved with Judith snipped the Beast head three times in the cornea, which was enough to blind one of its eyes. She then pulled out the Devastator and fired a shot into its face, sending it snarling back to its body.

Sophia apparently had fire powers, because she was now hurling fireballs and spamming pyroblasts at them fiercely. While the Beast was slow and could only reach so far, she had the advantage of deadly long-ranged attacks and being scarily accurate. She hadn't hit them yet, but she came dangerously close for too many times for her aim to be anything other than skill.

Samantha aimed the Wunderwaffe again and fired another burst, this time injuring two of the heads and them both to retreat closer to the main body, and there they stayed.

"KEEP DAMAGING THE HEADS!" Nicholas yelled as he unloaded another clip of his RPD into the other Hellhound head lunging at them, Judith fired another burst of the Devastator.

"Nicholas! Go to the Spire! Each of you! Go to the spires! Joe, turn the power off and on again, and throw the switches the second it comes back online!" Samantha bellowed as she charged up another shot and fired it, this time scoring a shot on the direct body.

_The day has come for all us sinners._

_If you're not a servant, _

_you'll be struck to the ground!_

Nick jammed C.N. into the side of the Hellhound's head, causing the entire thing to dissolve into a cloud of sand. Nick laughed loudly, and then yelped as Sophia hurled a massive burst of fire in his direction. Meanwhile, Liam was sprinting like a madman towards the spire.

_Flee the burning, greedy city._

_Lookin' back on her to see there's nothing around._

_I don't believe in fairytales _

_and no one wants to go to hell._

_You've made the wrong decision _

_and it's easy to see._

_Now if you wanna serve above_

_or be a king below with us,_

_You're welcome to the city _

_where your future is set forever._

Samantha sprinted up to the Beast head attacking them and pulled out her Mustang and Sally, unloading two entire clips of the explosive pistols into the Hellhound's mouth. The Hellhound roared loudly and went limp, crashing down into the Lake. Samantha swiftly reloaded and said "This thing is nothing like the original. Silly Edward!"

Joe fell down into the hole in the shack, which was destroyed now, and ran down the hallway, finally reaching the power. He threw himself at the switch and flung it downwards, causing the entire city to go dark. He waited a second for the entire city to go dim, and then flipped the switch. The generators fired up again, but Joe was already running down the path leading outside.

John yelled out as he crashed into the side of the warehouse and fell onto several large pieces of debris. John groaned as he got to his feet and looked up at the one injured Hellhound head snarling at him. John sighed and reloaded the last of his Winter's fury. Joe jumped down from the ceiling, firing a full barrel from his Python at the Hellhound's face, and said "Get to the tower!"

_She's a dwelling place for demons._

_She's a cage for every unclean spirit, _

_every filthy bird_

_and makes us drink the poisoned wine _

_to fornicating with our kings._

_Fallen now is Babylon the Great._

Andrew continued to slash and stab the Hellhound as Jess unloaded onto the heads of the Beast with her RPG, backing up towards the tower while she did. Andrew delivered a two-handed slash and left a huge wound on the Hellhound's mouth, causing it to bark, bathing Andrew in its flames. Andrew yelled out and rolled on the ground, leaving him singed and hurt but still standing. The Hellhound's head reared, ready to attack again.

_She's a dwelling place for demons._

_She's a cage for every unclean spirit, _

_every filthy bird_

_and makes us drink the poisoned wine _

_to fornicating with our kings._

_Fallen now is Babylon the Great._

"NOW!" Samantha yelled, charging up the Wonderwaffe.

Everyone pulled the switch at once, priming the spires. Samantha fired a bolt of lightning from the Wunderwaffe, hitting the power Box, which glowed a bright gold color before exploding. Each one of the Spires shot a golden lightning bolt at the Beast, and every remaining head roared as the electricity surged through it. The woman who was on top of the Hellhound screamed as the lightning surged through her as well. The Hellhound then went limp, and the woman collapsed onto the back of the Beast.

The Beast's corpse sank into the lake as the woman reappeared in front of them, bleeding horribly and barely able to stand. Her breath came in ragged gasps, and she said "Why…can't you all just die already!?"

"S-sophia…? Is that…is that you!?" Samantha asked with a whisper, recognizing the woman, even after all these years. She hadn't aged a bit, which struck Samantha as odd.

"I don't know who you are, but when Edward's plan is complete, you'll all wish that you accepted his offer. He would still spare you, if you stopped now. You could have a place in his world, a world of peace and freedom" Sophia panted.

"Sophia, he killed my father! I thought you cared about my dad!" Samantha said angrily.

"Who _are_ you?" Sophia asked irritably, as she fell to one knee. The flaming cloak around her was fading away, leaving her body naked and bare.

"It's me….Samantha" Samantha said quietly.

"S-Sam…?...So that's what Edward was…I'm sorry it had to be this way Sam…" Sophia whispered in disbelief.

Richtofen suddenly appeared in a flash of green light and grabbed Sophia by the shoulders. Sophia fell into his arms, and Richtofen's eyes narrowed in anger at the Zombie slayers for defeating her and the Beast.

"You may haff won zhis round, but the war is very far from over." Richtofen said with a growl as he picked Sophia up bridal style and vanished in a green burst of lightning.

The group looked up and vanished as a bolt of blue lightning engulfed them and whisked them away from the city, which continued to burn away into nothingness.

**Town Outskirts:**

The group emerged in a bolt of lightning, panting and patting each other on the back. Samantha looked sighed and said "How many more members of 935 survived…and how many more traitors did my father leave behind for me to deal with?"

Samantha looked to the others and saw them celebrating and high-fiving, cheering about how they had brought down the Beast.

Joe laughed and said "Yeah! We got to see boobs too!"

Jess turned around and kicked Joe in the balls, causing him to fall to the ground.

The group watched as Joe slowly recovered, and then heard Marcus come wheeling in with the RV. Juliet Jax, and Marcus jumped out, with expressions of relief on their faces. Nicholas gasped as Juliet threw herself at him and said "Thank God you're OK!"

"Good to see you too" Nicholas laughed, though appreciating the gesture.

"Thank God you made it out of there. Are you guys OK?" Marcus asked.

"Yeah, we're fi-" Nicholas began to say before a loud scream pierced the night.

A motorcycle came into view, speeding out of control. The driver threw themself off of it and the group watched the motorcycle slam into the side of a nearby building and explode. The girl on the motorcycle was screaming something frantically in what sounded like Russian. Marcus, who knew a fair bit of Russian, was able to understand her.

Joe however, was the first to recognize her.

"Iva!" Joe said as he ran over to the Russian girl, who screamed again.

"What's wrong with her?" Jax asked.

"I don't know" Samantha said as the group walked towards the terrified Russian, who was still speaking what sounded like gibberish.

"The shadow man…he's coming for me…so much blood …that's what she keeps repeating over and over again" Marcus said to the others.

Joe noticed that Iva was bleeding from her leg, which had been poorly patched up and was still bleeding freely. Iva looked at Joe and muttered "He's too strong…we can't kill him…"

Iva broke down in tears and sobbed uncontrollably in pure terror. She was such a strong and confident person, the group couldn't do anything but just watch in surprise. Joe wrapped an arm around her while he looked at the others, who looked worried. Samantha walked over to Iva and said "Iva, are you OK?"

Iva's head snapped up and she seemed to realize who was holding her and who was around her. Iva's face paled even more and she said "Guys…we…w-we need to run. Now!"

"What happened? What happened to the others?" Andrew asked.

Iva looked down shamefully and said "Papa told me to run and get word to you guys…I followed his orders…I didn't want to leave…he made me"

"Iva! _What…happened…to…the others!?"_ Samantha said in a forceful tone.

"Don't talk to her like that! Look at her!" Joe yelled at Samantha, who scowled.

"There there, you did the right thing. Everything is going to be OK" Joe murmured to Iva, who hugged Joe tightly.

"Joe…oh God it was awful!" Iva sobbed.

"Thought you could escape so easily, did you?" a familiar voice said to all of them, like a whisper in the wind. Everyone recognized it as the voice that taunted and mocked them for the past few days.

Iva screamed and said "No…he f-found me!"

"Who is it? Iva, tell us who it is!" Nicholas said to the girl, who began to shake from pure fear.

"Heh. Seems like I left quite the impression. You almost slipped through my grasp, little girl…"

The shadows from the nearby forest suddenly distorted and began to converge into the air. A figure began to form from the darkness of the shadows, taking the form of a human. A pair of crimson eyes appeared where the head was, as did a row of razor sharp white teeth contorted into a horrifying grin.

"Time for some **FUN!**" Yena said with a small laugh as he descended upon the Zombie Slayers.

End of Chapter:

_Hope you all enjoyed that chapter. Sorry it took so long, this past month has been murder. Next chapter will be up as soon as I can get it up. Don't forget to leave your PS3 username in the review section if you want to play Zombies with me. _

_Yena vs. The Zombie Slayers, what's going to happen? _

_Stayed tuned for next chapter._

_Review and tell me what you thought!_

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	27. And We'll All Fall Down

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_The chapter title comes from the song "We All Fall Down" by Kevin Sherwood. _

_Pardon the delay, I'm currently sick as hell and I am neck deep in homework. The fact that this chapter came out at all is incredible.-_-_

_You can now follow me on twitter at (insert "at" symbol here)FlygonNick, be the first to get updates on the chapter and all that good stuff. It makes me feel important._

_Also, shoutout to regular reviewers. Like, the same people who review chapter after chapter like Mybrosdrivemecrazy, Trapinchh, Bu11etB1iss115 ( I know there are others, but I am just throwing names out there randomly). Seriously, thanks guys. Some people have been constantly reviewing over and over again for months, sending me feedback ,and I love it. Please keep doing it, even if it's a guest review. It takes just a second and means a ton to me, plus, this story is getting pretty dang high in reviews. I figure by the end of this, you guys will make this story the highest rated COD fanfics in the archive. Thanks again everyone. _

_:D_

_Shoutout to the people who review last chapter, which included JC785, mybrosdrivemecrazy, xAnimePrincess101x,_ _tjelledge262, Bu11etB1iss115, Dustchu, Trapinchh, hellfire lord (AKA Hellfire ,_ _Snake-scent00,StaticBomb324, a guest reviewer known as Guest, as well as two new reviewers known as xNewWorld and Ghost-407. Thanks for the support!_

_Enjoy!_

Chapter 27: And We'll All Fall Down

The group pulled out their weapons as Yena slowly fell to the earth. The man looked at each of them in turn, and then smirked.

"Oh yes…you'll do just fine" the man murmured as he took a step forward.

Joe fired a shot with his Python, hitting the man square in the face. The bullet caught him in the mouth, blooding dripping from it as the bullet embedded itself in his lips. The man snarled and bit down on the bullet, tearing it to pieces. The wound sealed up though on its own.

"Know this. My name is Harvey Yena. I am a Scientist of Group 935.I will be the one to kill you all, and plunge this world into shadows" Yena said as his smile crept back on his face.

"That's what you think!" Liam growled angrily.

The 935 scientist chuckled and said "Even your beloved heroes couldn't stop me. What makes you think you can?"

Samantha snarled and lunged at Yena, kicking off of the ground with a burst of energy. Yena smiled and ducked under a 115 Energy charged punch from Samantha and kicked her swiftly in the back as she flew by, sending her flying into a tree. Samantha yelled out and crashed onto the ground, twitching.

"He's strong" Jax muttered as he reloaded his Zeus Cannon.

Marcus fired a first shot with his dual-wield pistols, scoring several direct hits on Yena, who laughed as each bullet tore apart his body. The entire group opened fire, tearing apart the 935 Scientist's body. Yena laughed even louder as he fell to his knees, drenched in blood and having gaping holes in his body.

The group watched in horror as Yena got to his feet, the holes in his body were still there, but were quickly sealing up.

"So…who's first?" Yena asked, pulling out his two huge pistols.

Liam, Nick, and Joe opened fire on Yena, who snarled as the bullets tore through him. Yena waved his arm and a series of tendrils shot towards them. Nick ran forward and bashed the shadows aside with C.N., causing them to retreat.

"What sort of magic is this?" Yena snarled as the shadows dispersed into nothingness.

C.N. snorted and said _**"Ha! Magic! Tell him Nick"**_

"Not magic b!tch. Just Chuck Norris!" Nick said with a grin as he ran at Yena, who smiled widely.

"NICK STOP!" Marcus yelled.

Yena aimed both of his pistols and fired them both at Nick, who deflected them both by making them hit C.N, and he stabbed Yena in the chest with C.N. Yena howled in genuine pain and backhanded Nick with his fist, sending him flying backwards.

"Got ya" Nick panted as he got to his feet.

"H-how…" Yena choked out as blood gushed from the gaping hole in his chest.

"OPEN FIRE!" Nicholas yelled as the group fired their weapons at the 935 Member, who roared in agony as the shots tore through him.

"ARAAAH!" Yena roared as a shockwave of darkness blasted the group away.

The teens were knocked to the ground, save for Jess, who jumped over and attack and pulled out her RPG. She quickly fired a rocket at Yena, causing him to snarl angrily as his right arm was blown off of his body.

Yena extended a hand forward with a snarl on his face. A shadow shot towards Jess, who screamed as a shadow tendril wrapped around her ankle and made her fall onto the ground. Yena lifted Jess into the air and slammed her hard onto the ground over and over again, laughing while Jess yelled out in pain. The others, who scared to shoot because they thought they would hit Jess.

"No! Jess!" Marcus yelled sprinting towards her.

Yena smiled and clenched his fist. Jess screamed in agony as her ankle was put into a horrible grip. The group opened fire on Yena, who laughed as he was being blown to pieces, slowly recovering even as the bullets tore him apart.

"It won't' break!" Marcus yelled desperately, trying to free Jess with his bare hands.

"R-r-un! Save yourself!" Jess groaned as her ankle slowly began to break.

Marcus growled angrily and said "HEY SHADOWFACE!"

Marcus pulled out three Flashbangs and hurled them, along with a Molotov and a Symtex grenade at Yena. Yena laughed and snapped his fingers, causing the shadow tendril to break Jess's ankle, causing her to scream. The three flashbangs with off, causing Yena to howl out as the light blinded him. The fire from the Molotov engulfed him while the Symtex exploded at his feet.

Marcus shouldered Jess, who passed out from the pain, and said "GO!"

The group quickly ran through the forest. Marcus tried to rouse Jess, but she was out cold. Joe was carrying Iva over his shoulder, with his gun held in his other hand.

"Who the hell is that!?" Marcus demanded.

"Harvey Yena. He's with 935" Iva said weakly.

"We guessed that! Where are the others!?" Samantha demanded.

Iva went silent, and the group felt a chill of fear go through them.

Had this deadly figure destroyed the mighty heroes who had survived so much? Was Iva the only one to be able to escape Yena's wrath?

The group ran into the forest, trying to get back to the RV. The group heard a feral roar behind them, and realized Yena had recovered. The group head several shots ring out. To their horror, everything the Black bullets hit was utterly destroyed, such as the tree that was obliterated by a single bullet or the rock that exploded into a thousand pieces. The silver bullets were more often fired, though they could still probably be lethal to any of them. Liam jumped into the RV, which was still running where they had left it, and floored it the second Nick had gotten inside of the RV.

The vehicle shot off into the forest and back out onto the road. Juliet looked out the rear window, and screamed in a rare act of horror as Yena broke out onto the road and sprinted towards them with an inhuman burst of speed.

"**YOU CAN RUN! BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE**!" Yena laughed as he gained ground on the Zombie Slayers.

"LIAM! FLOOR IT!" Nicholas yelled.

Liam nodded and slammed the accelerator, causing the RV to rocket down the road while the 935 scientist ran after them.

"Iva…what…happened!?" Samantha demanded.

"We-well…we had just gotten to the node in Tennessee" Iva said quietly.

Flashback:

"RAH!" Yena snarled as he lunged at the Zombies Slayers, who opened fire.

Yena growled as the gunfire tore through him and ripped through his flesh. Yena collapsed onto the ground, bleeding heavily.

"Huh. Wasn't that tough" Dempsey grunted as he reloaded his HAMR.

"…he…hehe…hehahahaheahahahahaHAHAHAHAH A!"

Yena began to laugh, laugh as though he were as happy as could be. Giddy tears ran down his face as his body began to mend itself and the blood and darkness around him flowed into him, repairing what was broken and healing all of his wounds.

Yena, still laughing hysterically, brought up both of his guns.

Takeo aimed at Yena's head and fired three shots with his PX2RG, scoring through headshots. Yena's skull, as a result of being hit with the Wonder Weapon, was now torn apart and bent backwards, his jaw hanging limply off to the side, hanging by a thread of skin.

And yet Yena continued to laugh, even as his body repaired itself once more.

Nikolai scowled and fired 10 shots with his M72 Anarchy, engulfing Yena in a series of explosions. Blood and shadows soared into the smoke, and the Zombie slayers realized, as Yena's laughs intensified, that this wasn't going to be an easy kill.

Yena walked out of the smoke, utterly unharmed. Not even his clothes were damaged from the barrage of gunfire they had endured.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yena laughed manically into the night.

"What's so funny!?" Dempsey growled.

"I'm sorry Tank Dempsey. I'm just…I'm overwhelmed. Just a few hours ago, I was still trapped under Illuzio's spell. I feasted on the blood of many terrified fighters, and now…I shall have the pleasure of tasting your blood. You will join with me, and when we are whole…"

"This world shall be engulfed in everlasting darkness!" Yena laughed as he raised his guns.

"NOT HAPPENING!" Kara yelled as she opened fire.

Chan and Iva opened fire as well, and Yena raised his pistols high into the air and his shadow suddenly lunged at them, causing the girls to scatter as the shadow beast nearly bit them in half.

Iva pulled out two small tomahawks and hurled them at Yena who sidestepped them both and fired a shot at Iva, who leaned to the side to dodge the bullet.

"Come now. I was expecting a fight" Yena said in a bored tone, tilting his head to one side.

"You want a fight?" Dempsey said, pulling out a machete and tossing his RPD and HAMR to the ground.

Yena holstered both of his weapons and cracked his knuckles.

Dempsey shot forward with an inhumane burst of speed and lunged at Yena, who smiled widely as Dempsey dashed towards him. Dempsey stabbed towards Yena, ramming the machete through his chest. Dempsey grabbed Yena by the arm and tore it clean from his body with a "ORAAAH!" Dempsey grinned and slashed upwards, cleaving the monster in half.

As the two half fell onto the ground, Dempsey scoffed.

"So much for that" Dempsey said as he began to walk away.

"Nice one Dad!" Kara yelled cheerfully.

"Dempsey! Behind you!" Nikolai yelled.

Dempsey whirled to see Yena, completely healed, staring at him from a foot away. Yena smiled widely and said "Boo"

Dempsey, faster than the blink of an eye, grabbed Yena by the skull and flung him onto the ground. He then pulled out a Calamity and unloaded an entire clip into Yena's throat. The scientist grabbed Dempsey by the leg and flipped him over onto his back. His wounds healed as he pounced on top of Dempsey.

Yena opened his mouth, revealing a row of razor sharp teeth and blood dripping from his maw. Dempsey was paralyzed by the sight, even as Yena's mouth drew closer.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Yena was suddenly tackled off of him and thrown thirty feet away. Kara growled angrily and said "No one messes with my dad!"

Kara dashed at Yena and punched him in the skull, breaking his neck with one blow. Yena swung at Kara, who caught the punch and flipped Yena over like a child.

Yena righted himself in midair and cracked his broken neck back into place. Kara growled again and said "Bring it"

"With pleasure" Yena said as he flung out his hands.

Kara yelped as her shadow came alive and pulled her down to the ground, keeping her held firmly in place. Kara growled again and to Yena's surprise broke one of the shadow tendrils holding her. Yena took one step towards her before he felt a sword pierce his stomach.

"Not a chance!" Chan yelled as she sliced Yena in half.

Yena's two halves disappeared in a burst of shadows and he reappeared twenty feet away.

"Hmm. Interesting how 3 of Richtofen's experiments, three of his Element 115 Super Soldiers are coming back to bite him. As for your daughters, they seem to be even stronger than you all. It's a shame that all that skill will go to waste" Yena said as his eyes glowed red.

Iva laughed and said "You seriously think you can defeat all six of us?"

Yena chuckled and said "There's no doubt in my mind that by the end of the night, I'll be putting a bullet into someone, and they will depart from this world forever"

Iva pulled out a large jagged knife and sprinted towards Yena, slashing at him. Kara pulled out a grenade a hurled it at Yena while Chan helped Iva with her Katana. The three girls slashed, stabbed, and shot at Yena with a scary amount of speed and tenacity.

Finally, Yena got tired of playing around and pulled out Crow, firing a shot at Chan and nearly hitting her. The shot soared into an abandoned car which exploded in impact.

"Fall back!" Dempsey yelled.

The three daughters obeyed and hastily retreated. Yena smiled widely and vanished on the spot, and then reappeared next to Dempsey, who threw a punch at the monster. Yena caught the punch easily and hurled the marine to the ground, where he kicked back up and kicked Yena in the gut before elbowing him in the skull so hard he smashed Yena's face in.

"FILL HIM WITH LEAD!" Kara yelled, and everyone opened fire, blasting Yena to pieces, though his body was still whole.

Chan suddenly split off from the others and charged at Yena, katana raised high into the air. She delivered a quick series of slashes on the 935 scientist before decapitating him with an experienced strike. Chan was a top-notch swordsman, thanks to her father's training, and she grinned as Yena let out a groan and his body fell to the ground.

"Good work kiddo" Tank said with a grin.

Takeo smiled proudly at his daughter, and then his expression turned to horror and yelled "BEHIND YOU!"

Chan looked behind her in time to see a fist connect with the side of her head, sending her flying across the field. She crashed onto the ground, blood trailing from her head.

"NO!" the usually quiet Takeo yelled in anguish as he ran to his downed daughter.

"It's been quite a while since someone's decapitated me. Not since Porter and the Christmas party we had back in 1979" Yena said with a laugh as his body grabbed his head, which was talking, and attached it back to its body.

Iva growled and opened fire on the 935 scientist. The others save for Takeo and Chan did the same. Takeo tried to rouse his daughter, but to his horror he couldn't stop the bleeding. Takeo pulled out a Quick Revive syringe and gently injected the magical liquid into the bloody wound, sealing it up.

"Fa…father…?" Chan said weakly as she opened her eyes.

"Rest. You have brought honor to us" Takeo said hugging his daughter tightly.

"DAD! BEHIND YOU!" Chan screamed.

Takeo whirled around, drawing a white katana, and was able to block a gunshot from Yena. Takeo snarled and fired a few more shots at Yena, who quickly dodged them and fired again at Takeo. Takeo drew Yena's attention away from Chan, and gave the others a second to think.

"This guy is quick, strong, can control shadows, and has enough firepower to outmatch all of us" Iva said thoughtfully.

"Everything's got a weakness. We've just got to find it" Tank said as he reloaded his guns.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"FATHER!" Chan screamed as she tried to get to her feet.

The others turned around to see Takeo crash onto the ground, with three gaping holes in his body, bleeding profusely. The blood draining from Takeo slowly flew into the air and into Yena, who smiled as his horrible-looking slash and stab wounds magically healed yet again.

"Help's on the way Tak!" Dempsey yelled as he sprinted towards the downed soldier, Kara close behind.

Iva began to run towards the fight, but a strong hand grabbed her by the shoulder. She looked behind her to see her father, clinging to her shoulder.

"Iva. Wait a moment" Nikolai said quietly.

"Papa, what're you doing?" Iva asked quickly.

"This man…no, not man. This demon is the strongest foe we have battled against. We are strong, but we may not be able to beat him" Nikolai said with a frown.

"We've got to try!" Iva said angrily.

"You misunderstand. The others do not know about this demon, and if we fall…They will have no idea what has happened here. Samantha needs to know…I want you to run and warn the others" Nikolai said quietly.

"W-what!? I'm not leaving you and the others behind!" Iva yelled.

"Iva. This is an order. Run. Get far away and survive. We will buy you time to get word to the others" Nikolai said seriously.

The Russian took a swig of vodka and said "I have been a poor father. You and your mother are the only the only people I've stayed with for more than a few years. I usually kill my wives, but you and your mother are special…I have taught you bad habits, and if I were not your father, you could've been so much better off…I am sorry, Iva. For not being a better person-no, a better father than you deserve"

Iva looked at her father in wonder. He hadn't been much for sentiment, and he was a rather careless father as well. Not sweet, or thoughtful, and not always comforting. He was in retrospect a crappy father.

Iva then remembered the time she had fired her first gun, and Nikolai laughing with pride. How he held her at night when she had been scared of the dark, and sung her a lullaby in Russian while holding her close. He hadn't been the ideal father, but he was always there. He had loved her, and she loved him. That was all that really mattered.

"Papa…" Iva whispered.

"We will hold him off. You must live. You must survive, my Iva" Nikolai said calmly.

"I don't want to leave you" Iva said sadly.

"Iva. I am ordering you. Go find Samantha. We will hold Yena off" Nikolai said sternly.

Iva growled angrily as a hot tear rolled down her face. Nikolai embraced his daughter and muttered "I love you Iva. Remember that. You make this Soviet proud to be your father"

"Papa, I love you too" Iva whispered as she hugged her dad tightly.

"NIKOLAI! FRONT AND CENTER!" Dempsey yelled as he stabbed Yena in the chest with his Bowie Knife.

"You're a outstanding fighter Tank Dempsey! A worthy combatant for me to devour!" Yena yelled gleefully as he fired a shot at Dempsey with the Crow, nearly hitting the marine. Kara was bleeding from her shoulder and was pinned to the ground by a shadow tendril.

"Get a motorcycle and leave. Ride quickly my daughter!" Nikolai said as he reloaded his M72 Anarchy.

"DADDY!" Kara screamed from behind them.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Nikolai whirled around and snarled angrily as Dempsey fell to the ground, riddled with horrible bullet wounds and bleeding profusely. Yena cackled as the blood from Dempsey flowed into himself. Takeo was slowly getting up, somehow able to fight despite his wounds.

Iva sprinted towards the motorcycles that the survivors had left behind. She crept over to an all-black one with a full tank of gas and hotwired it within seconds, and hopped on it. Iva began to leave the area, but not before Yena spotted her and said "Not so fast!"

"NO!"

Nikolai tackled the 935 scientist to the ground and stabbed him repeatedly in the skull with a sickle. Yena growled and fired a shot through Nikolai's chest, sending the Soviet off of him in a spray of blood.

"PAPA!" Iva screamed.

"You're next!" Yena said, taking aim.

Nikolai jumped up again and put Yena in a full Nelson. Yena snarled and tried to throw the Russian off of him, but to no avail.

"GO!" Nikolai yelled at his daughter.

Iva revved the motorcycle and shot out of the area. Yena finally threw Nikolai off of himself and shot him three more times in the chest with Wolf, sending him crashing down onto the ground, bleeding horribly. He then turned around and fired a single shot with the Wolf, which soared through the night and clipped Iva in the leg, causing her to cry out and nearly crash the motorcycle. Iva managed to drive away, her leg dripping blood onto the road.

"**SO…WHO'S NEXT!?"** Yena's evil voice asked demonically as Iva rode away, bleeding and crying as the sight of her father bleeding became burned into her brain.

Present:

Jax injected a Quick Revive syringe into Iva's gunshot wound, healing it for the most part. She would have to stay off of it until a real doctor looked at it, but at last she could walk if she needed to.

Joe sat down next to Iva and said "Hey, it'll be alright"

"How do you figure that?" Iva asked bitterly.

"I…I don't know" Joe admitted with a sigh.

"I appreciate you trying to make me feel better. But I won't ever feel better…not after today" Iva whispered as she hugged herself tightly.

"If you need someone to talk to, let me know. OK?" Joe asked.

Iva nodded, and Joe walked over to Marcus and Liam, who were messing with the controls in the front.

"We lost Yena, but God knows for how long" Liam muttered.

"We've got to figure out how he's so powerful" Marcus said.

"Richtofen's experiments with Element 115 are the cause of all of this. Sophia has-" Samantha began to ay before Nicholas said "Did you say Sophia?"

"Yes. She was the woman on the Hellhound" Samantha said with a nod.

"Weird. We have general knowledge of what happened during Black Ops 1, but this…" Nicholas muttered.

"She was my father's assistant back before all of this. I thought Richtofen had killed her…" Samantha murmured.

"Wait…she liked Dr. Maxis, right?" Nick asked.

Samantha nodded.

"According to the Internet, which as we all know is 100% true, Richtofen betrayed Maxis when he stopped trying to mass-produce the Wunderwaffe, because he was distracted by Sophia" Nick said quietly

"So if Sophia is with Richtofen, what happened? Did she betray Maxis, or was she tricked by Richtofen to join him?" Nick asked.

"That may be the smartest thing to ever come out of your mouth" Liam said to Nick.

"I'll take that as a compliment" Nick replied, smiling slightly.

"True…why would she change sides like that? I wonder if Illuzio knows" Samantha asked.

Liam sighed and said "One things for sure, we're not out of the woods yet"

"So, so true" a quiet voice whispered in their ears.

"What the-!?" Liam yelled as Yena crashed down onto the hood of the RV, two pistols aimed at him.

"**READY TO DIE!?"** Yena roared as his eyes flashed red.

Liam slammed on the breaks, sending Yena flying off of the hood of the car. He landed lightly on the highway in front of them and fired several shots with his silver pistol, making huge dents in the front of the RV. Liam turned on the brights of the RV and floored it, blinding Yena momentarily and slamming into him with the RV. Yena crashed onto the side of the road and got to his feet, laughing softly.

"I love a good game of cat and mouse" Yena smirked as he vanished into his own shadow.

"That guy is…somethin' else" Liam muttered, and Marcus nodded in agreement.

"**ROOOAAAAH!"**

"Wha..what's going on" Jess groaned as she woke up.

"Jess!" Marcus said with a sigh of relief.

"My ankle…" Jess said as she looked at the twisted ankle propped up on some pillows.

"Let me look at that" Marcus said walking over to the injured teen.

"Um…this might hurt" Marcus said as he sat down next to Jess.

"HOLY SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS!" Jess screamed as Marcus applied a little bit of pressure to the ankle.

"…did that hurt?" Marcus asked.

"…yes…" came a tiny reply.

Marcus quickly found out that while there was only one fracture in her talus, the fracture would keep her from walking very well for a while, which really sucked.

"So now what?" Jax asked.

"I…I don't know" Samantha admitted.

"Yena is on our tail, the others are dead for all we know, and Richtofen is less than a week away from world domination. Could this get any worse!?" John growled angrily.

"**Heahahahahahahahaha!"**

"You HAD to ask?" Joe sighed.

"…shut up"

"**I'LL SAVOR EVERY DROP OF YOUR BLOOD!"** Yena roared at them.

Yena's voice jarred them out of their reverie and the ground heard a gunshot blast through the night. Liam swore and swerved the RV off the highway and down into a nearby rest stop. Liam slammed on the breaks as everyone got to their feet, and Juliet said "What was that for?"

"He shot out one of my tires, and I just barely kept us from wreaking the RV!" Liam growled.

"We'll have to make a stand against Yena, here and now!" Samantha growled as she drew her Mustang and Sally.

"Everyone, lock and load" Nicholas muttered as he stepped off the RV.

Joe quickly hid Iva, who had finally passed out form exhaustion and fear, in one of the beds, making sure she was safe and hidden as well.

The group exited the RV and readied themselves for the upcoming fight. Yena appeared in a burst of darkness and said "So much for a chase. Ready to face me head-on?"

Samantha held out her palm and fired a burst of energy at Yena, who smacked the attack aside like it was nothing and said "Come now Samantha, you'll have to do better than that"

"HOW ABOUT THIS!" Samantha snarled as she pointed the Wunderwaffe at Yena.

"How about this?" Yena said with a smile.

Samantha yelled out as a tendril of darkness wrapped around her chest and flung her into the RV. Juliet growled angrily and lunged at Yena, who sidestepped and fired a shot at Samantha, who rolled out of the way.

Jax fired a shot with his Zeus Cannon at Yena, who snarled as he was blown backwards by the weapon. As Yena got to his feet he was stabbed in the chest by Andrew and incased in ice by John who fired 8 shots with his Winter's Fury.

"There. He's dealt with" John sighed.

"Not quite"

Yena broke free from the ice and grabbed John by the head and hurled him fifty yards away. Yena grabbed Andrew and aimed Crow at his temple.

"Now now now, wouldn't want us to lose our…heads, over this. Wouldn't you say Samantha?" Yena whispered gleefully.

"You monster…" Samantha growled.

Yena grabbed Andrew by the neck and tossed him like a kitten over to the others, who opened fired on Yena. Rather than be blown apart again, Yena smiled as a mass of shadow tentacles rose from the darkness around them, quickly deflecting every shot fired from every gun.

"You see, I am a different kind of…Conduit, you would say. I am not like Porter, or Sophia, or even Richtofen. I am unkillable, just as the blood and shadows of mankind are unkillable." Yena breathed as he raised bot of his pistols and aimed them at the teens.

Yena then gasped as the tip of a chainsaw got shoved through his chest and suddenly revved loudly, literally ripping him in half. Juliet stood behind him, panting slightly.

"This guy's tough!" Juliet remarked with a slight smile.

Nicholas smiled admiringly, and then screamed "Juliet! Behind you!"

Juliet dropped to the ground just in time to avoid getting her brains blown out. She kicked out with her powerful legs and fired her Hades, engulfing Yena, who had reformed, in a burst of fire. Yena snarled angrily as the flames burned him and he quickly put out the flames.

"Fire! That's it!" Juliet grinned, putting away her chainsaw and pulling Hades off of her leg.

Yena smirked as Juliet blasted him in the face with her shotgun. Yena flew backwards and crashed onto the ground, groaning, He slowly got to his feet before he found the tip of C.N. pointed at him.

"**PULSATION CANNON!"** C.N. yelled as a massive blast of blue energy shot from the tip of C.N's hat, enveloping Yena with a roar of agony.

"Think that killed him?" Nick asked.

Yena reappeared in a burst of shadows and punched him in the stomach. A spray of blood shot from Nick's mouth before Yena swiftly kicked him through the windows of rest stop.

"Nick!" Judith yelled.

Jess limped out of the RV and aimed her RPG and fired a rocket at Yena, who grabbed the rocket as it flew at him and hurled it into the forest, blowing up several nearby trees.

The others opened fire on him again, and the 935 scientist blocked all of the gunfire with his shadowy tentacles. As the group reloaded, Yena aimed Crow at Judith, who jumped to the side to dodge the shot. The bullet flew through the air and slammed into a parked but wrecked Semi-truck, which was torn in half by the insanely powerful pistol. Yena reloaded his pistols as the others finished reloading and the others continued to fire at him, determined not to give him a chance to reload.

"He's so strong" Samantha muttered worriedly.

"Try the Wunderwaffe!" Joe suggested as he reloaded again.

"Worth a shot" Samantha said as she put away Sally and pulled out her Wunderwaffe and pulled the trigger.

A small ball of white lightning charged up at the tip of the gun, and then a massive bolt of lightning shot towards Yena and slammed into him, causing him to screamed in agony and explode.

"That HAD to have killed him" Andrew said tiredly.

The smoke cleared revealing Yena, his entire chest and head blown apart, with only his legs remaining. The legs fell to the ground and Marcus cheered happily.

"Nice one!" Marcus said happily.

"Be careful!" Samantha said quickly.

"What's wrong?" Judith asked.

"He's not dead" Samantha said with a growl.

The group watched in horror as the darkness and blood around them flowed into the two leg stumps, reforming Yena, who was smiling.

"Now that we're done playing, perhaps we can be serious" Yena said as he reloaded his pistols.

"S-serious?" Andrew asked.

"You didn't actually think I was trying, did you? The only beings capable of matching me in fair combat are Illuzio, maybe, Edward and-" Yena stopped himself and shook his head "The point is, I've been toying with you all. But now, it's time to say goodbye"

Samantha fired another shot with the Wunderwaffe, which Yena jumped to the side to dodge. Yena reappeared from behind Samantha and shot her point blank in the back of the head, sending her crashing down onto the ground in a bloody heap.

"SAMANTHA!" Nicholas yelled as the others gasped in horror.

"Who's next?" Yena smiled evilly.

"DIE!" Jax yelled as he switched to the PX2RG and fired a nonstop stream at Porter.

Yena quickly ducked and dodged the attacks and then ducked as Andrew swung Gutripper over his head with a snarl of rage. He then grabbed the airborne teen by the arm and hurled him into the forest. Yena smiled and fired a shot with Wolf at Nicholas, who jumped to the side to dodge, and the Yena turned around and fired a shot at Andrew with Wolf. Andrew blocked the shot with Gutripper as he flew through the air and slammed into a nearby rock face. Yena advanced towards him, only to feel himself getting stabbed over and over by an large floating knife. Yena growled and swept his hand through the air, hitting something invisible and sending it flying onto the ground.

Liam suddenly reappeared on the ground and unloaded a full clip of his B24R into Yena's face. As Yena snarled in pain, Andrew came up from behind and decapitated him again.

Yena's skull stopped in midair and flew back onto its body and Yena aimed Wolf at Liam and shot him in the skull.

"LIAM!" Judith screamed as Liam fell onto the ground lifeless, his body glowing faint green color for some reason.

"HeahahhahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !" Yena cackled.

Jess sank down miserably on the RV, unable to help the others as they ventured further and further away from the RV and into the nearby woods. Jess saw Nick limp out the side door of the rest stop and go towards the battle going on in the woods.

Jess looked at Samantha's body, and noticed that it was glowing red and had white zigzagging lines on it. She was even more surprised when a clone of Samantha walked over to the downed Samantha and injected her with a syringe filled with a white shiny liquid. As the original Sam got to her feet, completely fine, the double vanished.

"Samantha!" Jess cried out happily.

"Apparently Who's Who is useful outside of Babylon City. I'm assuming Tombstone is the same way" Samantha said with a smirk.

The others looked at Liam's body lying there, transfixed by horror. Nick stumbled out of the woods and opened fire with his Predator. Yena easily deflected all of the shots and launched a series of tentacles at Nick, wrapping them around his arms, chest, and legs.

Nick struggled as Yena lifted him up and hurled him into a nearby tree. Nick yelled out in pain as he slammed into the rough bark, and Yena slammed him into it again and again. Yena then heard a cry of "CHAINSAW BLASTER!"

Juliet pressed the tip of her Chainsaw into Yena's back and blasted him again and again. Juliet then jumped back as a shadow tendril whirled towards her. Juliet revved her chainsaw and said "I've been training my whole life for this. Bring it you blood-filled douchebag!"

"With pleasure" Yena purred as he lunged at her.

"C.N…options?" Nick groaned as he slowly got to his feet.

"**Not really. This guy is as unkillable as I am. He's pretty damn strong too" **C.N. replied.

Nicholas and the others kept close to Juliet as she battled Yena. She was certainly the most formidable out of them when it came to fighting, easily able to avoid Yena's attacks and shots and kept dealing death blows to Yena again and again. The group watched her go to toe-to-toe with Yena for three entire minutes, and Yena's frustration slowly became apparent.

Yena then got creative.

He slammed his palms into the ground a Juliet's own shadow grabbed her around the arms, pinning her arms to the side. Yena then lined up the shot with Crow.

Nicholas then did something both brave and stupid. He sprinted in front of Juliet as Yena fired his pistol, and fired at him with his RPD. Somehow, someway, the stream of bullets flying from the RPD managed to hit the flying bullet and stop it deadly flight towards Juliet. Andrew slashed at Juliet's binds while Yena smirked and reloaded his pistol unnecessarily. Joe jumped back into the fight, firing a shot with his shotgun that blew a hole in Yena's chest. Nicholas and Juliet ducked down into the underbrush, near a spot slick with blood.

Nicholas then gasped as Liam's body disappeared and in its place was a glowing perk. It looked like a tombstone, and it had Liam's name on it with the date that he died.

"What the hell?" Nicholas whispered.

"That's…creepy" Juliet muttered, gripping Nicholas's arm tightly.

"No, that is" Nick said weakly as he pointed towards an irate Judith storming towards Yena, who was now firing at Andrew and Joe, who were dashing through the trees.

Judith pulled out the Devastator and fired a shot at Yena, who snarled in pain as it blasted off his arm clean from his body. Yena growled angrily and tried to regrow his arm, but he found that the blood had cauterized with the extreme heat that followed the Devastator blast. Yena snarled as he avoided another blast and jumped into a nearby shadow.

"GET BACK HERE!" Judith screamed.

"Judith!"

Judith saw Liam stumble out from behind a tree and said "OK, that was weird"

Liam was holding an M1911 and walked through the Tombstone power and up, and suddenly the pistol disappeared and Liam was holding his AK74fu2.

"That was weird" Liam repeated as he reloaded his weapon.

"H-how?" Nicholas asked.

"Tombstone Soda. Apparently that and Who's Who act as a sort of second life in the real world. Though next time it happens, it'll be for real" Liam grunted.

"Thank god you're OK" Judith said with a relieved sigh as she reloaded the Devastator.

Liam smiled at Judith, who smiled back. And for a moment the two shared a glance. That was shattered when a shot rang out and hit Judith in the hand.

Judith screamed and dropped the Wonder Weapon on the ground as she clutched her bleeding hand. Yena dropped down from a tree and said "Adios", pointing Crow and Wolf at Judith.

Yena then whirled around and kicked Joe in the stomach, sending him flying backwards and crashing into a tree, and then sending him crashing onto the ground.

"Perhaps it's time you see…a different side of the monster…" Yena said coldly as his eyes flashed red.

"W-what do you mean?" Andrew asked as he slowly got to his feet, nursing a broken arm.

"What you see before you is the calm before the storm…what you see before you is Harvey Yena. But…" Yena said coolly as he took off his glasses and shattered them in his hands.

Yena put both hands on his head and let out a feral roar into the night. The entire length of his body shook violently and began to glow…no, not glow. It seemed as though Yena's body was absorbing all nearby light. His body became engulfed in a shimmer black aura as Yena's eyes became beacons of burning red light. Yena clipped both guns to his hands and roared again, his mental transformation complete.

"What…is he?" Judith whispered as Andrew stabbed a Quick Revive syringe into her bleeding hand.

"**YES…blood…fear…DEATH! **Yena bellowed as blood began to drip from his mouth, like a ravenous wolf that had just slaughtered a rabbit.

"**DIE!"** the new monster growled angrily.

A white burst of white lightning shot from the trees and slammed into Yena, sending him flying into the darkness of the woods. Samantha strode out of the woods and said "Guys, are you OK?"

"Samantha!" Joe said happily.

"Good to see you alive Sam" Nicholas said as he picked the Devastator off of the ground and tossed it over to Judith, who caught it.

"The Devastator seemed to actually hurt him, I think. He couldn't really reform his arm when Judith hit him with it. The heat cauterized the blood in his arm as it passed through it. Maybe we can kill him with it" Nicholas said with a faint grin.

"**NOT LIKELY!"**

Nicholas yelled out as a blur slammed into him and sent him flying through the trees and into the dark. Yena stood in a low crouch with his tongue drooped on the ground.

"**Here comes the Hyena…"** the monster growled as he pounced on Juliet, who rolled backwards as Yena lunged at her, kicking him into the air as she landed on her back. Yena landed on the branch of a tree and lunged at her again, this time getting a face full of chainsaw. Juliet let out a war cry as her chainsaw slowly carved Yena's skull in half.

Juliet jumped back as Yena crashed onto the ground, and was glad she did as Yena' s face began to reform, even as he shot a burst of shadows at her, which tore through her stomach and sent her crashing down onto the ground, coughing up blood.

"Juliet!" Nicholas yelled.

"You…." Nicholas snarled angrily as he took several steps towards Yena.

"Hehehehe…" Yena chuckled darkly.

"You'll pay for this" Nicholas said, slowly bringing up his Mystifier and aiming the red dot sight down on Yena's face.

Yena then felt several people stab him at the same time and felt his legs freeze up. He turned around and to see John firing at him over and over again while the Andrew, Liam, and Nick stabbed him. Nick swung C.N. at Yena's head, and Yena swung Crow and Wolf at the figurine. The opposing weapons collided, and there was a horrendous cracking sound that reverberated throughout the forest. The teens were blown away as a wicked explosion engulfed the area.

"_Heh. About time. You used enough of my powers in an awesome way, and proved yourself"_ came a familiar voice.

The smoke began to clear, and the group saw Nick lying unconscious on the ground. An unknown shimmering figure could be seen in the smoke next to him, and Yena shot a burst of shadows towards him. The shadows were blasted away by an incredible burst of energy that made them burn into nothingness. Yena pulled out his pistols and fired several shots, only for them to be effortlessly redirected into the ground.

"_You're nothing to me. Too bad I'm busy killing Zombies to actually be here myself. Hear this Yena. They will stop you. The light within them is a thousand times strong than your pathetic darkness, and the light within me is…well…let's just say, it's a whole f*cking lot more than that"_ the man said as the mist began to clear.

The figure vanished in a flash of gold and Nick vanished was well. Before the others had time to register what the bloody hell just happened, Yena turned around and flung a wave of shadows at them, causing them to take cover. Nicholas quickly picked Juliet up and carried her out of range. Jax quickly injected the wound with a Quick Revive syringe, which allowed the hole in Juliet's stomach to heal, though she was still hurt pretty bad.

"Are you OK?" Nicholas asked her.

"I've been better…" Juliet murmured as she slowly got to her feet.

"**It's been fun…but now it's time to end this…" **Yena growled as he stalked through the forest, looking for any of the retreating teens.

Yena found himself on a cliff. A large rock cliff that extended fifty feet to the left and right of him and about thirty yards ahead of him, before ending and there was a 400 foot drop into a rock quarry. Yena chuckled and turned around, finding everyone save Nick aiming their guns at him. Jess was riding Fluffy, the Hellhound while the others glared at him.

Samantha pulled out Mustang and Sally and fired two entire clips at Yena, who flung out his arms and sent a large wolf-like wraith towards Samantha and shielded him from the attack. Yena lunged at them and took a rocket in the head from Jess. The others took this cue and opened fire with their weapons, blasting Yena to pieces. Even in this form, Yena finally fell under all of the gunfire and fell onto the ground.

"Just die already" Judith said weakly as Yena slowly got up, slowly healing again.

Yena's body twitched violently and his body gave a horrific shudder before Yena placed his head in his hands and the group heard an inhuman moan of discomfort.

"Not used to losing control…Hyena, you naughty boy" Yena said with a laugh.

To the group's horror a voice answered Yena's remark.

"**Can't let you have all the fun…" **

"Yena and Hyena. The demon and the monster" Samantha whispered in horror.

"It'd be a shame to kill them. They really much more than I expected" Yena said to himself.

"**Yes…but Edward was clear that we must slaughter them"** Hyena growled.

"Hahahahaha…fine then. I'll make this quick" Yena said as he pulled out Wolf and Crow once more.

The group readied their weapons, but Yena was quicker and fired from both guns, the shot from Crow barely missed Juliet, who was being held up by Nicholas now, who had dodged it only because Nicholas shoved her out of the way. The shot from Wolf went towards Andrew, who managed to block the shot with Gutripper.

Judith took aim with the Devastator and fired at Yena, who ducked under it and fired three shots at her, causing her to scream as one of the shots hit her in the shoulder and she fell to the ground. Liam let out a yell of anger and unloaded an entire clip into Yena's skull.

"Haheahaha…I thought I killed you Liam…" Yena chuckled.

"I'm not dying as long as you're still standing" Liam snarled as he reloaded, the others followed suit.

Yena reloaded his pistols as well and said "We shall see"

Yena vanished on the spot and reappeared behind Liam, who slashed at Yena with his Bowie Knife. Yena grabbed Liam by the arm and broke his wrist effortlessly before kicking him to the ground. Liam grabbed his B24R with his good hand and fired into Yena's throat. Yena tapped his throat to repair it before getting blown to pieces by Nicholas's RPD. Yena turned around and said "Shadows and blood. It always returns to shadows and blood"

Yena vanished into his shadows as Jess fired her RPG at where he was, only for Yena to reappear under Fluffy's shadow and grabbed the hellhound by the muzzle.

Jess fell off of the hellhound as Yena and Fluffy fought on the ground. Fluffy sank her teeth into Yena's neck just as he placed the tip of Crow into her head.

BAM!

Fluffy howled and burst into a fireball of ash and fire, and Samantha snarled and tackled Yena to the ground. Yena easily kicked her off of him and shot five times with the Wolf, causing her to yell out in pain and fall to the ground. Andrew jumped in front of Samantha to protect her and stabbed at Yena, who kicked the blade out of Andrew's hand and pistol-whipped him in the face, knocking him several feet backwards before Yena had Andrew pinned to the ground with several shadows tendrils.

Jax fired a blast of his Zeus Cannon and Yena was blasted off the cliff, and down into the boulder quarry below. Jax smirked and for a minute, the group thought that maybe Yena was done for. That thought was quickly put to rest when Jax was flung into a tree by a shadow tendril that shot out of the woods. Jax slammed into the tree several times until rendered completely unconscious.

Samantha tried to get to her feet but was kicked to the ground by Yena, who laughed as he fired a shot at Marcus, who dropped to the ground and fired three shots with his pistol at Yena, who blocked it with his bare hands. Yena grabbed Marcus by the arm and flung him into the woods, sending him crashing onto the ground.

Yena growled as his guts exploded in a shower of blood as an invisible assailant blew him to pieces. Yena whirled around and kicked out at the attacker, sending Nicholas crashing onto the rock ledge and breaking a rib from the force of the kick.

Juliet and Jess both made a move to help the others, but were held in place by their own shadows. Liam and Joe glanced at each other, realizing they were the last two left standing.

"It's been a pleasure Joe" Liam said sarcastically.

"You too man" Joe said as he reloaded his shotgun.

"**I'm bored Harvey…" **Hyena growled.

"How about we…?" Yena trailed off.

"**Now that's interesting…"** Hyena murmured, reading his mind.

Yena let out a howl and his entire body burst into black flames that radiated with pure evil. Yena's eyes were beacons of red light, and Joe and Liam opened fire as Yena advanced towards him.

"**Don't get cocky!"** Hyena growled.

"Silence. I know what I'm doing" Yena growled ethereally as he deflected the shots with his shadows.

Yena grabbed ahold of Joe and flicked him in the forehead, sending him hurtling into the forest at an insane speed and crashing back-first into a tree.

Liam yelled angrily as Joe fell to the ground, unconscious hopefully. Liam felt a thrill of fear go through him as none of his friends got back up. He was on his own for now. Yena had a shadow tendril now pinning down every one of them except for him. Liam had a broken arm and a full clip left in his B24R. Yena had…everything.

Yena vanished and reappeared in front of Liam, with the tip of Wolf pressed against his head. Liam fell to his knees just as Yena shot the gun and unloaded the full clip of the B24R into Yena's chest. Yena screamed in agony, real pure pain filled agony and stumbled backwards. Yena was bleeding profusely now, and the bleeding didn't seem to stop like it had done so many times before.

Liam grinned and dropped his empty pistol to the ground. He noticed, as he grabbed a Symtex grenade, that the sun was about to rise based on the changing colors in the clouds. He had wondered if he'd see the sunrise again before the night was done.

Liam hurled his last Symtex Grenade, which clamped onto Yena's sleeve as he stumbled backwards again in pain. Yena glanced at it as Hyena was snarling angrily, and then looked towards the horizon, which was engulfed with clouds. A ray of light from the sunrise burst through the clouds, letting a ray of light spill onto the battlefield. Yena yelled out as the grenade exploded, leaving him engulfed in a thick smoke cloud.

"Did…did we get him?" Judith asked as the shadows finally released her and the others.

"See guys? I told you, I'd rather die than let you guys do-" Liam began to say before a shot rang out.

Liam's expression didn't change, even as he fell to the ground. His expression of relief never left his face, even as the blood gushed from the hole in his chest. Liam crashed onto the ground, very senseless, and very very dead. The others felt cold, pure horror go through them as Judith screamed and ran over to Liam, her ex-boyfriend. The smoke finally cleared, revealing a completely healed Yena, pointing the black pistol known as Crow in Liam's direction, the barrel still steaming from the shot fired.

"I told him didn't I? Back at the memorial in D.C.**…he will be the first to die**" Yena said in a terrible voice before vanishing into his own shadow once more.

End of Chapter:

_Yena fulfills his promise. Liam is dead._

_Let me know what you all thought of the chapter by reviewing in the section below. _

_Follow the trail of carnage on twitter, follow me FlygonNick!_

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	28. Ave Atque Vale

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Last chapter went off really well. I'm actually surprised at the outrage of how I killed Liam, considering I don't feel as though I expanded on several of my friend's personalities throughout the story. I guess I did a good enough job there._

_Sweet._

_But it's good to see, I love seeing your reactions and I love feedback. And just so you know, Liam is dead. Not bringing him back, he may show up in flashbacks, but he is actually killed off. Sorry folks, but the death was planned like 10 chapters ago, and it was for a particular reason that I won't go into on here, though if you do know then good for you. And FYI, I'll confirm if someone is dead in the story, as for any other characters…well, you'll have to see._

_Shoutout to the upcoming Zombie map "Mob of the Dead". It looks pretty awesome, so I'm psyched for it and the Uprising DLC in general, now that I play Multiplayer. Seriously, wtf?_

_Also, shoutout to Bronchitis, which is currently kicking my a$$ at the moment, and is the cause of me being sick as hell. Thankfully, I have an awesome Co-writer, JC785, who helped me out by writing the first scene of the chapter. There you go. I gave you credit. Seriously though, thanks, because I have to get through the rest of this semester while being really sick, and this helps me out quite a bit._

_Anyway, shoutout to the people reviewed, which included xAnimePrincess101x, Lord rage quit, mybrosdrivemecrazy, Dustchu, RandomName3064, Ghost-407, Trapinchh, tjelledge262, Snake-scent00 twice, hellfire lord, Justplainawesome, StaticBomb324, xNewWorld, Uig50, Nerdyjedi27, and two new guest reviewers known as chuckhater and xpsian. Thanks for the reviews and feedback everyone! _

_Also to clarify something brought up in the review section, I don't have a favorite reviewer. I love you all the same, at least those how leave positive reviews anyway, which is like 99% of you. Though reviewing every chapter does give you a ton of brownie points and makes it more likely that I'll contact you when I get around to doing my Pokémon Story, if I ever do get around to it anyway._

_Anyway, here's a slightly shorter chapter than usual, but it's on time for once!_

_Enjoy!_

Chapter 28: Ave Atque Vale

Time seemed to slow down as the bullet passed through Liam's chest and out his back. All the group could do was watch as the bullet entered, and then exited, followed by a trail of crimson blood. The body fell back without any force, almost peacefully. When Liam's body finally hit the ground, time seemed to revert back to normal.

"I told him didn't I? Back at the memorial in D.C.…**he will be the first to die**" Yena said in a terrible voice before vanishing into his own shadow once more. The sun burst through the clouds, only to be engulfed yet again by them.

"Liam! Oh god, LIAM!" Judith shouted as she ran over to the still body. The others ran over as well, but Judith was the first one to make it there. She threw her gun down on the ground and kneeled down quickly. Tears were pouring from her eyes as she tried to figure out what to do.

"Liam! Liam, get up! Please, I need you to be ok! Please, wake up!" Judith continued like this for the next couple minutes before she held his body close to her and just sobbed. The others stood by, not knowing what to do.

Jess was the first to speak.

"…Judith…I think…that we need to face facts here…" Jess spoke quietly as a tear rolled down her face.

"No! He's not dead! He's not; he can't be!" Judith spoke through her sobs.

"Look, Judith, I don't know if it means anything, but it was quick. He wouldn't have felt anything…" Andrew said.

Bad move.

Judith looked at him with a crimson fire in his eyes, as she picked up her rifle and leveled it at Andrew. Juliet quickly reacted and managed to disarm Judith just as a shot rang out, which thankfully missed and soared harmlessly off into the sky.

"What the hell were you thinking!?" Juliet shouted at Judith, her foot now on the sniper rifle.

"You have no idea what it like losing someone you love! Ask Nicholas, he knows!" Judith yelled angrily

Judith then turned back around and held Liam close to her again. Juliet just stared at her for a moment, and then turned back to Nicholas, who shook his head, and she sighed and remained quiet, and allowed everyone to mourn in peace. The group just stood there for the longest time, not knowing what to do now. Andrew and Jax looked onto their fallen friend, who had saved their lives so many times in the past couple days.

Joe held up Iva, who was still extremely weak from fighting against a real life demon. He just had to protect her now, he had to. Joe sighed as Iva rested her head on his shoulder, and she let out a small sob.

Marcus held up Jess, who was still in extreme pain from her ankle being broken. You wouldn't be able to tell any other expression on their faces, only true sorrow was there. Nicholas and Juliet were side by side, wondering what they would do now. Everyone in the group had one thing in common at the moment…the silent tears that poured down each and every one of their faces.

After long moments of no one moving, Joe helped Iva over to Jax's side. "Jax, I need you to hold Iva for a minute." Joe said quietly.

"Sure thing." Jax said as he took Iva and helped hold her up.

"Joe…wait…" Iva said quietly.

"I'll be right here…I just need to get something from the RV." Joe replied. Joe then went back to the RV and got two things. The first was a shovel, and the second was a small slab of wood that looked like a cabinet door. Joe walked over to Nicholas and handed him the wood. "Make a tombstone for him. Write the name." Joe said quietly.

"Right." Nicholas got out his knife and started working on the wood. Joe moved over to a spot on the edge of the hill and started digging. He kept going at this until he had gotten a pile of dirt about the length of Liam's body. He then worked it until the sides were straight and the top was flat.

"John, come over here." Joe called to John. John went over to Joe on the side of the hill.

"What is it?" John asked quietly.

"I need you to shoot the sides of the pile of dirt with your Winters Fury. " Joe said quietly.

John nodded, then aimed and fired, freezing the sides of the dirt to make it solid. Nicholas then walked over to the ice block, and planted the wooden tombstone on the edge. Inscribed in the wood were few, but elegant words.

_Here lies Liam,_

_A true friend and survivor._

_You will be missed._

_Ave Atque Vale_

"Ave Atque Vale?" John whispered to Nicholas.

"Hail and Farewell. It's in Latin." Nicholas muttered as he sheathed his knife.

"Judith." Joe called over to her. Judith looked up and saw the frozen tomb, and Nicholas working with the wooden tombstone, adding some finishing touches. She understood that it was time, but held the body closer to her.

"No…no, no. We can still save him. We can…we…." Judith broke down into more tears. Marcus helped Jess to Judith's side, and Jess started comforting her.

"Judith, you need to let go. He wouldn't want this happening to you. He would want you to be strong…let go." Jess said softly.

Judith was still trembling as she drew her shaky breaths, trying to figure out what to do. She didn't want to let him go, it was too hard for her. But she knew he wouldn't want this happening to her, being consumed with grief. He had worked hard to make sure that she was strong, even after he died. After a few more minutes, she slowly nodded, and picked up Liam's limp body. The walk to the funeral pyre was like a thousand miles to her, each step bringing her closer to her having to let go. Once she finally reached the pyre, she set the body down on the top, and then closed his eyes, making him look more peaceful.

Everyone in the group stood around the pyre, not saying a word, only letting their thoughts think of the good times they had with Liam. It felt like forever before anyone made a move, and it was Nicholas who made the move. He picked up a fallen tree branch and lit a match at the end, igniting it. After another seemingly infinitely long walk, he finally made it to Liam's body, and paused. His mind was saying he couldn't do it, not to one of his friends. But he knew that he couldn't let Richtofen take control of him. Liam would've wanted them to deny Richtofen that pleasure.

"I'm so sorry Liam….you won't be forgotten…" Nicholas whispered, and then set the tree branch on the body.

The flames had spread quickly on the body, but it seemed like an eternity for Judith. Her eyes were so stained with tears it was hard to look at the fire. Everyone else in the group started tearing up even more, their bodies trembling with each passing moment. Nicholas still stood by the fire, crying his own tears, but trying to figure out what's going to happen next.

"…Liam was everyone's friend…he got us out of some tights spots during this mess… he stuck by our side…made us laugh…but most importantly…he was someone who cared about all of us. We can't let Yena…we can't let Richtofen get away with this! Every enemy has a weakness, no matter how strong they are. It may be hard to find, but it can be brought out to the open. We'll find that weakness and destroy them both! We have to do this…" Nicholas said solemnly as the body burned away.

"For Liam." Andrew and Jax said together.

"For Liam." Iva said.

"For Liam." Joe said.

"For Liam." Jess and Marcus said.

"For Liam." Juliet said.

"For Liam." Nicholas said.

"For Liam" John said.

"For Liam" Samantha said.

"…For Liam…." Judith said quietly as another tear rolled down her face.

As the fire continued, Liam's body slowly lowered into the dirt as the fire kept going. After a few more minutes, the fire finally died out, and the body was now completely in the ice tomb, the dirt had moved away due to the fire and lowered him further into the ice coffin. John shot the top with his Winter's Fury, sealing it off forever and encasing the earth with a permanent layer of ice, a layer of permafrost that would never allow anything to touch Liam again.

The moans of the undead set the group back in motion. Everyone headed for the RV, except for Judith, who was wiping away her tears and said her final words to Liam. But when she finally was able to speak, she only managed one word.

"Goodbye…."

And with that, she went to the RV, holding her sniper rifle tight and the memories of her boyfriend even tighter.

Meanwhile:

Location: Somewhere in California

Richtofen sighed deeply and then took a deep breath of the cold frigid air before exhaling, allowing his breath to come out in a white puff and float up into the sky. His powers were growing. With every moment that went by his power grew.

Power.

Pure, absolute, and the only thing that really mattered. Loyalty, love, honesty. These things did not matter now. At least not until this first world was purged.

The massive tower he stood upon was a large black skeletal black structure with tubes and cords running across it, and it seemed to shine and glitter with a strange light. Massive spikes were shooting out along the edges of it, while a mysterious pyramid stood in the middle of the structure.

He turned around and looked out from the edge of the massive tower he stood on. The final instrument of his revenge. Society would burn. Burn forever.

Richtofen scowled and said "Yena…I sense he has killed someone now…someone of importance"

Richtofen located Yena with a flick of his thoughts and said _"Harvey?"_

"_Hello, my Master. How go the plans?"_ Yena asked coolly.

"_You know very well how they go. Who did you kill?_" Edward asked.

"_You'll have to be a bit more specific than that Edward. Tonight was a feast for me. Can't remember the last time I had so much fun"_ Yena cackled.

"_Who did you kill that made you so happy?"_ Richtofen growled, and Yena chuckled.

"_Liam. The black-haired boy from that little ragtag group who think they're Zombie Slayers. They put up much more of a fight than you said they would. Liam managed to hit me in my…have we ever came up with a name for that state yet?" _Yena replied with a laugh.

"_No. Nor do I plan on wasting time doing so. You're a fool for going into that state Yena. You know it what it does to you…"_ Richtofen snarled.

"_Aww! Are you pretending to care!?" _

"_Not even close"_ Richtofen said with a disdainful scoff.

"_Whatever. You're not ruining my good mood. I blasted that little kid in the throat with Crow. He was dead before he hit the ground" _Yena bragged, holding his pistol out in front of him and reading the purgatic white writing on it.

"_Liam…good work. That should keep them busy for a little longer. Though you did fail to protect the node"_ Richtofen growled.

"_Oh come on, Edward. We both know you couldn't care less about the nodes!"_ Yena laughed.

Richtofen growled and said _"What are you talking about?"_

"_I'm not as narrow-minded as the others. I see what these nodes are REALLY doing. I remember what that cursed device looked like, and I know that you're using it to-" _Yena began to say before Richtofen yelled _"SILENCE!"_

"_Very well. I'm going to look for Sieger. I have a score to settle with him"_ Yena said, a hint of anger in his voice. Richtofen wondered why that was, as Yena did not anger easily.

"_He is getting stronger. Find him. Do not kill him. Understood!?"_ Richtofen added forcefully.

"…_I'll TRY not to kill him"_ Yena said after a moment.

"_Yena! Do not kill him. Retrieve him! Or is that too difficult for you?"_ Richtofen said with a smirk.

"_Fine Edward, but be warned. My patience is running out. I'm not your lapdog, not anymore. I am far greater than that…"_ Yena replied before severing the link.

"I cannot trust him. He's too wild" Richtofen muttered to himself.

"Edward?"

Richtofen turned around to see Sophia walking towards him, dressed in a stunning white lacy dress. Thank God that he lost his Schizophrenia; otherwise he never would've realized what a stunning woman she was. Richtofen smiled and said "Ah. How are you feeling, my dear?"

"Better. I wish you could have told me the Spires were that strong" Sophia said to Richtofen, who frowned.

"I didn't' think they'd survive that long, and the dimension they went to was too unpredictable. Besides, Illuzio only gave those children instructions on how to activate the spires to awaken the Cerberus Hellhound. He never mentioned how to stop it…that was something I did not expect Samantha to do…" Richtofen muttered.

"Edward. Is there something you're not telling me?" Sophia asked.

Richtofen turned away and said "There are things that must remain secret. There are forces that could be eavesdropping on us at this very moment"

"All the way up here? Edward…after all these years, why do you still hide things from me?" Sophia whispered.

"Sophia. Do you trust me?" Edward asked.

"Of course I do!" Sophia replied quickly.

"Then trust my judgment. I will succeed. WE will succeed. I just need some time…do you understand?" Richtofen murmured as he stroked her black hair.

"OK" Sophia said quietly.

Richtofen bent down and kissed Sophia deeply on the lips, causing the brunette to moan with pleasure. The Doctor smiled as touched her mind with his telepathy. Sophia's happiness radiated across the link, and Richtofen broke the kiss, smiling in a way that he had never done in the original 935.

"You are too good to me. I'm just a bitter man, trying to destroy this horrible world for what it did to me…but you…You're an angel…" Richtofen murmured to Sophia, who grinned and kissed Richtofen back with equal passion.

"You saved me. You could've killed me, you could've left me to die, especially with what happened with Maxis…Yet you saved me…why?" Sophia whispered after they broke the kiss a few minutes later.

"It was a moment of clarity. I was…unwell, for a very long time. I could not think clearly most of the time I fought the undead hordes, yet somehow I preserved and clawed my way to power with what shreds of my sanity I had left…yet you…and Porter. And Yena. You three were the only ones left, I had to save those I could trust in 935. That's why I had Illuzio protect you three, at least until I could make my way to you myself" Richtofen said with a slight frown.

"Why did you save me though? The look you gave me that night…how you spoke to me…it was unlike anything I had ever seen from you" Sophia said gently.

Der Reise…

That night. Death, blood, and the smell of freshly fired guns. It was a bloody night, one of many that would prove he truly was a genius ahead of his own time.

"I…I am many things Sophia. I am a genius. I am twisted. I am a scientist. I am a murderer. But there are many things I am not…and among those things…what Maxis… DID…that…was evil…" Richtofen whispered, energy crackling around him as his anger grew.

Maxis.

Even after all these years, all those years ago he had done away with him. And yet he still managed to infuriate him!

"Edward. It was a long time ago! It doesn't bother me anymore!" Sophia said loudly to him, snapping him out of his rage.

"I saved you because despite what he did to you, you wanted to live. You continued to fight against the undead…you fought against Samantha, and you would've gone down fighting. I realized then, that someone like you, was someone I wanted to help me rule this world. So I saved you" Richtofen said with a sad smile.

Sophia laughed as Richtofen wrapped his arms around her. Sophia sighed and buried her head in Richtofen's chest. Who would've thought that the maniacal assistant to Doctor Maxis would be the man she truly fell in love with?

"Sophia, I need you to ready the Project Absolute Zero. Ready it for field testing" Richtofen murmured.

"Absolute Zero…Edward, what do you have in mind?" Sophia asked.

Richtofen grinned evilly and said "This is an insurance policy of sorts…Sieger and Yena are two vild cards I can't have…and this vill stop both of them"

"And what about those kids?" Sophia asked.

"They won't live that long my dear. After Yena gets done hunting Sieger down, I'm sending him back to finish those brats off once and for all" Richtofen said with a laugh.

"Alright. I'll be off. Come meet me when you're done up here, OK?" Sophia said.

"Of course"

Sophia exploded in a burst of orange and red flames, leaving Richtofen to muse alone. Richtofen felt his cheerfulness slowly fade away, and the cold pain of loss began to seep into him as he began to dwell on old memories.

Richtofen dug underneath his armor, and pulled out a small silver locket in the shape of a heart. Richtofen opened it, and allowed a bitter smile to cross his face as he gazed at the picture inside.

"I do this for you…always for you…" Richtofen whispered, as he closed the locket shut and clenched it in his hand tightly.

Meanwhile:

Location: Shanghai, China

Time: Unknown

"Come on Stupidger! This way!" a woman with brunette hair dressed in a mechanics outfit yelled as she sprinted down the hallway, jumping over an overturned table.

"I know! I know!" the slightly overweight man with glasses on replied as he reloaded his Executioner, choosing to run around the table instead.

"Watch my back! Got it? We've got to find Marlton and Russman" Misty growled as she reloaded her AN-94.

"Th-they went up the elevator in the Power Room to the roof I think. We just-" Stuhlinger began to say before he heard the voice.

"_Accept your fate! Begin Anew!" _Richtofen called to Samuel.

"SHUT UP!" Stuhlinger shouted.

"What did you just say to me!?" Misty snarled, kicking Stuhlinger in the chest.

"Not you! Him!" Stuhlinger groaned as he fell to his knees.

"Great. I'm stuck with this dumba$$ and he's rambling again. Oh well, at least there's no-" Misty began to say before the round ended.

"Aw sh!t" Misty growled as she ran over to one of the elevators, which had Pack-A-Punch in it.

Misty quickly Pack-A-Punched her gun with the Actualized Neutralizer-94000, and said "Come on, we need to go!"

"Coming…"

Stuhlinger managed to get on the elevator as it started to go up again, managing to avoid the undead hordes surging below. Stuhlinger wiped his sweaty brow and said "How long is this going to last?"

"I wish I knew" Misty said softly, her voice holding a note of fear and uncertainty.

Samuel sighed and said "You know…I'm a little crazy, but…we'll get through this. OK?"

Misty glanced at Stuhlinger and nodded, and said in a more confident tone "Damn right we will"

The two got up to the top floor to see Marlton uppercut a Zombie with a Galvaknuckled fist, sending it crashing onto the ground in a moan.

"Eww…gross" Marlton said wiping the blood off of his hand with a sleeve.

"Marlton!" Misty said with a tired smile, relieved he was OK.

"Misty! Stuhlinger! Good to see you! Russman went to the other building. He needed to get Speed Cola" Marlton explained as he pulled out a Cobra and fired a few shots at a horde of Zombies running past the claymores, blasting through them effortlessly with the Pack-A-Punched six-shooter.

"Let's go!" Marlton said as he ran through to the other side of the building.

"_Fools! I should've killed you when I had the chance!"_ the voice snarled at Stuhlinger as he walked behind Misty.

"We-we just wanted to help! Leave me alone!" Stuhlinger whispered.

"_Silence swinehund! You vill pay for your insolence!"_ Richtofen growled furiously.

The four unlikely allies had found themselves somehow transported to the destroyed structure, unsure of where or even _when_ they were. All they had to go on where the ramblings of Stuhlinger and the strange recordings of a man identified as Doctor Maxis. The group had decided to help Maxis at both the Bus Depot and here, which led them to their current predicament.

Illuzio watched the trio quickly make their way up the ramp and jumped across the deadly gap, landing on the other building, the hordes of Zombies close behind. Russman walked towards them from an elevator, an empty Speed Cola bottle in hand, and threw it at Marlton, who yelped and ducked. The bottle soared through the air and smashed into a Zombie's skull, sending it tumbling off of the building with a yell.

"Th-thanks…" Marlton muttered.

"Shut it Darlington. Misty, Stu, get ready. Here they come!" Russman grunted as he quickly reloaded his Porter's X2 Ray Gun and began firing at the Zombie jumping to the other building, blasting them off in midair.

"This is not going to end well" Marlton muttered.

"Don't worry Marlton. I've got your back" Misty said reassuringly, and Marlton offered the brunette a grateful smile.

"He's coming for us. He's going to kill all of us" Stu muttered as he blasted a few incoming Zombies with his Executioner.

"Calm down Stu! We've got to keep calm and keep fightin'!" Russman yelled as the Zombies continued to swarm in.

"Interesting…" Illuzio murmured as he watched the four fighters fiercely fend off the Zombies, finally narrowing it down to a crawler. The exhausted fighters collapsed on the ground, save for Russman, who was keeping the Zombie distracted. Thirty Eight rounds of Zombie waves coming after them, and the strain and fatigue was finally catching up with the new Zombie Slayers.

"So, what now?" Misty asked quietly as she leaned against a wall, trying to stem the flow of blood from a nasty scratch on her arm.

"M-misty. Hold on a second" Marlton said reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a small tube of ointment.

"What's that?" Misty asked, sounding skeptical.

"A special ointment I keep on hand in case of injury. It's specially designed to sanitize and cleanse the wound, as well as provide soothing relief to any inflamed areas of the injury" Marlton said with a grin.

"Huh. Well I'll be damned" Misty said grabbing the tube and applying some of it to her scratch.

Russman managed to find a first aid kit in a nearby closet and they treated Misty's injury. Stuhlinger even helped by ripping out a chunk of the bandage roll and handing it to Misty, who nodded silently.

"Astounding. The timeline seems to be far different than what I'm used to. I must be in an alternate universe…one where Richtofen did not achieve both a body and the power over the undead…no…he is still trapped in the Aether. In this timeline, I would be dead by now, but I would've lived a happy and carefree life as a magical jester living happily with his wife" Illuzio said bitterly as the Zombie below finally died.

"Oh god. Here we go…" Misty sighed as she got back to her feet and picked up her gun.

Marlton sighed and said "I'm not sure if I have the stamina to continue to fend off these undead flesh eating death walkers…"

"It's a conspiracy guys. We can't let him-I mean THEM-win" Stu muttered bracingly.

"Stu's right. We've got to stay strong. We helped out that Maxis fella, now we've just gotta hope he'll help us" Russman said with a shaky grin, ignoring his aching bones and his bum knee.

"These poor souls…their lives were torn apart by Richtofen like mine was…" Illuzio murmured.

Illuzio pointed a finger at each of them and chanted "Allow them to gain the strength to fight, and give a dose of extra might"

Each of the fighters felt their wounds seal up and felt a rush of energy flow through them, giving them fresh resolve to keep fighting, Illuzio sighed and said "I've been dwelling in different time periods and dimensions for far too long…I should probably get back…I wonder how the others are faring?"

Illuzio snapped his fingers and vanished on the spot in a flash of wicked green light, leaving the four Zombie slayers to fend for themselves against the endless hordes of the undead, and to continue their own adventure.

Wherever it would lead.

Meanwhile:

Dimension of Awesome:

"So…explain to me why the Demon King and the Angel Princess are fighting?" Nick asked, floating upside down.

"Well, it's a story that's way too high budget for a poorly written Zombie fanfic written by a nerdy guy in college. I will help explain why you're here" Chuck Norris said.

"OK, shoot. Why did you explode?" Nick asked, crossing his legs while he floated right-side up.

"You finally broke through my physical form and achieved your status as the Chosen One. The only one worthy of my power" C.N. replied.

"So, why me and why now?" Nick asked.

"Why aren't you this perceptive in the real world?" C.N. asked.

"Because the story wouldn't be nearly as funny" Nick replied.

There was a suddenly bolt of lightning that flashed by, and five foot long green dragon with red bulging eyes landed on a small rock face in front of them.

"Stop doing that!" the dragon snapped.

"Who's this?" Nick asked.

"FlygonN. The creator of the story" C.N. said.

"Huh. So he's actually a Flygon? Cool" Nick said with a grin.

"No, this is the physical manifestation he chooses in his stories. All that means is that this guy needs to get laid" C.N. said.

"I'm putting my foot down. No more breaking the fourth wall!" FlygonN snapped angrily.

"Yeah, you can just go back to writing crappy Fanfiction" C.N. said.

The Pokémon/Writer began to laugh and said "I control this story. So I'll do no such thing"

"Fine. I warned you" C.N. said as he pulled a red and white ball off of his belt.

"Is that what I think it is?" FlygonN asked.

"Go, Kyruem!"

A huge dragon with ice chunks on it suddenly burst from the Pokéball, and FlygonN sighed and said "You're an a$$hole, you know that right?"

"Yup"

FlygonN soared into the air as Kyruem stomped after him, growling loudly at him and charging up an attack.

"That'll keep him busy long enough for me to tell you some things. One, that figurine form of mine is destroyed. You'll find my new physical manifestation much better for killing Zombies. Second, things are going to get a lot worse from here on in" Chuck Norris warned Nick as Kyruem shot an Ice Beam at FlygonN, who retaliated by shooting a Flamethrower at it.

"H-how?" Nick asked.

"Blood will be shed, both good and evil. You and your friends are going to have to be brave and keep fighting. There are forces out there that want to both help and stop Richtofen. You have to stop him" C.N. said.

Nick nodded and said "But why can't you help us?"

"Just can't. Sorry" C.N. said with a shrug.

"That's not fair" Nick replied

"Life's not fair. Your friends are realizing that right now" C.N. said with a frown.

"Why?" Nick asked.

"Yena just killed Liam"

Nick's eyes went wide and he felt a spasm of horror go through him.

"What!? N-no way, not true" Nick yelled in disbelief.

"He was shot in the chest by Yena. Your friends are grieving now" C.N. said

"Send me back!" Nick yelled.

"Now?" C.N said raising an eyebrow.

"YES!" Nick yelled angrily.

"Fine then. But know this, you are the only one who can use my power. You'll still have access to my powers in the form of an unbeatable weapon, but those power attacks can't be used anymore. However, you will get a new ability, one far greater than any human can obtain" C.N. said.

"What is it?" Nick asked.

"You'll find out in due time. In the meantime, you need to be on the lookout for-"C.N. began to say before there was a loud roar behind them and Kyurem crashed onto the ground, unconscious.

FlygonN flew over to Nick and C.N., covered in scratches and sporting a broken wing, and said "That's it. He's going back now. This has NOTHING to do with Zombies!"

"Fine then, I'll send him back you big baby" C.N. said snapping his fingers and causing Nick to start glowing.

"Good. Now as for you…" FlygonN growled at C.N. as Nick suddenly vanished into thin air.

Meanwhile:

Andrew blocked another slash from the Blade Zombie and stabbed it in the chest. The Zombie growled and swung a fist at Andrew, only for it to catch a sniper shot in the eye from Judith, who had calmed down for the first time in a few hours.

Samantha snarled as she hurled another burst of energy at a horde of Nazi Zombies, which

Nick suddenly appeared in a flash of wicked gold light in front of the group, who shouted in response.

"Nick!? What the hell?" Nicholas said as he lowered his Mystifier.

"Yeah, I went to the Dimension of Awesome. I met Chuck Norris, er, well, C.N. anyway" Nick said.

"Aren't they the same?" Joe asked.

"Uh…I don't know" Nick admitted.

"Where's C.N?" Joe asked.

"I don't know" Nick said with a shrug.

"Hey Nick, what's that in your hand?" Juliet asked, pointing to Nick's hand.

Nick looked at his hand and found himself holding a golden dagger, with a wicked serrated blade with red lines running down it. On the hilt of the dagger, was the symbol of a boot and the word "Norris" on it. The blade thrummed with power, and Nick grinned and said "OK, so I got rid of the statue, and got this incredible knife?"

"Thinks it's as strong as C.N. was?" Andrew asked.

Nick walked over to a Zombie stumbling their way and jabbed it lightly in the stomach, causing the Zombie to scream in agony and collapse onto the ground as if it had been stabbed by a huge sword.

"Yep, still pretty strong" Nick said cheerfully.

"Hey man…while you were gone…Yena…" Andrew began to say before Nick said "I know… Can I go see the body?"

"We already buried him. We did a funeral pyre so Richtofen didn't gain control of him, and then made him an ice tomb so he could rest in peace" Joe said.

"Wow…can I still see him?" Nick asked.

"Jax, Andrew, John…Judith. Stay here, keep a lookout. This should take just a few minutes" Nicholas said to the others. Joe, Iva, Jess, Marcus followed Nicholas and Nick back up to the grave, where Nick bowed his head and paid his respects.

"We didn't get along sometimes…hell, we bickered for most of band camp…but you're still my friend…rest in peace Liam…" Nick said with a shaky sigh.

Nicholas walked over and said "Things will only get harder from here on in. Who knows what else we have waiting in store for us…"

Samantha suddenly let out a howl of agony and clutched the sides of her head. Green energy began to radiate from Samantha, who screamed in agony.

"AGH! Th-the voices! Leave me alone!" Samantha screamed as she fell to her knees.

"Sam! What's wrong!?" Nicholas yelled.

"GET OUT! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Samantha screamed as the pain increased two fold, and then suddenly stopped.

Distorted screaming and moaning filled Samantha's head, and she screamed and writhed on the ground for a solid minute, thrashing in agony. The others made their way to her and tried to help her, but she was thrashing horribly and was screaming incoherently. Suddenly Samantha gasped and sat up, shaking and gasping for air. She eventually calmed down, and then took a deep breath before exhaling slowly.

"Better?" Jax asked carefully, his hand on Sam's shoulder.

"It stopped…my head's fine now…" Samantha whispered, and the others looked at her for a moment before looking back towards Liam's grave, deciding to spend a few more minutes there before finally setting out for the next node.

"_Samantha? Is that you?"_ a voice asked Samantha.

"What the…do you guys hear that?" Samantha asked the others, who shook their heads sadly.

"_Samantha! You're alive! Thank goodness! You must come find me at once!"_ a man cried desperately to her.

Samantha gasped, finally recognizing the voice despite not having heard it in decades. The identity of the person was unmistakable to her, she thought about him so much.

"Daddy" Samantha whispered in awe as the others looked at her in surprise.

End of Chapter:

_Samantha hears her father? Oooh, mysterious…_

_Hope you enjoyed this break in the action, I wanted to explain some stuff and take a break from the action and Zombies for a chapter before getting into the thick of it in the next chapter, in which Richtofen's true master plan is revealed!_

_Please leave a review and tell me what you thought!_

_Follow the trail of carnage on Twitter, follow me at FlygonNick!_

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	29. Soul Eater

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_I'M DONE WIH THE SPRING SEMESTER! THANK GOD!_

_So with that crap out of the way, I should have more time to focus on this and Jak IV: The Avenging Angels. Expect more frequent update times for both stories and expect some sheer awesomeness in the next ten chapters, in which some MAJOR PLOT is explained._

_Also, for those wondering about the newer Zombie Slayers such as Misty, Russman, Stuhlinger, and Marlton, they will be back. Don't worry._

_Also, shoutout to the Freelancer Collaboration, which is working on a massive Red vs. Blue project on this site. Their story "Phase One: Genesis" is insanely good, and any fan of RvB needs to go read it after reading and reviewing this story. Also, depending on whether or not my design gets picked, I may join the group as a co-writer. That way I can finally work on my RvB story indirectly, and still get to use my design for something. Hehehe._

_Wish me luck my lovelies! :D_

_Anyway, about Mob of the Dead…_

_IT LOOKS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I want that map soooo badly, and I subscribed to Syndicate on YouTube (once again, I highly recommend it), so I can watch more footage of it. I'm going to try to incorporate some new elements into my story at a later point such as Electric Cherry and some of the new weapons, and I may wait on another Zombie scenario until all of the map packs are released. I'll keep you posted._

_As for how I'm incorporating Mob of the Dead into the story, I'm already working on that part ahead of time. No spoilers, but it's going to be good._

_Shoutout to the people who reviewed last chapter, which include Lord rage quit,_ _tjelledge262,Dustchu, Unkillable, Trapinchh,_ _PkMn Trainer Metal N,JC785, StaticBomb324,Nerdyjed27, minecraftrules99, and Justplainawesome, as well as a new reviewer known as ZombielandHunter. Thank you so much for the support._

_Also, for the few people who commented on my song choice for "City of Evil", I thank you. The comments about it being a good idea and awesome and all that made me smile. That entire chapter was literally set up so I can use that song as an Easter Egg Song, and I appreciate that some of you enjoyed the reference and the song. Seriously, you have no idea how happy seeing those comments made me. _

_This is another rather short chapter, but it does explain some major plot points, though for the sake of the story I had to incorporate something I __**HATED **__into the story, which will be apparent soon. Please don't think badly of me because of it, it was the only thing short of murder that would make Sophia turn against Maxis. _

_Enjoy!_

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 29: Soul Eater<span>

* * *

><p><span>Group 935 HQ:<span>

Many Years Ago:

* * *

><p>Richtofen sat down with Yena looking at him seriously.<p>

"You're doing it soon? You really plan on killing Maxis?" Yena asked.

"Yes. His refusal to produce the Wunderwaffe DG-2…his distractions with Sophia. I will take the reins of the project in myself, but Maxis must be dealt with" Richtofen growled.

"Are you going to use the teleporters?" Yena asked.

"We'll see. I'll keep my pistol on me just in case. Good thing Maxis doesn't believe in carrying weapons on our person while in the facility" Richtofen chuckled, his hands brushing his M1911 casually, as if for reassurance.

"Let me know how it goes. I'm rather good at hiding bodies" Yena grinned evilly,

"Yes…I'll get ahold of you somehow…I'll be off now" Richtofen muttered.

"Good luck" Yena murmured as Richtofen left the room.

"There goes a man with some dark intentions. All the more reason to hope he succeeds" Yena laughed to himself.

Richtofen strode down the hallway towards Maxis's office. He knocked casually on the door, which was curiously locked.

"Doctor Maxis?" Richtofen called.

"One moment Edward" Edward said in an agitated tone.

"What is he doing in there…?" Richtofen wondered.

Maxis opened the door, his face flushed and said "What?"

"Is something that matter, Doctor Maxis?" Richtofen asked in a soft tone.

"Of course not! Today we shall test the teleporters again. Make sure you bring the radio equipment and report to the chamber in thirty minutes. Understood?" Maxis said.

"Of course, Doctor Maxis" Richtofen said with a polite bow.

Maxis walked out of his room and locked his office, and then strode past Richtofen with his coat billowing out behind him. Richtofen's eyes widened in surprise as he noted the dark bloodstains on Maxis's lab coat.

"_**Death…blood"**_

"_**He's scheming against you…"**_

"_**Kill him…"**_

"Silence. I must know what he was doing in there" Richtofen muttered to the voices in his head as he pulled out his M1911,and attached a silencer to it. Richtofen shot the lock off and carefully entered the room.

Maxis's office was carefully decorated, with several bookcases in the room and luxurious furniture in the room. Two flags adorned the walls, a Nazi flag and the flag with the 935 emblem on it. Richtofen walked over to the desk, looking for anything suspicious. Richtofen looked at the picture of Dr. Maxis with his daughter Samantha at a park, laughing and happily smiling. Richtofen sighed, displeased at not finding Maxis's secret.

And then he heard a quiet sob.

"What was that?" Richtofen murmured, turning towards the source of the noise, which was the closet.

Richtofen pulled out his pistol and slowly advanced towards the closet, which Richtofen noticed was held shut with a door propped up against in. Richtofen destroyed the chair with a simple kick and noticed that the handle of the door was slick with fresh blood.

"What skeletons do you have in the closet Maxis? I must know!" Edward whispered as he flung open the door.

"Please…help me…" came a sob from the darkness.

Richtofen's eyes adjusted to the darkness of the closet, and even he was completely horrified at the sight he saw before him.

It was Sophia, stripped naked and bleeding profusely from a stab wound in her chest. Her hand was shackled to an iron bar sticking from the wall. Blood covered her entire body, and her face was incredibly pale and contorted with pain as she clutched the stab wound with her other hand, trying in vain to stem the flow of blood. Her eyes were bloodshot with tears, and Edward realized in horror what Maxis had done to her.

Richtofen thought for a moment.

"_It'd be so easy to close this door, and let her die" _Richtofen thought.

"_**Yes!"**_

"_**Do it!"**_

"_**Let her suffer!"**_

But the more he thought about it, the more distasteful that sounded. Sophia was just a young scientist, a rather gifted one that Richtofen had more or less gotten along with. He didn't hate her outright, and the only thing she had done wrong was develop feelings for Maxis. Richtofen's eyes narrowed and he said "What happened?"

"M-maxis…he…Edward…I can't…" Sophia passed out and her head slumped downward.

Richtofen knelt down to her and said "Maxis…"

Richtofen pulled out a small syringe and injected it into the wound, which caused it to seal up a little bit, but didn't heal the whole thing. She'd require more than that. Richtofen broke the handcuff and began cleaning Sophia up with the towels and water in the supply closet, bandaged the wounded heavily, and then wrapped her body in his coat.

"I may regret doing this later…but if Maxis did this to you…then you can't be all bad. Perhaps you can be of use to me" Richtofen muttered.

"Illuzio" Richtofen called.

The jester appeared in a flash of light and bowed.

"Yes, Edward?" Illuzio asked.

"This is Sophia. Take her to the bunker. She's not safe here" Edward said.

"Wasn't she the one distracting Maxis from mass-producing the Wunderwaffe? Why are you saving her?" Illuzio asked, taking the injured woman from Richtofen.

"I wish I knew that myself…Heal her, and then explain the situation to her. All hell is about to break loose" Edward growled as he exited the office, ready to finally kill the man that had done this to an innocent young girl.

Meanwhile:

Present:

Hyena growled angrily and said **"WHERE ARE YOU!?"**

"Someone's testy" Yena said with a laugh.

"Sieger! Come out now!" Hyena snarled.

"He's not here. Come on Hyena, let's go back to stalking the kids. I want to kill another one" Yena said.

"I thought I killed the boy?" Hyena said with a confused tone.

"Eh…we both killed him?" Yena suggested.

"Sure, let's go with that" Hyena said with a grin.

Yena continued to prowl the wooded area where he had last sensed Sieger for about another hour before giving up for the moment. Yena sat down on a tree with his legs carelessly sprawled out and rested his head on the base of the tree. Yena closed his eyes and murmured "It's not easy, being a monster"

Yena was a very cruel man, relishing in the pain of others. He had grown up with way, and when he was an adult, he had acknowledged himself as evil. Maybe that was why he went along with Richtofen in the first place.

The downside to living such a life of secrets and darkness however, was that there was always a whole in him. A void that he could never fill, no matter what. No matter what he did, no matter what schemes he was involved with, the hole in his being could not be filled.

Yena sighed and said "It's taking all of the fun out of this…I wish I knew why I feel…so empty"

"Nothing that more slaughter and mayhem won't fix" Hyena growled.

"Hmm…"

Yena yawned and said "Maybe I'll try searching for Sieger again. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky this time?"

"Fine…"

Yena closed his eyes and took a deep breath, merging his consciousness with the shadows around him. He would find Sieger. He would make him pay, regardless of Edward's orders.

Meanwhile:

"Daddy?" Samantha said quietly, a mixture of shock and apprehension in her voice.

"_Come to me…in the cave below…you must hurry…"_ her father's voice whispered.

Samantha looked at the others, still gathered around Liam's tomb of ice. She sighed and said "Everyone, we need to leave"

"Samantha…" Nicholas said tiredly.

"I just heard my father's voice" Samantha said.

Everyone looked at her in surprise and she added "He said he was in the boulder quarry down below. We have to see him"

The group looked at each other and Juliet said "OK Sam. You lead"

Iva got to her feet and said "There's a path down to the cave on the south hill. We should go from there"

"I don't see it" Joe said, blinking in the dark.

"Well Joe, here's the thing…We're here. The path we need to go to is over there…and you're an idiot" John said, earning a swipe from Joe.

"Cool it ladies. Come on" Andrew said, taking the lead and walking towards the path.

The group slowly went around the cliff and went down the large cliff on the other side. Iva and Jess both rode Fluffy, who had reformed just a few minutes before. The others, having healed their gunshots wounds and other injuries caused by Yena before burying Liam, slowly made their way down the hill, slipping and swearing the whole time.

"Please don't fall, please don't fall, please don't fall" Nick muttered under his breath.

"What are you chanting?" Juliet asked.

"I know for fact that none of us are going to make our way down this steep, steep grin unscathed. One of us is going to fall" Nick said with a frown.

The group made its way to the bottom of the quarry with no issues.

"I guess you were wrong Nick" Jax said with a grin.

Andrew grinned evilly and Russian-leg Sweeped Nick onto the stone ground, causing him to groan in pain as he fell.

"That one was for Liam" Andrew said, and Nick flicked him off in response.

"What's with this cave?" Judith asked.

Samantha walked over to the entrance of the cave and saw a light switch on the wall. She flicked it and a series of lights flickered on, lighting the way.

"This is no cave. Come on" Samantha muttered.

"Keep your voices down" Jax said, and when the others looked at him he replied with "Do you want Yena to find us again?"

"That man speaks sense" Nicholas said with a small smile, earning a smack in the head from Juliet.

The group slowly made their way down the tunnel, weapons draw and keeping an eye out or anything. After what seemed like an hour, the group finally emerged in a wide white laboratory.

"What the heck?" Joe said with a confused frown.

There were several Perk-A-Cola machines in the room. Juggernog, Quick Revive, Stamin-Up, Deadshot Daiquiri, Speed Cola, and P.H.D Flopper. A fully functional Pack-A-Punch Machine was in the room as well. Several weapons were attached to the wall on gun racks, such as sniper rifles and assault rifles. Joe walked over to several blue prints and said "Jackpot…guys! Come here, now!"

"What's wrong?" Nicholas asked as he walked over to Joe, who looked worried.

"These are just like the Wunderwaffe DG-7 plans I had. Written in German and all that, but look…" Joe said pointing down at the plans.

The plans depicted a giant tower that rose high into the sky, looking somewhat like cross between a tower of doom, a stronghold, and an antenna.

"What's that supposed to be?" Andrew asked.

"It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen…" Samantha muttered.

"It looks like something from another world…" Judith said softly, looking at the strange picture with wonder.

"_You're not too far off…"_ a voice replied.

"Daddy!" Samantha spun around, looking around the room wildly.

There was no one else in the room besides them, and the ground looked around confusedly until Maxis chuckled darkly and said _"Don't bother looking for my physical form…Edward made sure that I could never return to a body, unlike you Samantha…look at you…if I didn't sense you, I wouldn't have recognized you"_

Samantha was slowly drawn towards the source of her father's voice, which was a small purplish-black piece of a crystal-like gem. Samantha slowly walked towards it, and then said "Daddy…is that you?"

"_Yes…see what Edward has done to me?"_ Maxis asked tiredly.

"What is that thing?" Andrew asked.

"_This is what is called a Soul Gem. With the right resources, one can trap a living being's soul inside of one of these…like Richtofen did to me"_ Maxis muttered.

"That's horrible!" Juliet said with a look of horror on her face.

"Your soul?" Samantha whispered.

"_Yes…when Richtofen killed me…all those years ago… He captured my soul in the M.P.D. Later on, Illuzio, that damned jester, extracted my soul from the device before I could reach you in the device Samantha…and he placed my soul in this gem. Richtofen continued on experimenting on the Zombies and the remaining members of 935 that you hadn't managed to kill. He was…is…still looking for the perfect super-soldier formula, though I think Sieger and Yena are the closest he'll ever get"_ Maxis said quietly.

"Daddy…why did he do this to you?" Samantha asked.

"_He explained everything. He explained why he betrayed me, his future plans. Why he did it all. It was all because of me…I could have prevented it all, if I hadn't been so blind…and if I hadn't let my emotions cloud my judgment…"_ Maxis murmured with self-loathing.

"_He was always annoyed at how I treated him. I never considered him my equal, and I didn't take him seriously. He later told me that the final straw was what I did to Sophia…"_ Maxis trailed off.

"What did you do to her?"

"_I…damn it Samantha…I don't want you to think poorly of me after this…"_ Maxis muttered.

"What did you do?" Judith asked.

"_I…raped her…"_ Maxis muttered.

"WHAT!?" Nicholas yelled angrily.

"Shhh!" Joe hissed.

"How…why!?" Samantha asked angrily.

"_Samantha…"_

"How could you!?" Samantha snarled.

"_She strung me along for months Samantha. And the night when I confessed my feelings for her, she told me we should break off our relationship for the good of the project…I am not condoning what I did…far from it…but what man wouldn't react that way?"_ Maxis demanded.

"I wouldn't. I'm 18, I'm a man. And I say you're just as much of a monster as Richtofen is" Nicholas said in a deadly soft tone.

"_How dare you-!?"_ Maxis began to say.

"You aren't my father. My father wouldn't do these things" Samantha said turning around.

"Come on. Let's go" Samantha muttered to the others, who followed suit.

"_Samantha, this isn't about what happened all those years ago…this is about what's happening now" _Maxis said quietly, and the others slowly turned around and faced the small gem.

"_Richtofen is enacting a plan so evil…that it is a very crime against nature. He has reclaimed the power of the M.P.D., which he has brought to Earth" _Maxis began.

"What exactly is the M.P.D?" Judith asked.

"_It is a powerful device that thrives on the power of human life. It allows one to control the Zombies, and it is the source of Richtofen's power, and the power Samantha has. It is powered by the souls of the living"_ Maxis explained.

"_He is using the M.P.D. to control the Zombies once more, but this time, he has added some modifications to it. These Nodes that Richtofen built, they are connected to the M.P.D. They are casting a powerful wave…a spell of sorts, that is trapping the souls of the Zombies that he has created. He knows that the people will retaliate in an effort to save their lives, and for every Zombie killed, another soul is released"_

"OK, but how is this bad?" Nick asked.

"_These released souls are going to the M.P.D., which Richtofen converted into a massive tower-like device. This tower is outfitted with thousands upon thousands of soul gems, and the souls of these Zombies go to the gems, and increase the power of the M.P.D" _Maxis continued.

"So, the M.P.D. is getting stronger?" Jax asked.

"_Yes. Richtofen is, in a way, connected to the M.P.D. He is planning on harvesting the souls that he collects from the Soul Gems, and he will use the power obtained from those souls to become…well, I shouldn't have to describe what kind of force he'll be. The world you know will be gone, and Richtofen can shape the world however he wants"_

"We've got to stop him! But how can we now? He has thousands of souls at this point…even if we destroy the last node, there's no way we can stop him with just us. And with the others gone…" Nicholas trailed off bitterly.

"We've got to hold onto some hope. Remember, Illuzio is sort of helping us, he has to have some master plan to thwart Richtofen, right?" Nick said with a hopeful grin.

"_You're joking" _

The group looked at the soul gem in which Maxis now resided and the man said "You're honestly considering leaving the fate of the world to that jester? We're all doomed then"

Samantha sighed and said "Do you have any bright ideas Daddy?"

"…"

"Thought so. He does have a point though; we can't stop Richtofen and the remainder of 935 by ourselves, and we can't have our only plan to bee Illuzio coming through for us" Samantha said to the others, who thought about it.

"We've got to get to New York and get help. The node hasn't been activated yet, so there's got to be a chance of finding people there" Jax said to the others, who nodded.

"We can rally the survivors and launch a massive attack of awesomeness against that crazy Nazi!" Andrew said with a grin.

"Totally" Judith said with a small smile.

"I like that" Juliet said cheerfully.

"_Now that's a thought…you lot have the advantage of using the same weapons the super-soldier test subjects used when Samantha was trying to kill them. Most of the population that is alive at this point is injured, low on ammunition, and are hard-pressed to survive. You must install some sense of hope back in them, especially after Richtofen's proclamation…in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a large number of people who accepted his offer"_ Maxis said quietly, and the teens exchanged looks of worry.

"Guys, wait up" Joe said to the others, who looked at him.

Joe gestured to the Perk-A-Cola machines and Pack-A-Punch behind him and said "We should find a way to take that all with us. The survivors could benefit from some of this stuff"

"How are we going to transfer all that to New York?" John asked skeptically.

"_Check the left drawer on this table. Edward should have item capsules stored in there. You can transfer even those devices in them, and release them and store them again at your convenience. The Perk-A-Cola machines are enchanted to never run out of sodas as well"_ Maxis said helpfully.

Joe and John stored the weapons, machines, and other supplies in the capsules, in which there were hundreds of. Iva stared hungrily at the incredible tech in the room, wanting to analyze it and mess with it some. Joe saw Iva's look of longing and tossed her one of the two pairs of Galvaknuckles he found.

"Aw, thanks Joe" Iva said with a grin.

"Electric Fist Bump?" Joe suggested, and Iva nodded with a wide grin on her face.

"Wonder Twin Powers…ACTIVATE!" Joe and Iva yelled at the same time.

Joe and Iva fist-bumped each other, causing them both to howl in agony as the electricity over loaded the two Galvaknuckles. The two then fell onto the ground, twitching slightly and groaning. Meanwhile, John fell onto the floor crying from laughter while Maxis said _"…So…the fate of the human race, rests in your hands…?"_

"Yeah, we're kinda screwed" Nicholas admitted.

"_No kidding…"_

Samantha pulled out a small cord and wrapped the Soul Gem of her father around her neck. Joe, after getting to his feet and helping Iva get back on Fluffy's back, walked over to the Pack-A-Punch machine and put one of the Galvaknuckles in there. The group watched interestedly as the flag went up on the device and Joe tapped his foot impatiently. There was a ding, and Joe pulled a large silver gauntlet.

"Cool" Joe said as he pulled on the gauntlet, testing how it felt.

"Alright, that's pretty cool" John admitted.

Joe Pack-A-Punched the second Galvaknuckle and slipped the other gauntlet on his hand. Joe cracked his knuckles, discharging a wave of electricity and said "I dub these the Fists of Thor"

Joe then flexed his fingers, causing a small wave of electricity to flow from his hand.

"Wow" Iva said with an impressed grin.

"Oh yeah, I'm all kinds of awesome" Joe said with a grin.

"More like all kinds of stupid" John muttered.

Joe smacked in the chest, causing him to howl in agony and fall to the ground. After making sure there was nothing else of value in the lab, and the group ventured forward, with their new addition in tow.

A young man looked at the group as they departed the cave and walked up the hill. He silently kept watch as the trekked up the hill and back to the RV, stopping to say their last goodbye's to Liam, and then peel out of the area, heading north.

"So, are they OK?" a gruff voice asked the young man.

The young man remained silent, as though in deep thought.

A young woman piped up and said "Sieger, come on…you can tell us"

Sieger sighed, looking back at the group behind him and said "They're fine. It looks like one of them died while fighting Yena. We need to meet up with them soon, but I'm not pushing you guys"

"Where're they going now?" the young woman asked.

"The city that never sleeps. New York. Come on, we should get moving" Sieger said jumping down from the tree and landing lightly on the ground.

Meanwhile, several hundreds of miles away, Yena grinned evilly to himself.

"So, that's where he's going!" Yena laughed as he jumped down from the tree, landing lightly on the ground.

"**Finally, we can settle things once and for all!"** Hyena growled.

Yena chuckled and said "If I stick to the shadows, then I can take him out before he ever gets to New York"

Yena then felt a shiver go down his spine and then felt an incredible wave of agony rush through his skull. He felt a roaring wave of static go through his vision, all but blinding him. Yena snarled in pain and began firing shots at random, trying to kill whatever was doing this to him. Yena lashed out with his shadows, destroying the landscape around him and tearing the trees around him to shreds.

"_**Who are you!?"**_

Yena managed to open his eyes as the pain slowly receded, and saw a truly awe inspiring creature. It was a tall humanoid figure that was incredible thin, dressed in a fancy tuxedo with incredible long fingers. It's body was pale and white, but there was something even more incredible about this creature…

It had no face.

"Ah…I was wondering when you'd finally show up…Slenderman" Yena smiled as he got to his feet.

"_**will not ask again, Mortal. Who…are…you?"**_ Slenderman asked in a deadly soft whisper.

"I am Harvey Yena, member of Group 935, who is on the grasp of world domination" Yena said.

"_**You smell of blood…blood and shadows…" **_Slenderman said curiously.

"I am a monster created by science and magic, Der Ritter. Shadows are my sword, while blood is my shield" Yena said with a grin.

"_**I see…you wish to cover this world in darkness, yes?"**_ Slenderman asked.

Yena cocked his head and said quietly "Yes, I daresay that's my eventual plan, I guess"

"_**You…guess? You seem unsure"**_ Slenderman said, sounding amused.

"While the thrill of the hunt and crushing my foes underneath me is exciting, I feel…empty, for some reason. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm still going to slaughter anyone who gets in my way, kill Sieger, and eventually kill Richtofen, but after that…" Yena shook his head.

"_**It does not do one well, to walk the night alone"**_ Slenderman said softly.

Yena looked at Slenderman with a confused expression, and it responded by saying _**"You will learn in time, Dark One. But for now…"**_

Slenderman's shuddered as a mass of tentacles shot from its back. Yena growled and pulled out Crow, but before he could fire a shot a tentacle wrapped around his arm and tore it free from his body. Crow fell onto the ground, still held in Yena's severed arm's grip.

"Agh!" Yena howled in agony as he began to regrow his arm, using the blood gushing from his arm to regrow it.

"_**You…will not leave this forest. Your corpse will remain with me forever…"**_ Slenderman whispered as the static in Yena's head began to cover his vision.

Yena cackled despite the pain and said "You think you can defeat me!? Harvey Yena, the Bloodlust Hound of Group 935!?"

"_**You will not harm those children…they are innocent, and are on a mission to save this realm…" **_Slenderman said coldly as Yena dodged a tentacle, which went soaring past him and left a crater in the ground from the force of the impact.

"You're just as much of a monster as I am! I've heard of your exploits, Operator. I know what you do, and the children you've slaughtered. The men and women you've driven insane. You're no better than me!" Yena laughed as he drew Wolf and picked up Crow.

Slenderman shook its faceless head and said _**"You may be right, but it makes no difference. I will stop you myself, Harvey Yena. Farewell"**_

Slenderman's long fingers suddenly became razor sharp and dagger-like, capable of tearing through flesh like paper. Blood began to pour down where his eyes should have been, while his tuxedo began to tear and fray as the darkness surrounding him grew. Yena clutched his skull as the static roared in his head and yelled "Be that way!"

"**Do it"** Hyena growled.

Yena flung out his arms and his body let loose a wicked red shockwave of horrible energy, which sent Slenderman skidding backwards. Slenderman cautiously watched as Yena's face contorted into a snarl, and then a truly evil smile of contentment. Yena's body was now giving off an evil black and crimson aura.

"**Ah…that's better****"** Hyena murmured.

"Alright, let's show this fiend the true meaning of darkness" Harvey said with a grin.

"**With pleasure"** Hyena growled.

The ground cracked from the amount of sheer energy radiating from Yena, with an ominous red glow that could be seen from miles around. Yena's eyes shone bright red from bloodlust, and Slenderman tensed as Yena tightened his grip on his pistols.

"**HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT SLENDERMAN!"** Yena and Hyena roared.

The two monsters lunged at each other, and the showdown of demons began.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>So, the showdown begins. <em>

_Richtofen is planning on using the M.P.D., Maxis has returned, and Slenderman and Yena are about to fight! What'll happen next chapter!? TUNE IN NEXT TIME AND FOUND OUT!_

_Follow the trail of carnage on twitter, follow me at FlygonNick!_

_Please leave a review and tell me what you thought._

_Until next time, FlygonN out! _


	30. Insomniac City

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Get ready for a long AN._

_There was a slight delay in this chapter, partly because I'm still sick but mainly because I've been playing a lot of Skyrim, mainly the DLC packs that came out for it, Dawnguard and Dragonborn. Couple that with the fact that I had to wait for the two week period to roll around for you all to submit OC's, I did alright. _

_So I got a lot of feedback from last chapter, which is pretty awesome. Got some feedback from some new reviewers, some old reviewers, and a lot of guests, so that's pretty awesome. _

_Oddly enough, I'm noticing a distinct lack of reviews in both of my stories , mainly in regular reviewers…maybe it's due to end of course exams and all that, but if you do read either of my stories, __please__ review and let me know what you thought. I love feedback, and it's pretty much the reason this story has lasted as long as it has. And to those of you who have followed my story and constantly give me feedback, thank you. Seriously. _

_:D_

_Anyways!_

_Mob of the Dead is fantastic, I love it. So far I've been able to acquire the Hell Redeemer and figure out how to get all the parts to everything on the map and how to get all the parts to the plane. As of this chapter, I have not managed to do the final Easter Egg or acquire the Golden Spork, but I will continue trying. I suggest people familiarize themselves with the map as well, for obvious reasons. (Evil laugh) _

**_POST EDIT 5.25.2013 Got the Golden Spork. Booyah._**

_Remember, if have a PS3 and play Zombies, leave your username in the review section (or message me) and I'll add you, though please try and have a mic. They don't cost that much, and it's kind of weird just talking to someone who can't reply back. I'll add you anyway though._

_I don't own any characters from Zombies except my own, and all OC's mentioned in the story belong to their respective creators. I don't own any Red vs. Blue jokes in here, one of which I used nearly word for word, because I just couldn't resist. Or TeamFourStar jokes either._

_Shoutout to those who reviewed last chapter, which included Zombieland Hunter, Justplainawesome, tjelledge262, Lord rage quit, Dustchu, a guest who reviewed four times in a row, Serena and Abella, Hellfire Lord, Unkillable, Neryjedi27 who reviewed twice, Trapinchh, a Guest reviewer, CREATOR OF AWESOMNESS, four new guest readers known as A.D., Silentwarrior, Darksider, and mcnoob, as well as the ever so excited snake-scent00, and elfgod (who I believe has reviewed my Jak story at some point) as well as two new reviewers known as Knightmare Frame Razgriz and Flameus. Thanks for the feedback, support, and participation._

_ENJOY!_

Chapter 30: Insomniac City

Flashback: Four Days After Richtofen Enacted His Plan in Florida

A lone girl walked the ruined streets of Georgia, looking for some trace of life. Several Nazi Zombies lay dead on the ground around her, what was left of the attacking force that had ripped the town to shreds.

"These people didn't know what hit them…so sad" the girl said with an English accent as she looked up at the moon.

The girl had a pale complexion, with long brown hair, bright green eyes with a pink scar over one of them, and stood at about 5 '5'. She walked down the streets, trying to keep to the shadows, though that was somewhat hard to do since she was wearing a bright pink and blue sweater and a pair of blue jeans. Nevertheless, she stuck to the shadows, her AK47 close to her.

"Are you there?" she asked the air around her.

No response.

"Come on girl ghost person! I trekked all the way out to bloody Georgia, just like you said. The least you could do is respond!" the girl muttered.

"…_**Hello? Can you hear me?"**_ a girl's voice spoke to her mind.

The girl hopped up and down excitedly and said "Yes! Yes! I knew you hadn't forgotten about me!"

"_**I am sorry. My friends are having trouble with Richtofen. They are not yet strong enough to defeat him. They just lost someone very dear to them, and another one may be close to death as well…"**_ the girl said quietly in the English girl's mind.

"I'm sorry" the young girl said.

"_**Don't be. Life is a gift, and so is death I suppose. But enough of that for now Serenity. You must venture northward" **_the voice said in Serenity's mind.

"That's kinda far. Can you teleport me there? Like you did last time?" Serenity asked hopefully.

"_**No. I need to save my energy for whatever fights we must be ready for. You will have to find your own way north"**_ the girl said quietly.

"Well…that sucks. Can I at least know your name please?" Serenity asked hopefully. After all, this voice had helped her survive so far, maybe she could be friends with the voice.

"_**My name is Samantha. Samantha Maxis" **_the girl replied.

"Like Samantha from Blacks Ops Zombies?" Serenity asked in amazement.

"_**Yes. Long story short, that all really happened. You must flee to the north, the further away from Florida you are the better. Try New York"**_ Samantha suggested.

"Okie Dokie!" Serenity said with a laugh.

"GANG WAY!"

"Eh…I'll have to call you back" Serenity said as she turned around and aimed her AK47 down the street.

A teenager on a motorcycle hurtled down the street and was heading right towards her. Serenity jumped to the side and said "What the heck!? Watch where you're going!"

The teen on the motorcycle screeched to a stop and said sheepishly "Sorry about that. Sometimes when I get going, I go hardcore"

"I can see that" Serenity said dryly as she walked over to the teen.

The teen stood at about 5 '9', and wore a black jacket and a pair of brown and green cargo pants, complete with combat boots. He had very dark, but not quite black, hair and he had purple eyes.

"What's going on?" the teen asked Serenity.

"What do you mean? I was…talking aloud to myself, when suddenly you tried to slam into me!" Serenity replied to the young man, who laughed.

"Slam into you…hehehe…" the teen chuckled.

Serenity caught the joke, blushed pink, and promptly kicked the young man in the shin.

"AGH! What the hell was that for!?" the teen howled in agony as he fell to the ground.

"You shouldn't talk that way around a princess!" Serenity said pointing her chin upwards and away from the teen.

"A princess? Yeah right, and I'm the king of Siam" the teen remarked as he held his hurt shin tightly.

"I am Princess Serenity Worthington!" Serenity yelled indignantly.

"Of course you are…so what are you doing here? This place looks pretty abandoned" the teen asked Serenity, who nodded.

"Yep. I'm just travelling through, seeing if there were any survivors. Looks like I was too late…" Serenity said with a sad look on her face.

"Same here. I'm guessing because of the outbreak in Bradburn County, the entire southwest corner of the U.S. is pretty much overrun. Have you been listening to those radio reports?" the boy asked.

Serenity shook her head and the boy said "The Zombies are spreading super-fast, they've already taken out half of Florida's entire population already. They say that some of the Zombies are mutated or some crap"

"_**Like hell they are"**_ Samantha said in both of their minds.

"Oh, hey Sam. What do you mean by that?" the teen asked.

"Wait, you can hear her too!?" Serenity asked in surprise.

"Yeah. I was on vacation in New Orleans with my folks, and I heard her voice. I recognized it from Black Ops, so I managed to get some weapons before the Zombies made it to where I was. I managed to get out before the Zombies slaughtered everyone else. My folks managed to escape as well, I can meet up with them later" the teen said cheerfully.

"_**You two need to band together and head north, away from the Zombies. Work together, and do not give up hope. I will speak to you again when I can"**_ Samantha said as her voice became quieter.

And then she vanished.

"So…I guess we're stuck together" the boy said with a shrug.

"I guess. I'm Serenity"

"I caught that…Call me Starch" the teen said nodding towards her.

"Alright…so what now?" Serenity asked Starch, who grinned widely.

"Well, you could always ride with me" Starch said gesturing to his motorcycle.

"Fine" Serenity said as she rolled her eyes.

"_**FOUND YOU!"**_

"Aw crap" Starch said as he pulled out a black looking combat rifle and aimed it down the street.

"What's wrong?" Serenity said as he she tightened her grip on her AK47.

"_**REAAAAAH!"**_

A huge fireball suddenly burst from one of the alleyways in the town, and it took Serenity a moment to realize it was a Napalm Zombie. An unusually smart and quick Napalm Zombie, because it was within striking range with moments. Serenity jumped back as the Napalm Zombie swiped at her with a flaming fist. Starch's body tensed as the laming Zombie took a few steps towards them, snarling angrily.

"Bring it" Starch whispered with a gleeful grin as he opened fire onto the Zombie, which roared in pain as the bullets tore through its flaming hide.

Serenity took advantage of its diverted attention to fire at the monster with her AK-47, causing the Napalm Zombie to fling a fireball at the two teens, who scattered and opened fire once more.

"What is this thing!?" Serenity yelled as she reloaded her gun while putting distance between the Napalm Zombie and herself.

Starch pulled out a small bottle and pulled out a match. With an evil chuckle he lit the end part of the bottle, which ignited the concoction.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Starch bellowed as he hurled the Molotov at the Napalm Zombie, which exploded violently and sent him flying across the street. Unfortunately, he landed crotch first onto a wrecked car, causing him to howl in agony. Serenity walked over to him and said "That was…impressive"

"I know…I'm hot stuff" Starch grinned painfully as he rolled down the car and fell onto the ground.

"So what's with that Napalm Zombie? It sounds like you've seen it before" Serenity said.

"Yeah, its keeps reforming for some reason. It's sort of stalking me" Starch said sheepishly.

"Why?" Serenity asked.

"I may or may not have done something to it that pissed it off…something that involved a super-soaker, a lot of pee, a truck full of gasoline, and the Power Rangers theme song" Starch said with a shrug.

"You're gross" Serenity replied.

"I take it in stride darling" Starch said with a wide grin, and Serenity stuck her tongue out at the teen and said "Come on, we should keep moving. Let's get on your motorcycle and get out of here"

"Aw. You wanna ride on Karen?" Starch said with a grin.

"You named your motorcycle Karen? Why?" Serenity asked suspiciously.

"No reason…Now, let's both mount Karen and ride all through the night!" Starch proclaimed.

Serenity started walking down the road, her AK-47 held at her side, away from Starch and Karen. Starch sighed and said "OK, calm down Princess, I was only kidding"

Serenity turned around and said "Can you be serious for a bit? Please?"

She looked at Starch for a moment, and Starch realized that this was a rather stressful situation, and so he started up his motorcycle and drove over to her.

"Come on Princess. Let's go to New York. I hope you packed lightly" Starch said dryly.

Serenity smiled gratefully and sat down on the motorcycle. Starch smiled slightly and revved the motorcycle before shooting off into the night.

Meanwhile:

Present:

Outskirts of New York:

The group continued driving towards New York, sticking to the highways to avoid Zombies. The trail of destroyed flaming cars provided Joe with the opportunity to his Electromagnetic Blast Device, allowing them to blast the wrecked cars out of their way. Ever since they had gotten John back, they had been preparing for a fight in New York. He had told them about the node in New York back at D.C. and told them how Richtofen had hidden it in the heart of the city, though the exact location was still a mystery.

"So, what do we do once we get to New York City? Any specific plans in mind, or do we go in and fight?" Andrew asked the others.

"We should look for the survivors and explain the situation to them. They can help us find the next node and destroy it" Juliet said as she cleaned the gore from her chainsaw.

"Can't you do that outside?" John asked, eyeing the blood getting on the carpet.

"Hmm…nope" Juliet said after a moment.

John scowled and said "Come on, it's getting everywhere, plus you're just going to get it dirty again"

Juliet walked over to John and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, John let out a scream and quickly ducked out of his shirt and jacket, escaping Juliet's grasp. This seemed to be her plan however, because she started cleaning her chainsaw with John's shirt and jacket, staining them both with gore and blood.

"Really?" John asked.

"Yep" Juliet said flopping back down on the couch next to Nicholas, who grinned widely. Juliet kissed Nicholas on the cheek and Nicholas smiled even wider.

"Come on John, we can get you a new shirt in New York" Nicholas said with a laugh.

"Sam, what are you doing?" Joe asked Samantha suddenly.

The others looked at Samantha, who up until now had been sitting down with her eyes firmly shutting, murmuring to herself. She opened her eyes in annoyance and snapped "I was thinking!"

"That was not thinking" Nick said.

"How would you know what thinking is?" Nicholas asked jokingly, earning a punch in the arm from Nick.

"If you must know…I was talking to other survivors" Samantha said quietly.

"What? How?" John asked Samantha.

"Samantha and me, when we were both connected anyway, would talk to survivors while you guys were busy, or if you guys were sleeping" Jax said to the others.

"So, do you randomly just start talking to strangers?" Joe asked.

"…I get lonely sometimes" Samantha said stiffly.

"You know, if you're lonely you could always…" Nick trailed off suggestively.

Samantha blushed dark red and aimed the Wunderwaffe at Nick and charged it up. Nick shrieked and hid behind Iva, who grabbed him and hurled him towards Samantha, who punched him in the gut.

"Idiot" Samantha said as Nick collapsed onto the ground.

"_Can you NOT get the hell kicked out of you for ten seconds?" _a voice asked the group, seemingly coming from the dagger Nick had strapped to his belt.

"C.N?" Jess said questioningly towards Nick.

"Master?" Nick said to the voice.

"_Yeah, it's me. What the hell is going on here?" _C.N. asked the group.

"Nick's being a tool. Nothing new there. Yena kicked our asses, Liam got…killed, we found Dr. Maxis in a Soul Gem, and now we're en route to New York" Nicholas recapped.

"_Sounds boring" _C.N. replied.

"I thought you were gone from the story" Jess said.

"_Nope. I went to get more popcorn. You morons aren't getting rid of me that easily" _C.N. replied, a distant munching sound could be heard in the background.

"Whatever happened to FlygonN?" Nick asked.

"_He's hard at work on other crap that he certainly doesn't have time to work on, but insists on doing so anyway…because he's a sissy"_ C.N. added after a moment.

Nicholas was now being restrained by Jess, Andrew, and John, while Iva just watched the proceedings in amazement.

"Right…going to ignore everything that just happened" Iva said rubbing her temples.

Joe pulled out a bottle of vodka and took a swig of it. Iva looked at him for a moment before snatching the bottle and chugging it down whole. Joe looked amazed by the feat and gave her a second bottle, which she popped open by banging it on the windowsill and chugging it like the first.

"Much better…" Iva said with a very happy smile on her face.

"Russians and alcohol go together better than Zombies and shotguns" Joe said with a grin.

"Damn skippy" Nicholas said as John finally let go of him.

"By the way Joe, I think you should have this back" Samantha said tossing him the Wunderwaffe DG-7.

"W-what? Seriously?" Joe asked in surprise.

"You're the one who built it. Besides, the Fists of Thor should keep the Wunderwaffe from hurting you like last time" Samantha said.

Joe nodded and pulled down a nearby window. He aimed the Wunderwaffe and pulled the trigger, causing a ball of lightning to go flying into the distance, slamming into a faraway building and causing it to topple over and crash onto the ground.

"Hey, I didn't feel anything" Joe said with a grin.

"That's what she said" Nicholas said with a grin.

"To you" Nick added.

"There it is!" Marcus said to the others, who got up and looked towards the skyline.

New York City…

Still with power, still running, and still with plenty of fight left in it. The group could tell from that the citizens of New York had taken precautions, and that they had been preparing for several days now. Several roadblocks were set up and large ramshackle gates had been erected to prevent the Zombies from getting in, built so nothing could climb over them. There were crowds of people in the distance crowded around the gates, and after a moment the group realized that those were Zombies trying to get through the barriers to the heart of the city.

"We need to get to Time Square" Nicholas said to Marcus, who nodded.

"Everyone, get your weapons ready. We don't know what it'll be like once we get in there" Samantha said as she got to her feet and walked up front.

"How do you propose we get through the Zombies? It's like a solid wall of the undead and then we've got to get through the survivors defenses" John asked.

Marcus grinned evilly and said "Guys…I think you should put your seatbelts on. It's going to be a bumpy ride"

Marcus floored it, and the RV shot down the highway and began the long trek towards Times Square, where the Survivors would no doubt be gathered and be ready to help them make this all right.

Meanwhile:

"_**YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME!"**_ Slenderman's voice roared in Yena's mind as the monster vanished and reappeared throughout the forest, drawing ever so closer to where Yena rested.

"_I underestimated the White King's power…I will not do that again_…" Yena thought as he slowly got to his feet.

Slenderman stood still, listening for any sort of disturbance. It was then suddenly grabbed around the waist and flung into a nearby tree. Several gunshots rang out, slamming into the monster over and over and over again. Yena leaped out from the shadows and slammed into Slenderman's chest with his feet, shattering the tree into splinters and sending the creature flying into a nearby clearing.

"_**You have power…"**_ Slenderman murmured as it got to his feet, completely unharmed. Even the gunshot wounds were fading away.

Yena laughed and said "So do you. It's a shame that only one monster can lurk in the shadows"

"_**That is where you are wrong, Harvey Yena. One day you will see, though that is only if you can manage to kill me"**_ Slenderman said with some amusement in its tone.

Yena growled angrily and Hyena said **"Let me at him! I can take him!"**

"I don't doubt it. But I've lost a lot of blood. I can risk going into…dammit, still haven't worked out a name for that form, have we?" Yena asked Hyena, who snarled at him.

"**Focus you idiot!"** Hyena snarled.

Slenderman hurled a tentacle at Yena, who leapt high into the air to dodge it. As he soared into the sky, he began to fire from both of his pistols, each shot leaving a huge gaping wound on Der Ritter.

Slenderman cocked its head and then launched ten tentacles at Yena, who snarled as Slenderman wrapped the tentacles around his legs and slammed him hard into the ground, smashing his face into the earth. Yena exploded in a shower of darkness and reappeared in the shadows of a tree, lunging at Slenderman and putting it in a chokehold.

Slenderman writhed quickly out of the grip and bashed Yena in the back of his head with its arm, sending the 935 scientist flying and slamming into a tree. The man got to his feet and said "It seems I'll need to bring out the big guns…"

"**You don't mean…?"** Hyena asked as Yena held out his hands in front of him.

"_**What are you planning?"**_ Slenderman asked as it cautiously kept its distance, all of its wounds vanishing into nothingness.

Yena held out his hands and a ball of darkness slowly formed in front of him. It became slimmer and longer while glowing bright red, and slowly formed into the shape of a sniper rifle. Yena grabbed the rifle and smiled.

"Ah…the Scavenger" Yena grinned as he aimed the sniper rifle Wonder Weapon at Slenderman.

"**Foolish human…such weaponry is useless against me…" **Slenderman said with a hint of amusement at his tone.

Yena grinned and fired a shot, and the bolt slammed into Slenderman's shoulder. Slenderman looked at it for a moment before the explosion engulfed the demon. Yena chuckled and said "I love it when things explode…it always-"

A tentacle shot out of the smoke and slammed into Yena, sending him skidding backwards. Yena took aim and fired another shot, this time slamming into Slenderman's chest. The explosion sent Slenderman crashing onto the ground, and Yena fired another three shots at the downed monster, engulfing him in more explosions.

"_**Think that did it?"**_ Hyena asked.

"Probably not. It's not as if this thing is Pack-A-Punched or anything" Yena replied

The smoke cleared to reveal an uninjured Slenderman. The creature crossed its arms and said_**"You should just admit defeat…dying isn't so bad you know…it's like going to sleep…well, unless you belong to me that is…" **_

Slenderman gestured somewhere to his left and Yena said a woman chained to a nearby tree, suspended by coils of black smoke. She had short blond hair and bright blue eyes, and she had a curvaceous and beautiful body. Yena frowned and said "Your newest victim, I take it?"

"_**Yes…she has a strong will…but I have not yet met a soul that can't be broken…the same goes for you…Harvey Yena…now die…"**_ Slenderman whispered as it lunged at Yena again.

Yena aimed down the sights of the Scavenger and fired at Slenderman, scoring a direct hit in the middle of its forehead. The monster stopped in its tracks before its head exploded violently.

Slenderman's body crashed onto the ground, drenched in dark liquid. Yena cackled triumphantly and said "Nothing can get up from a direct headshot from my greatest weapon"

"_**I wouldn't say that…"**_

Yena's eyes widened in surprise as Slenderman's head regenerated before his eyes and the creature slowly rose to its feet. Yena took a step back and felt something cold wash over him. It took Yena a few seconds to realize what it was…

Fear.

"This thing…it's…stronger than me…" Yena realized as he took another step back.

"_**You're starting to realize there's no way to win…accept defeat, and all will be well…you can join me and her…forever…"**_ Slenderman said gesturing towards his blond haired captive.

"I'll never belong to you! I serve no one! Not Richtofen! And NOT YOU!" Yena bellowed as he put away his Scavenger and pulled out Crow and Wolf and opened fire once more.

Yena felt the static roar in his head again, so powerful that it sent him down to one knee.

"_**There is no escape Harvey Yena…"**_

"**GET UP AND FIGHT!"** Hyena roared in Yena's mind.

"…_**this is the end…"**_

"N-no…" Yena muttered as he stumbled backwards and fell onto his back.

"…_**farewell"**_ Slenderman whispered as his tentacles drew closer to Yena's body.

Yena's eyes slowly closed, but before they shut completely, he caught sight of the girl Slenderman had held captive. Yena pulled out Crow and took aim before firing a single shot.

Slenderman laughed in Yena's mind and murmured _**"Your weapons are useless against me-"**_

"AAAIGHHH!" came a scream from behind them.

"_**WHAT!?"**_ Slenderman whirled around to his blond-haired captive crash onto the ground, bleeding heavily from her chest. She seemed very awake and alert now, and shouted "You! Slenderman! Why did you take me!?"

"_**You…"**_ Slenderman angrily turned towards Yena.

Only to find him gone.

"_**What the-!?"**_ Slenderman thought before Yena slammed down on top of him from above and unloaded onto him with both Wolf and Crow, blasting the monster in the back. Slenderman flung Yena off of him, only to be impaled by a wicked shadow tendril that burst out of the shadows of the nearby tree. Yena cackled and launched more shadow tendrils at Slenderman, which was slowly overwhelmed by the attacks and fell to the ground.

"Stay down already!" Yena barked.

"_**Never…"**_

Slenderman's arched its body and broke through the shadow prison, causing Yena to tumble to the ground. Yena rolled to his feet and reloaded his pistols. Slenderman hurled another tentacle at Yena, who jumped into the shadows and vanished again.

"_**Come out come out wherever you are, Harvey Yena…"**_ Slenderman whispered as it glanced at its surroundings.

BAM!

A bullet slammed into Slenderman's skull, and the monster whirled around and lashed out at a nearby tree, causing Yena to flee from his cover and land on the ground, crouching like a cat ready to pounce.

"_**Come now Harvey Yena, surely you can do better than this?" **_Slenderman asked as it slowly drew closer to Yena.

Yena felt a surge of anger go through him. This thing was playing with him. Yena hated to admit it, but he was low on blood and was tiring. Slenderman was showing no signs of wear or fatigue.

Yena glanced down at the blond woman who was now trying to sit up next to him, still snarling angrily at her current situation and trying to get to her feet. Despite being mortally wounded, despite the two monsters attacking one another, she was still trying to fight for her life. Yena smiled tiredly and said "You have spunk, I'll give you that. I'd recommend you stay here. I've got a fight to finish"

Yena vanished on the spot and reappeared behind Slenderman, delivering a powerful kick to the monster's skull. Yena dropped to the ground and fired an entire clip from Crow into Der Ritter before reloading. Slenderman crashed onto the ground, riddled with massive holes in its body, and slowly got its feet. Slenderman's wounded slowly sealed up and it shook its head.

"_**Foolish human…you shall die…just like all the others…"**_ Slenderman whispered as it launched another wave of tentacles at Yena, who leapt to the side to dodge it, rolling in the air as well.

Slenderman continued to go on the offensive, launching powerful tentacles that could tear through trees with ease at Yena, who leapt from the shadows and the trees while firing at the Operator. The young Slenderman victim slowly got into a sitting position and she whispered "What circle of hell have I stumbled into?"

Yena crashed onto the ground as his arm fell onto the ground next to him. Yena sank into his own shadow as Slenderman pounced on him.

"_**Where are you…?"**_ Slenderman whispered as it turned around, finding Yena standing next to his female victim. The woman grabbed onto Yena's leg, but Yena took no notice of her. Yena's arm slowly reformed and he put away both of his pistols.

"I grow tired of this battle Slenderman. I may have stumbled into your realm, but unlike the others I can get back on my own. Consider this fight a draw" Yena said with a grin as Slenderman tensed up.

"_**You shall not escape me!"**_ Slender snarled as it lunged at Yena, who flung his hand towards the Operator, who was slammed into the ground repeatedly by its own shadow.

Yena smiled as Slenderman broke free from its own shadow and said "Farewell Der Ritter"

Yena sank into his own shadow as Slenderman lunged towards him with a roar. The monster slammed into the ground and whispered _**"So…I have failed again…it seems humanity is done for after all…"**_

"_**Oh well…can't say that I didn't try…good luck children…you'll need it"**_ Slenderman murmured as it slowly vanished into forest once more.

Yena reappeared outside of a ravaged and destroyed city, with lava flowing through it and the remains of a giant dead hellhound in a nearby lake. He looked up into the sky and took a deep breath.

"That was the best fight I've ever had…but to be beaten that badly…" Yena muttered as he ran a hand through his black mane.

"He…Help…me…"

Yena looked down in mild surprise and saw the woman Slenderman had kept prisoner holding onto one of his ankles. He was again surprised by her tenacity, and said "How in the name of Molag Bol did you survive this long?"

"Pl…please…" the woman hissed as she tried to pull herself up, but her arms gave out and she fell onto the ground.

Yena's smile faltered. He cocked his head in confusion and said "Such a waste…it'd be a shame of such beauty and determination would end up fueling Richtofen's plan…your soul would just power the M.P.D…and we can't have that, now can we?"

"**NO! Don't do it! I forbid it!"** Hyena roared in Yena' s mind.

"You're not the boss of me. I AM you" Yena snarled.

Hyena's presence vanished completely, and Yena looked down at the dying young woman and said "I think…I think I see what you meant…"

Yena knelt down next to the woman and said "My name is Harvey Yena. What is your name?"

"My name…is Eris…" the woman choked out as blood dripped down from her mouth. Yena smiled as the blood flowed from her lip and into his pointer finger. Yena let out a sigh of relief, and then looked the woman in the eyes.

"You have a choice my dear. A terrible, terrible choice, but a choice nevertheless" Yena said with a slowly growing smile.

Meanwhile:

Times Square Survival Camp:

Two teens were standing at the top of a makeshift gate that was blocking one of the streets to Times Square. Despite how early it was, the camp was at high alert. Richtofen's proclamation yesterday had sent the city into a state of higher emergency, and half of the state had fled west. Thousands had died in the panic, and even more had been caught by Zombies that were waiting for them in the outskirts of the cities. Luckily a group of a firefighters and policemen banded together and led a swift organized effort to create a camp where the survivors could stay and be safe, and to band together against the undead. Several blockades had gone up over the course of a few days and weapons had been quickly gathered, and a few hundred survivors were now situated in Times Square. Several other camps had been organized throughout the state by those who remained, but as for the other thousands of residents, they had fled from their homes in an attempt to flee.

Richtofen's proclamation had also brought together several…unique individuals, some marred by their experiences with the undead, some who witnessed untold horrors while trying to survive. They were now stuck trying to survive as the undead tried to kill them all. But they would never bow down to Richtofen's whims…

Never.

So two teens sat at the top of a large metal blockade that blocked the street, it was really nothing more than a steel gate that had been made by some construction gurus that managed to make it into the city before the Proclamation. The two teens were chatting idly while the sun slowly made its way up.

One of the teens was a teen of medium height, with black hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a black pair of cargo pants and a grey jacket with a laughing skull on it, with some blood spattered don the front. He had an M8A1 in his arms while a snub-python was clipped to his belt. He glanced at his partner on the night shift, who yawned widely.

The other teen was a little taller than his partner, with dark brown hair and green eyes, wearing dark blue jeans and a black T-shirt with skull designs on it. He had an RPG strapped to his back and an AK47 gripped in his left hand.

"Hey Kris, any idea when…you know…is going to talk to us again?" the black haired teen asked.

Kris glanced at the teen next to him, whose name was Alec Damon, and said "No idea. Hopefully soon man"

The two continued to chat idly as the sun slowly rose higher in the distance, and more survivors awoke and set to looking for more supplies, making runs into the city to gather materials to make defenses and to gather more weapons. Guns, knives, anything that could be used to kill the ravenous undead. Finally the topic turned to otherworldly matters.

"Hey…" Alec said.

"Yeah…" Kris replied.

"…You ever wonder why we're here?" Alec asked.

"It's one of great life's mysteries isn't it? I mean…why are we here? Is it all part of some kind of…cosmic coincidence? Or is there really a God…watching everything…you know…with a plan for us and stuff…I don't know man…but it keeps me up at night…" Kris said with a heavy sigh.

Silence…

"…_what?_ I meant why the hell are we here? On guard duty?" Alec said with an amused look on his face.

"Oh…um…right" Kris said with an embarrassed look on his face.

"...what was all that stuff about God?" Alec asked.

"…nothing"

"You want to talk about it?" Alec asked.

"No"

"You sure?" Alec asked again.

"Yes"

"Seriously though, why the hell do we have to guard the main barrier? Jameson, Emanuel, Jared, and Jordan are all scouting for crying out loud. Why the hell do we have to watch a bunch of Zombies pound against a makeshift blockade for three hours?" Alex said as he fired a few shots down at a few Nazi Zombies that were fruitlessly clawing at the thick barrier, unable to get in.

"That's because Black Ops is apparently real. You heard Richtofen. Plus the Reclaimers that are in the Hellhold are kind of nuts" Kris replied quietly.

"I didn't dispute it man, I'm just saying its BS that we have to stay up and deal with this crap. Its 8 in the morning, and we were up all night picking off Zombies from the Crow's Nest" Alec said with a tired sigh.

"Wait…what's that?" Alec said suddenly, hearing a noise in the distance.

A tricked out RV was currently plowing through the Zombies, with rockets, lasers, and machine guns going off to thin out the horde. A gorgeous blond woman was on the roof of the RV, using a chainsaw to hack at anything that grabbed onto the RV.

"GANG WAY!" the girl yelled to the two teens, which she spotted over the wall..

"…well…think we should open the door?" Kris asked.

"At the speed they're going, they'll make it through anyway…" Alec said with a chuckle.

Both teens jumped down from their positions and signaled to several other teens, who shrugged and began to pull the gate open.

The RV rocketed through the Blockade and slammed to a surprisingly fast halt a short distance from the RV.

"What the hell was that about?" Kris asked.

"No clue. Come on, let's see what's up" Alec replied as he walked over to the RV.

"Oww…why the hell did you install power breaks on this thing again?" a voice said from inside the RV.

"Because numbnuts, otherwise we would've plowed through Times Square and destroyed it" a voice replied in an annoyed tone.

"Hehe…numbnuts" a girl giggled.

A few teens stumbled out of the RV, looking disoriented. A dark skinned girl with black hair threw up on the sidewalk while a blond-haired teen with glasses shakily fell out of the RV. The beautiful blond girl who had been standing on the RV jumped down and helped the other teen up.

"Alright, who are you guys and what's with the RV?" Alec asked, aiming his M8A1 at the teens.

A tall pale-skinned girl with long dark hair walked out of the RV and said "I thought I sensed you Alec. And Kris, you made it too! That's good to see, I was worried"

Kris and Alec exchanged looks, though they recognized the girl's tone.

"Samantha!?" Kris and Alec said together.

"Yeah. It's good to see you all have gotten prepared so quickly. Richtofen's Proclamation was less than twelve hours ago, and you're already setting up a perimeter" Samantha said with a smile.

"Well, you know. Those who lived in New York heard what happened in Florida and started setting up defenses and stuff immediately. We actually got here two days ago, the defenses have been going up ever since that first attack. Do you know what's been going on Sam?"` Alec asked Samantha, who nodded.

"Alright, then you should speak with Captain Thomas. He's pretty much in charge around here" Kris said.

"We'll get Zero to show you around. ZERO!" Alec yelled.

Another teen walked over to the group, holding a machete over his shoulder casually. He stood at about 5 '7' and seemed to be about the same age as Nicholas. He had a dark brown fauxhawk that was covered by a black hoodie. He had a wicked burn in his right thigh and he wore red running shoes. An AR-15 was on his back, as well as two .43 magnums clipped to his belt. His green eyes glanced over all of them, lingering on Samantha for a moment.

"You called?" Zero asked dryly.

"Hello Zero, good to see you again" Samantha said with a wide grin.

"Hey Sam, haven't heard from you in a while. Since when did you get a body?" Zero asked softly, though he was smiling.

"Since when did you have that burn?" Samantha replied.

Zero winced and said "Saved some kids from a Napalm Zombie. I managed to save them, but I got hurt in the process"

Samantha nodded and said "We need to find Captain Thomas and explain the situation"

"Can we come with? Seriously, we're bored as hell out here" Kris asked.

"I don't care. Ask Sven if he can cover for you guys until we're done" Zero suggested.

"Good idea" Kris said as he walked over to another teen and chatted with him for a moment. The teen named Sven nodded and Kris gave the group a thumbs up.

"Well, that worked fabulously" Juliet laughed.

"By the way, who the bloody hell are you guys?" Zero asked.

"Good question" Alec replied as he faced the group for Bradburn County.

"They're my friends. You can trust them" Samantha said shortly.

"Fair enough. I'm Alec Damon. This is Kris, and that guy there is Zero" Alec said introducing the trio.

"Why Zero?" Nick asked.

"Because your mother" Zero replied.

"Why I oughta-"

"Shut it Nick. Lead the way guys" Nicholas said to the survivors, who slowly made their way towards a large skyscraper a block away.

Meanwhile:

"Steady…aim…come on…just a little more to the left…" Serenity muttered as a faraway Zombie stumbled down the road.

"Tease it…tease it…" a voice muttered in her ear.

"Come on…move right into my sights you dummy…" Serenity whispered as the Zombie stumbled back into her line of sight.

"Tease it…"

"Come on…come on…"

"Tease it…tease it…tease-BAM!"

Serenity finally bashed Starch in the head with her AK-47 and said "Shut your mouth already!"

"Seriously man, what the hell does tease it mean anyway?" a young man with two trench knives on his hands asked.

The third addition was a young man that looked about 17 years old. He had short spikey blond hair with a black baseball cap on. He also wore torn blue jeans and a thick black leather jacket.

"Vice, you shouldn't' question British vocabulary, only abuse it and use it until people want to kill you" Starch said to the other teen, who cocked his head.

"Who do you know that abuses British vocabulary?" Vice asked curiously.

"English" Serenity corrected automatically.

"Wait…are OC's of other writer's allowed to break the fourth wall?" Starch asked.

"I don't know" Vice admitted.

"I say yes! So tell me, who abuses English vocabulary?" Serenity asked.

"More like uses it all the time because it's fun to use, and its none other than Fly-" Starch began to say until a rock hit him in the head.

"Where did that come from?" Vice asked.

"Hey, there's a note attached" Starch said.

bReak tHe FouRtH WaLL AgAin, AnD YoU Will DiE.

The note was in scary-looking text. The note burst into flames and Starch shook his head, muttering "Yeash..OK, OK. The guy's PMSing because he's been sick since February"

"What was that?" Vice asked

"Nothing. Anyway, Lighten up a bit. We're supposed to be killing Zombies from afar in a luxury hotel room! This is way better than Guard Duty. So ease up a bit and have fun being British" Starch said to the other two teens, who shrugged.

"English" Serenity corrected again.

"How about you Red? You with me on this?" Starch asked the fourth member of their group.

Red was a teen like the others, except that he wore a black metal mask that covered his face, except for his crimson colored eyes and his mouth. He stood at about 6 '11', taller than most of the others. He wore a plain black T-shirt with green and brown cargo pants with black combat boots on. A SVU-AS was held tightly in his hands while a TAC-45 clipped to his belt.

The mute teen shook his head and took aim with his SVU-AS. He pulled the trigger twelve times, scoring a headshot every time that tore through a Zombie's skull and made each one explode in a shower of blood and gore that bathed the pavement in crimson. He reloaded his sniper rifle and looked over at his partners, who starred at him.

"Dude…you scare me sometimes" Starch said, and Red nodded.

A fifth teen burst into the room and said "Guys, come downstairs quick!"

"What's up Tyler?" Zero said as he got to his feet.

Tyler was a semi-tall young man who had a large afro, and he looked at the others with his dark brown eyes. He wore a black jacket and blue jeans, and had two Katana's clipped to his belt and a double-barreled shotgun strapped onto his back.

"Guys, Sam's here" Tyler said to the others.

"Seriously?" Starch said, sounding surprised.

"Yep. I saw her downstairs, talking to Captain Thomas. She's a human now, but I could…sense it. It was her, no doubt about it" Tyler said.

"Come on guys" Vice said getting to his feet and walking over to the door.

Samantha was indeed currently talking to Captain Thomas, a large muscular African American man in a police officer's uniform. He stood at about six feet tall and had two Five-Sevens clipped to his belt and a SPAS-12 on his back. Captain Thomas sat down as Samantha finished explaining and said "That's quite a story young lady…though because of the events of the past few days, I'm willing to believe anything at this point"

Samantha nodded and said "Richtofen grows stronger for every soul that's freed. We've got to stop him"

"You're right. Now, how do you know this node is in this area of New York? The node could be anywhere in the entire state, how do you know it's here?" Thomas asked.

"Because, that's Richtofen's style. He'll hide it where we wouldn't suspect, and what better place than in the heart of New York?" Samantha said.

Nicholas had to admit, her logic made sense. Captain Thomas thought so too, because he said "Alright Samantha. So, how do you plan on finding it?"

Samantha snapped her fingers and Fluffy the Hellhound appeared in a wicked flash of fire, panting happily as a German Shepard. Thomas drew his pistol instantly and he said "What…is that!?"

"A Hellhound. The Hellhound. The original Hellhound, Fluffy. She's loyal to me again, and she can find the node easily. All I need is some help" Samantha said.

"I see. Well, we've got plenty of manpower, but we've got a couple of problems keeping us from getting free reign in the city again, the most obvious being the Zombies" Thomas said, calming down slightly.

"Like?" John said.

"The Reclaimers. When Richtofen made his Proclamation, he gained a whole lot of supporters" Thomas began.

"Supporters? You mean people already gave in to Richtofen!?" Andrew asked in surprise.

Thomas nodded and said "Yes…it seems as though the Proclamation scared some people into pledging their loyalty to him. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but some of the people who were in this camp yesterday gave in after just a few hours…they raised their hands into the sky and pledged their loyalty to Richtofen…I haven't heard from them since…they slipped out of the camp in the middle of the night"

"What happened to them?" Jess asked quietly.

"They joined the Reclaimers of course. Richtofen controls them now" Zero said softly.

"Zero, what do you mean?" Thomas said.

"Didn't you guys pay attention to that speech?... If you wish to stand with me, a man who wishes for a world where death holds no meaning, where you can remain strong and young forever, then raise your hands into the air and pledge your life…no…your very soul to me…" Zero said, echoing Richtofen's speech.

"Soul…" Thomas muttered.

"Richtofen wasn't just being metaphorical, was he?" John asked.

Dr. Maxis finally spoke up.

"_Yes…you all finally understand the true scope of this issue…every person who loses hope…who gives in out of fear for their own lives…who believes in self-preservation at any cost. When they pledge their soul to Richtofen, they bring him closer to his goal. They become loyal servants of that monster, loyal subjects in his ideal world…they bring him one step closer to becoming a god and us own step closer to damnation"_ Maxis whispered in their minds.

"Daddy, are you OK?" Samantha asked her father.

This was the first thing Maxis had said since they had left the lab. He had been eerily quiet ever since then, and they were worried that they had lost him.

"_I have been trapped in here for too long Samantha…my soul has been trapped in this gem for far too long…"_ Maxis murmured before becoming silent once more.

"Is there any way to help him?" Kris asked quietly.

"No. What Richtofen did to him…they may be no recovering from" John said, his hands brushing his own scars that Richtofen had given him.

"If that's the case, then we need to either get the Reclaimers back to normal, or kill them. I hate saying it, but they forfeited their right to live when they gave up themselves to Richtofen. They're holed up about fifteen blocks away in their own camp, known as the Hellhold. So far they've left us alone, but we know they're hostile" Thomas said.

"What can you tell us about them?" Jax asked.

Zero chuckled and said "Well, they're still humans and all that. It's just that the Zombies completely ignore them now"

"Seriously?" Judith asked.

"Yeah, and they're obviously hostile, since whoever's in charge of the camp called the Chief the other day and threatened him" Zero added.

"You never told us that" Kris said incredulously to Captain Thomas.

"And for good reason. All he said to me was that this world is evil, and that the Reclaimers will take back this world for Richtofen. And if we were going to resist Richtofen and kill his soldiers, meaning the Zombies, then the Reclaimers would destroy us as a result" Thomas said seriously.

"Let's not be hasty though, we shouldn't do anything until they make a move first" Kris said quietly.

"This is why I haven't sent a force already to take them out. They haven't done anything other than that to warrant alarm. We can't risk them sending something…worse at us in retaliation. So until then, we're stuck" Thomas admitted.

"Well, we can at least help around here" Nicholas offered.

"I'd appreciate it. We've got some spare rooms at the Marriot Marque. Find an empty room and settle down, we can find a place to put your RV, though I can't guarantee someone won't mess with it" Thomas admitted.

"Don't worry; I put some pretty hardcore security alarms on it. If someone touches it while it's active, they'll regret it" Joe said evilly.

"Zero, show them around. I'll meet with you all in a few hours to discuss this matter further" Thomas said to the teen, who nodded.

Just then five teens burst into the room, panting slightly. One of them, a cheerful-looking girl, said "There she is!"

"Hahaha, I knew Sam would come for us!" one of the teens yelled.

"Did all of you make it here? I said go north, but I guess everyone came to New York" Samantha said in a surprised tone.

"Well, you know. City that never sleeps, tons of people, good place for people band together and fight, am I right?" Starch said, and the others grudgingly agreed, having found sanctuary in New York since the outbreak.

Samantha introduced the group to each of the new arrivals, Serenity, Starch, Vice, Red, and Tyler. Apparently there were even more people that Samantha had been guiding telepathically over the past few days, leading them all north to sanctuary.

"Yeah, things have been crazy ever since we last talked Sam. Me and Serenity here got chased by Nelson the Flaming all the way to New Jersey, where we met Tyler" Starch said, gesturing to the teen with the afro.

"Yeah, meeting you was pretty memorable. It's not every day you see a guy crash a motorcycle and hit his nuts on a fencepost" Tyler laughed, causing Starch to growl in annoyance.

"Hey, I saved that old lady from certain death. Suck it" Starch replied.

"Sure, sure. Come on, let's show you guys where you can stay while you're in the camp" Vice said to the others, who followed him outside.

"So, what sorts of things have you guys done so far? I mean…travelling with Samantha, you must all sorts of awesome stories" Starch said with a grin.

"It's a long story… so long, it'd take about 29 chapters to get up to this point" Nick began to say before Nicholas growled angrily and tried to strangle him, only for Joe and John to put Nicholas in a choke hold and toss him onto the ground.

The Zombie Slayers were given a tour of the facilities, which included the Danger Line, a part of the camp with a huge thick metal blockade, larger than the others. It was obviously the place where many Zombies would come daily, due to the huge number of slain Zombies on the other side of the wall.

The tour also included the Crow's Nest, which was a small area of the Marriot Marquis Hotel that offered a good view of the main streets of Time Square, offering a great vantage point to snipe incoming threats.

"I think I'll stay here for a bit" Judith said walking over to the window.

"You sure? We've still got a couple of places to go still" Vice asked.

"Yep. I need to blow of some steam anyway, this'll be good for me" Judith said as she pulled out her Shadowy Veil Utilizer and took aim.

"Actually, me and Starch should stay here too. There's always supposed to be at least three people at all times in the Crow's Nest, we shouldn't have left our post" Serenity said.

"Good point Princess" Starch said mockingly.

Serenity strode over to Starch, picked him up by the shirt and yelled "I IS A ROYAL PRINCESS!"

"OK OK! JUST DON'T CASTRATE ME!" Starch yelled, and Serenity dropped him.

"Alright, they can show you where the others will be staying later Judith. Peace" Tyler to the others as the main group walked out.

Judith took aim and waited for a Screecher Zombie to ran into within her sights. She held her breath and concentrated. Starch quietly walked over to her and began the delicate job of bugging her.

"You better take the shot, you're going to let it get away" Starch said cheerfully.

"If you just give a second to concentrate, I could-" Judith began to say.

"It's getting away, its running!" Starch said pointing to the Zombie, which was indeed speeding down the street away from her.

"I get it! I'm lining up the-" Judith said angrily.

"Going to miss it, going miss it" Starch sang.

"Just be quiet and let me-!"

"Someone's gonna miss, someone's gonna miss!" Starch sang loudly.

Judith fired a single shot and it went through the Sreecher's skull six blocks away. The Zombies corpse crashed onto the ground and Judith turned around and yelled ""THERE! I TOOK THE F*CKING SHOT! IT'S DEAD! THERE'S BLOOD EVERYWHERE!" Judith yelled at Starch, who smiled widely.

Starch chuckled said "Awesome. Hey, can you shoot Serenity with that thing?"

"I'm right here!" Serenity yelled angrily.

"Yeah, so just a tap on the shoulder would be appreciated" Starch said again, earning a kick in the shin from the English girl.

"Ow! What did I do?" Starch whined as he hobbled away.

"B!tch" Judith said as she high-fived Serenity, who giggled and said "You're my new best friend"

"Awesome" Judith replied tiredly as she took aim again and took off two Zombies heads off in one shot.

"You alright…uh, Judith right?" Starch asked.

"Yeah, you got it right. And I'm just…drained. Yesterday we all almost got killed by a 935 Scientist" Judith said quietly as she set down the rifle.

"Really? That's awful" Serenity said empathetically.

"Wait, you look alright to me. Shouldn't you show some kind of injuries or anything?" Starch asked.

Judith shook her head and said "We all got shot with super-powered pistols and attacked by living shadows, but the thing about Quick Revive is that it's really helpful outside of a Zombie Map"

"Wow…" Starch said in awe as Judith took aim.

"It hasn't been easy for us either…me and Serenity here got some help from Samantha, who started to talk to us right after that outbreak in Bradburn County. It's been pretty rough for us too…we managed to fight out way to New York, but it's not that much better here. Constant Zombie attacks, constantly waiting to see if you can survive until the end of the day…it's nerve-wracking. You can't even sleep at night because you don't want to be caught sleeping when the Zombie finally break though the barriers…" Starch said in a surprisingly quiet tone.

"I lost my boyfriend yesterday…Liam...I miss him…" Judith whispered, and Serenity gasped and gave Judith a hug. Starch sighed and said "I'm sorry for your loss"

"It'll be alright, don't you worry. We'll beat these undead dorks and beat Richtofen!" Serenity proclaimed.

Starch nodded and said "Well said Princess"

"Y-yeah" Judith said wiping her eyes vigorously.

The trio began to fire at the Zombies down below, staving of fear, exhaustion, and anxiety, in this city of insomniacs waiting to die.

Meanwhile:

The others had finally finished the tour of the Camp, which thankfully included a store that had enough clothes in it for the Zombie slayers to get new outfits, mainly replicas of what they had before. Unfortunately John didn't get so lucky.

"Where's John?" Vice asked Jess.

"Still inside. He was looking for an Aeropostale shirt, but he couldn't find any good ones that were left that fit him" Jess said.

"Just your average problem in a Zombie Apocalypse" Tyler laughed.

"Wait, here he comes-OH MY GOD! Bwahahahaha!" Andrew started laughing his head off.

John walked out of the store, scowling angrily. He was now wearing a bright pink Aeropostle shirt with a white windbreaker on. Joe burst out laughing as well, and then everyone else joined in too.

"Nice shirt" Joe snorted as John walked towards it.

"Bite me" John muttered, crossing his arms.

"Love the colors; do they make it for men?" Andrew laughed.

"Shut up" John growled.

"Do-" Nick began to say before John shot him in the head with the Winters Howl, encasing his entire head in ice. Nick screamed and clawed at the ice before losing his balance and crashing onto the ground.

"Hehehehe, nice" Joe snickered.

"Joe, do me favor and go jump over the Danger Line, give the Zombies a snack" John grumbled.

"Hey John?" Joe said with a grin.

"What?" John asked.

"Nice shirt" Joe said with a grin.

"F*CK YOU!"

"Cool it you dorks. Come on, we've got to get to the Danger Line again. Come on" Andrew said as he bashed the ice block on Nick's head with Gutripper, breaking it.

"C-c-c-cold! So cold!" Nick shivered as he clutched his skull.

The guys went back to where the others were waiting for them. Nicholas walked over to them and said "Guys, we've got trouble. Samantha says that Richtofen is sending something in our direction. Captain Thomas lost contact with a group a few miles away from here who were on a supply run"

"That's not good" Nick said.

All of a sudden a green streak of lightning soared across the sky and every single person in the camp clutched their heads in agony as pain shot through their skulls. They heard a loud cackling laugh reverberate through the area and another streak of green lightning shot from the sky.

And then he spoke to them.

"_So…you all continue to defy me…so be it. You vill fall before my forces. Those who are loyal to me vill deal with you fools soon enough…but for now…here is just a taste of my genius…and my power"_ Richtofen said in their minds.

"This won't be good" Serenity whispered as she clutched her AK-47 close to her.

"_Fetch me their souls!"_ Richtofen yelled.

A faint growling sound echoed throughout the camp. Richtofen chuckled as a cascade of thumping sounds echoed throughout and bursts of lightning appeared around the outside of the camp.

"Guys! Get ready!" Vice yelled as he pulled out a wooden staff and spun it around in a quick circle.

A small creature suddenly jumped over the barricades and landed on the side of one of the buildings before springing off of that and tackling an old man near the edge of the camp. The man went down, his bullets soaring skyward as he hopelessly fired his pistol. The monster savagely tore the man's chest and throat open before lunging towards Andrew.

The creature resembled a Crawler Zombie, like the ones that gave off gas when they died in Kino Der Toten, except that they had a reddish tint to their skin and were slightly larger, with a more lithe and deadly appearance. Lightning surged around it as it quickly killed the old man, leaving the survivors horrified by the sudden display or speed and deadliness.

"_These creatures are known as Jumping Jacks…or Minions…be wary of them Samantha, they prey on those who stray from groups and are known for overwhelming people with numbers and speed…"_ Maxis murmured in their minds before slipping back into his silence.

Andrew flipped Gutripper in his hand and spun around as the creature lunged at him. Andrew grabbed the Zombie in midair and spun around, slitting the Zombie's throat before throwing it to the ground.

Red ran forward and checked the old man's pulse before looking at the others and shaking his head mutely. The survivors heard the sounds of more of the creatures jumping and bouncing down the roads towards them.

"HERE THEY COME!" Nicholas yelled as more Minions spilled over the barricade.

Juliet sprang into action, raising her chainsaw high into the air. She brought it down on one of the Minions as it lunged at her, sawing the Zombie in half. She spun around and sliced through another one as it leaped over the wall in midair, killing it on impact. Juliet took a step back as five Minions lunged at her at once. Juliet grinned and spun around, her chainsaw glowing orange as it swung around and tore through two of the Minions at the same time. Juliet ducked as the three Minions soared over her and pulled a lever on her chainsaw, causing it to shudder and change into a large cannon.

"CHAINSAW BLASTER!" Juliet cried as she blasted each of the Minions away.

Starch, Judith, and Serenity burst out of the Marriott Marquis and saw the Minions attacking and rushed forward to help. Judith took aim and fired a shot with her Shadowy Veil Utilizer, but the creatures were moving too quickly for her to get a line of shot on them. Judith frowned in annoyance and took out her WN and proceeded to open fire on the Minions, having better luck this time with a different gun. Serenity jumped into the fray with her AK-47 firing wildly, trying desperately to kill the Minions around her. Starch ran over to Nicholas and began helping him keep the undead at bay.

Tyler was using his shotgun to great effect, being able to kill the Minions in one shot. The downside was that he had to reloaded frequently and it took time to reload. Tyler was suddenly tackled to the ground by one of the Minions, and as the creature raised a claw to slash at him, it was blown clear off by an almighty gust of wind. Tyler looked over at Jax, who was holding his Zeus Cannon with a grin. Tyler put away his shotgun and pulled out both of his Katanas, and used those to hold off the Jumping Jacks that came at him, stabbing them in midair or slashing at them while they were on the ground.

Jax looked over towards Nick, who was effectively holding off an entire swarm of the creatures by himself. Each time he swung his golden dagger, he killed another Minion instantly.

"_Nice job kid. You're doing well. Maybe you'll master that ability I mentioned"_ C.N. said.

"I will. Only a matter of time!" Nick said with a laugh as he beheaded a Minion in midair and stabbed another one in the chest, blasting it away with a burst of white light.

Nicholas was doing something similar to Nick, only with Starch was next to him, who blasting away Zombies with his ACR, utilizing an under-mounted shotgun mod on it. Nicholas used his Galvaknuckles to great effect, killing the deadly Minions before they even touched him. Nicholas laughed evilly and said "ELECTRO-PUNCH!"

Nicholas drew his hand back and punched a Minion mid-bounce as it tried to lung at Starch, who nodded and continued to blast away at the Minions. Starch apparently had two modes, a joking and funny mode and then a serious and deadly mode, though he still had a wide grin on his face as he blasted though the waves and waves of Minions.

Jess and Marcus stood side by side, with Jess spraying the Sliquifier and causing the Minions to fall and slip in the strange liquid, only for Marcus to blast them in the kid with his pistols. Jess laughed happily as Marcus grinned savagely at seeing such fearsome creatures die in such a comical fashion.

Jax switched to his PX2RG and began spamming it whenever a Minion jumped over the defenses, effectively stemming the flow of the creatures attacking. John ran up by him and helped him by freezing the Minions solid with his Winter's Fury. John looked to the side and quickly blasted a Minion mid-jump as it lunged towards Joe, who yelled back "Thanks for the save!"

"Now you owe me!" John yelled back with a laugh.

"NEVER!" Joe proclaimed as suckered punched a Minion on the ground, sending it skyward with a yell.

Joe and Iva stood back to back, with Iva using her Afterburner and Joe using the Fists of Thor. Joe grinned evilly while Iva fired drunkenly, somehow scoring a surprisingly high number of headshots despite her inebriated state.

Kris and Alec joined the fight as well, with Alec crouching low and shooting any of the Minions that came at them with his snub-python, with Kris standing above him and firing his RPG at the Minions that came over the Danger Line, killing them instantly. Red joined them, using his TAC-45 and trying to keep the undead at bay, though he was at a slight disadvantage due to being unable to use his sniper rifle. One of the Minions tackled him to the ground and the two wrestled on the ground, with the Minion going for Red's neck. Red managed to free his arm and unloaded an entire clip into the Minion's skull, killing it.

"Are you alright?" Alec asked as he helped Red to his feet.

Red nodded and reloaded his pistol, and the group continued to fight on.

The battle continued for another ten minutes, until the Minions finally died down. As the last wave was killed, the damage was seen. Several of the survivors had been slain, and there were dozens who had been injured due to the swiftness of the Minions. But more or less, they had managed to win.

"Well played! Well played everyone!" a familiar voice said cheerfully.

Illuzio suddenly appeared in a flash of light and looked at the survivors, who looked at him bewildered. Judith took aim and fired a shot at him, only for Illuzio to warp away behind her.

"Now, now, now, none of that now" Illuzio said discharging a burst of blue energy into Judith, making her collapse onto the ground, asleep. Nicholas quickly pulled out his RPD and fired off a few shots at Illuzio, who yelped in pain as the shots clipped him in the shoulder.

"Stop it you fool!" Illuzio shouted as he flung his hand at Nicholas, causing the RPD to float in the air and promptly snap in half, raining bullets down onto the ground.

"Why are you here!?" Nicholas growled angrily as he pulled out his Mystifier.

"Why are you so angry?" Illuzio asked, sounding surprised, as though he hadn't expected this sort of reaction. The other survivors watched on in surprise.

"Yena!" Nicholas shouted angrily.

"I warned you all about him. I couldn't go into specifics of course, but-" Nicholas fired a burst from his Mystifier, blasting Illuzio in the chest this time. Illuzio fell to the ground with a yell and healed the wound, and to his surprise he found a Galvaknuckled fist an inch away from him, discharging electricity ominously.

"Liam DIED, because of Yena…Because of Richtofen… Because of you" Nicholas said coldly.

Illuzio's eyes widened and said "Liam died? I…I am so sorry…"

Nicholas's eyes narrowed and said "Not good enough…"

Nicholas drew his fist back, but before he could deliver the blow, he was blasted twenty feet into the air and crashed down hard on the ground. Illuzio throw up a magical barrier, separating everyone but Samantha, Joe, and Jess from him and Nicholas. The others watched from afar, unable to help. Illuzio healed the all of gunshot wounds and fired a spark on Nicholas's fallen Mystifier, which exploded violently.

"I…I wish I could've helped. I was in the past, finding more Soul Gems for Richtofen" Illuzio said softly.

"S-soul Gems!? Illuzio, you said that-!" Nicholas began to yell before Illuzio warped next to him and punched him the gut.

"Silence! We can't talk here, Richtofen has eyes and ears everywhere. However, I do know where we can talk in peace" Illuzio said with a smile.

Illuzio grabbed Nicholas, who was still winded from the punch, by the neck and gave a brief salute to the others before saying "Ciao!"

"Sieger should be here any time now. I think we should be able to return before he gets back. We must hurry!" Illuzio said as he lifted a hand to open a white pulsating portal.

Illuzio hurled Nicholas into the portal, but before he could do any more than that Joe pulled out the Wunderwaffe and pulled the trigger. Illuzio had time to look at Joe in surprise before a ball of white lightning slammed into him and flung him into his own portal.

"Got em'" Joe said with a grin.

"I hope Nicholas will be alright" Juliet said worriedly as she woke Judith up.

"He'll be fine. I hope that didn't kill Illuzio either, seeing as he's Nicholas's trip home" Jess piped up.

"It'll take more than that to kill Illuzio, and I'm sure he'll bring Nicholas back soon" Samantha said as she brushed the hair out of her eyes.

"_Attention all of you who aren't Zombies yet. Come and meet us at the Danger Line, so we can discuss the terms of your surrender, and how you idiots can proclaim your love for the world's true savior, Doctor Edward Richtofen!"_ the voice yelled suddenly from far away.

Samantha growled and said "Well, Nicholas is on his own for now. As for this…well, we don't need Nicholas to deal with these idiots"

"_What do you mean deal with them, Samantha?"_ Maxis asked his daughter softly.

Samantha began to laugh and held her hands up into the air. Samantha's face contorted in a scowl and a wicked blue pulsating light formed in her hands. It slowly formed into a long, sleek minigun that slowly began to rotate.

"Is that a Death Machine?" Joe asked apprehensively.

Samantha snatched the gun out of the air and held it at waist level, admiring her work with a sadistic grin.

"_That's my girl"_ Maxis said approvingly.

"Come" Samantha said as she ran off towards the Danger Line. The group followed her, still wondering about Nicholas and wondering what sort of battle they were in for.

End of Chapter:

_WHAAAA?_

_Stay tuned for more Zombie Slayin' goodness. _

_If I didn't put you character in, it'll be in next chapter. Like I said, everyone more or less did what I needed them too. So good job everyone. :D_

_Stay updated with Twitter, follow me at FlygonNick and be the first to get updates on the chapter and all that cool stuff. If you want to play Zombies with me, just send me your username and I'll add you, though I prefer it if you had a mic, its fine if you don't._

_Also…here's another bit of awesome stuff. _

_On my profile page, I have a new poll set up that essentially allows you to choose the ending to a side arc that involves my character (Nicholas). For those of you who are familiar with the newest Zombies map, Mob of the Dead, then you should know exactly what the poll's options refer to. If you aren't familiar with this…I suggest you look up "Pop Goes the Weasel", read the CoD wikia page that comes up, and then decide. _

_Anyway, you can choose one of the two options and whichever option gets the highest vote, that shall be how I will end the arc. Please vote on my profile page right after you leave a review in the section below. I deleted the third option I had up, seeing as that path I'm the most unsure about, and I'll only do the third option, the author's choice path, in the event of a tie by the time the next chapter is out. So basically, vote to either "Break the Cycle" or "Continue the Cycle". Highest vote decided the outcome of the arc. Both endings are equally awesome._

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	31. Time Travel Will Tell

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_The following chapter includes a lot of quotes from Mob of the Dead, and I utilized CoD Wikia. _

_Also, I have officially done everything you can on Mob of the Dead, including "Pop Goes the Weasel" and the Golden Spork, and have had my best match yet on this map. I LOVE IT._

_Also, if anyone is interested, I am currently looking for people to do the Tranzit and Die Rise Easter Eggs. Message me if you're interested, PS3 only._

_For those of you who remotely care about how picky I am with picking chapter names, and believe me, I put effort into picking relevant titles for my chapter titles in both of my stories, this chapter's title refers to the Main Easter Egg in Call of the Dead. Fun fact of the day._

_This chapter was slightly delayed due to a strange instance of writer's block with what to do for the survivor's bit, the length of this chapter being annoying for me, and me replaying Black 2. Also, I will NEVER do this again, because having10 (or so) brand new OC's and giving them and my original OC's screen time is next to IMPOSSIBLE. _

_Anyway…still love doing this story and I love how much feedback I got. So thanks for the support, hopefully next chapter can be even better._

_And don't judge me. It's a good game. I actually just got White 2 as well, so I can do challenge mode. I'll let you all know how that goes for me. I'm using Snivy, which hasn't worked out for me in the past, so I'm using it now._

_Also, shoutout to RWBY. If anyone is following RWBY, Roosterteeth's upcoming anime style show, please leave a comment in the review section about what you think of RWBY. If you haven't seen any of the RWBY Trailers (Red, White, Black, and Yellow, they need to be watched in that order by the way), then you should go watch them and then write some sort of remark in the review section._

_Shoutout to all of the wonderful people who reviewed last chapter, which includedtjelledge262,Ghost-407,_ _xNewWorld, Guest (AKA Jess,lol), Dustchu, hellfire lord, mcnoob, Serena and Abella, Lord rage quit, Trapinchh, Knightmare Frame Razgriz, Bu11etB1iss115 (welcome back,lol), StaticMob324 Alec Damon, and Snake-scent00, as well as a few new reviewers known as gonedie, silent elite warrior, andJustsomeperson7734._

_Thanks everyone for the support._

_This chapter was hard to do. Period. _

_Sorry if some OC's got less screen time than others, but with how busy I've been lately, I think I managed it._

_Enjoy._

Chapter 31: Time Travel Will Tell

The group arrived at the Danger Line, where about thirty of the survivors were standing around, looking upwards. The teens followed their gaze and saw someone standing on a top of a streetlight far past the Danger Line.

It was a man probably in his mid-twenties, with long shaggy black hair and electric blue eyes. He had a rather handsome face, yet a long jagged scarred marred it. He wore a black leather biker's jacket and wore a pair of ripped jeans. He had a Ray Gun and a Winter's Howl clipped to his belt and had an AK-47 strapped to his back. He admired the survivors with a wide grin and said "Alright, so, what's it gonna be?"

"What's going on?" Samantha asked Captain Thomas.

"That man is the Leader of the Reclaimers. He's demanding that we turn ourselves over to Richtofen, and in return he'll spare us. If not, then he'll use Richtofen's deadliest Zombie Experiment on us" Thomas said, tightening his grip on his SPAS-12.

"Things just keep getting weirder" Vice muttered.

The Leader of the Reclaimers pointed to Samantha, grinning widely as he did, and yelled out "And there she is! I've been waiting a long time to see you again Samantha!"

"Wait…that scar…that voice…Jason!?" Samantha said incredulously.

"So you do remember…good. Then tell these people to surrender Sam. Do it as a personal favor to me" Jason said with a smile.

Samantha looked conflicted, and said "They wouldn't even if I did ask them to. Why are you doing this? Why did you give yourself to Richtofen…how are you even alive!?"

"Yes…Illuzio killed everyone in our little group, didn't he? Except me…so here I am" Jason said with a wide smile, rivaling on evil.

"_**Kill…"**_

"_**Destroy her…"**_

"_**Do it…"**_

Jason shook his head violently and said "You've got a choice Sam. Either give up, or I'll be forced to take measures against you. I don't want to do it, but I will if forced. You have three days surrender. After that, I'm unleashing it after you and cutting my loses. Surrender now Sam. You owe it to me after leaving me to die" Jason said rather coldly before snapping his fingers and exploding in a blue lightning bolt.

Samantha looked down at the ground and said "It's all my fault…all of this…"

"Sam…who was that guy?" Joe asked quietly, seeing how upset she was.

Samantha shook her head, dropping the Death Machine on the ground. She turned around and ran down the street and out of sight, leaving the bewildered teens behind.

All of a sudden a bolt of blue lightning struck down in the middle of the encampment and Jason reappeared.

"That went better than expected. For a moment there, I thought she might actually fight back" Jason laughed.

BAM!

Jason's head fell back as a bullet slammed into his head. All eyes turned towards Red, who's eyes were narrowed down in what could be seen as anger.

"That kinda tickled. Wait a sec….I remember you…it was that small town in North Carolina! The one I attacked! I killed your little wolf didn't I?!" Jason cackled before two more shots went through his chest. The bloody, fatal wounds in Jason's chest slowly sealed up, causing the Leader of the Reclaimers to laugh even harder.

"I have no regrets. I do what I have to for Richtofen. And if that meant that I had to destroy that town and kill your little wolf, then so be it" Jason said with a wide grin as Red reloaded his rifle and fired 12 shots into Jason, who laughed harder with every shot.

"AHAHAHA! I love it! I'm going to have fun with this before I kill you all. Tell Samantha that I'll spare you if she surrenders to Richtofen. If not, then…let's just say you're in for a surprise…" Jason said with a wide smile before vanishing again in a bolt of lightning.

Red stood up, quickly looking around to where Jason had gone. He let out a snarl of rage and kicked a nearby lamppost, leaving a small dent in the thick metal.

"Red, you alright?" Alec asked.

Red turned around and aimed the rifle right at Alec's head, but before he could do anything else Serenity came up from behind him and clamped her hand down on neck, which made him go limp and collapse onto the ground.

"OK…how the hell did you do that?" Starch asked.

"Don't question it…just be amazed" Serenity said mysteriously.

Jess laughed and said "It's like she's the British version of me!"

"English" Serenity corrected immediately.

"What's with him?" Joe asked Starch.

"Don't know. All I know I that when we found him, he was pissed as hell. Serenity had to do her knock out thing to him to get him to stop killing everything" Starch replied.

Captain Thomas walked over to Red and said "Poor kid's had it rough. Can some of you take him to a vacant room at the hotel?"

Tyler and Alec helped carry Red over to the hotel, and the others watched silently, wondering what on earth could go wrong next.

Meanwhile:

The portal reopened and Nicholas flew through it and crashed to the ground, yelling out as his arm popped out of its socket. Illuzio flew out of the portal and flipped into the air, landing in a crouch.

"Damn that hurt" Nicholas groaned as he sat up, only to realize he was floating in midair. Everything around him was also blue, except for Illuzio, who was smiling dryly at him.

"If it's any consolation, I was hit point blank with a blast from that Wunderwaffe and thrown into my own portal" Illuzio said, gesturing to his scorched outfit that was drenched in crimson blood.

"How the hell did you survive that?" Nicholas asked, ignoring his current plight.

"Natural durability, plus I'm wearing full body armor. Nothing short of Richtofen or Yena could really kill me. Samantha's going to have to get stronger or you'll have to get really lucky. But I digress" Illuzio looked around.

"Oh…this isn't good" the Jester said with his face paling.

Nicholas looked at his surroundings, and found himself saying "What the hell?"

The two were now standing in the middle of a hallway from hell. They were standing in the middle of a hallway filled with jail cells, some of them coated with blood and gore. Bodies littered the ground and gunshots could be heard. Lightning could be heard outside, as well as shouts from a nearby hallway.

"Come on Weasel! Step it up!" a man yelled through another hallway.

"I am! I am!" another voice replied.

"Where did these things come from!?"

"Who cares? Keep shooting!"

"Damn it…this isn't good" Illuzio muttered as he limped a few steps forward.

"Why? Where are we?" Nicholas asked, floating upside down.

"I had another place in mind, but this'll work. Sadly, I can only get myself back until I can recover. I'll be back for you when you can either break the cycle, or survive long enough for me to get you back to the present. I'll keep a mind lock on you just in case, so I can talk to you if I need to" Illuzio said as he turned to face Nicholas.

"But where ARE we!?" Nicholas demanded.

Illuzio looked at Nicholas with a twisted smile and said "Welcome to Alcatraz"

Meanwhile:

Samantha finally stopped running several blocks away, having run out of the encampment. She fell to the ground and screamed, pounding her fists on the ground.

"Can I do anything right!? DAMN IT!" Samantha screamed as tears rolled down her face.

"I'm nothing but a failure…I just can't do anything right" Samantha sobbed as she curled into a ball.

She had failed to kill Richtofen and the others with her Zombies, she had failed to stop him once he had swapped bodies with her, and she had failed to stop him now, fifty years later. She was again and again reminded of her failures. The deaths of those who had tried to help her…the first group of heroes who tried to help her stop Richtofen, all those years ago.

Jason had been the leader of the group, and been one of the people she had trusted the most. Smart, kind, and a natural born leader, he was the right person for the job. To help her destroy Richtofen and save the world from his later campaign of destruction.

But they hadn't counted on Illuzio. None of them had.

The jester had appeared merrily in a flash of green light, and then slaughtered them with his magic. Samantha could only watch as her allies and friends were slaughtered in front of her, with Jason began the last too die. Illuzio had him pinned underneath a tower of flaming rubble, and Illuzio had told Samantha to leave and never come back. Samantha fled, leaving Jason behind and for dead.

And now, like so many of her mistakes, he had come back to haunt her.

"It's all my fault…everything that has happened…all of the suffering…it's all my fault" Samantha whispered to herself.

"You know…it's not _entirely_ your fault" a voice said to her.

Samantha looked up and saw Vice looking down at her. He smiled and said "Penny for your thoughts?"

Samantha shook her head and got into a sitting position. Vice sighed and said "What a night, huh?"

"Yeah…you would say that again" Samantha agreed tiredly.

"You OK?" Vice asked.

"No…no I'm not. I could have stopped him…I could have done something to lessen the damage Richtofen would cause…but I didn't, and I can't…he's too strong. And I'm too weak" Samantha whispered.

Vice chuckled, causing Samantha to look at him.

"You're weak? You've survived on your own as a spirit for more than fifty years, trying to figure out a way to stop Richtofen by yourself. Not an easy thing to do Sam. Besides, you don't have to do it all alone" Vice said bracingly.

Samantha sighed again and Vice said "Well, think of it this way. You say everything's you're fault, why not fix it then?"

"It's not THAT simple" Samantha said tiredly.

"It is actually" a new voice said.

Zero walked out from the shadows, wearing a faint smile.

"Just find Jason and kill him. Problem solved" Zero said with a smile.

"What do you mean problem solved? He was my friend! I'm the reason he became evil" Samantha replied miserably.

"Then it's your duty as his friend to save him. Kill him, and set him free" Zero said calmly.

"What if he just gets caught by the M.P.D?" Samantha said.

Zero shrugged and said "Doesn't hurt to try. If he does get soul trapped or whatever, then so be it. His life isn't as important as everyone else's"

Samantha saw the logic in that statement, despite not liking it one bit, and said "…fine…I'll…I'll have to do it then…"

Zero sighed and sat down next to Samantha, joining Vice. The two stayed by her side, just as she had stayed by theirs, and she slowly calmed down and regained her peace of mind again. She had a job to do, and there was no point in dwelling in the past. She had to stop Richtofen. Not just for what he did to her, but her father, to Liam, to her friends, to Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, and their daughters.

Richtofen would pay. No matter his motives, no matter what had caused him to do this…

He would pay.

**Meanwhile:**

"Alcatraz? You mean the prison? Why the hell are we here?" Nicholas asked, wincing as his dislocated arm throbbed with pain as he floated in midair.

"And am I a ghost? Why does my arm hurt so DAMN MUCH!?" Nicholas howled angrily, causing Illuzio to laugh under his breath at him.

"You dislocated your arm when you landed. You're not a ghost, really. This is called Afterlife, a dimension that allows you to see what truly is and what isn't. This is a little experiment of mine. We're in the past, about 78 years in the past…well…its December 31, 1933 anyway. What I've done here is trapped four prisoners on Alcatraz during this time in my own little dimension, which I control completely" Illuzio said.

Nicholas nodded slowly, and Illuzio said "This island is somewhat like those Zombie scenarios Samantha keeps using for you guys to train, but this time, it's a little different" Illuzio said with a smile.

"Why are we here though?" Nicholas asked again.

"I need to tell you some things about Richtofen. And apparently, you guys need to tell me some things to. We exchange information, and then we return to the present. Deal?"

"Deal"

"Alright, now what the hell happened in the present? From the reception I got from you and Judith, something bad must have happened" Illuzio asked.

"Yena attacked the Node out in Tennessee, and he killed Nikolai, Takeo, Dempsey, Kara, and Chan. Iva was the only survivor" Nicholas said quietly.

Illuzio sighed and said "Yena…"

"Yeah. While they were fighting Yena, we went through Babylon City and fought Sophia and a seven-headed Hellhound. Yena attacked us after that and after beating the hell out of us he….k-killed Liam" Nicholas said, feeling his throat tighten up just saying the name of his fallen friend.

"I'm sorry. I really am. I didn't want any of you to die, contrary to popular opinion. I just want Richtofen stopped. I want him to pay for what he did to me…to Samantha…to Dr. Maxis…to everyone…" Illuzio muttered.

"We found Maxis" Nicholas added, and Illuzio looked at him in amazement.

"What!? But…how did you get past the defenses in the lab!? How did you even find it, it was in a boulder quarry in the middle of nowhere!" Illuzio said in amazement.

"We ended up near there after fighting Yena" Nicholas explained, and Illuzio nodded.

"I should have figured. It seems Yena is going against Richtofen as well, in a roundabout fashion. He led you there on purpose, so you would find Maxis. I bet he took out the defenses in the cave beforehand as well" Illuzio said with a small frown.

"Why is he doing this?" Nicholas asked.

"Yena is a wild card. Before he was experimented on, he was very faithful to Richtofen. There we some complications in his transformation, and the effects were tripled, resulting in the Yena you know today…he was sealed away for both his and our own good. I had to release him per Richtofen's orders"

"Alright, so where have been anyway?" Nicholas asked.

"I've been travelling back in time to collect Soul Gems. Richtofen needs them for some reason, and I can't say no without alerting him to my plans…so…" Illuzio shrugged.

"You don't know what he's using them for?" Nicholas asked.

"No clue. It doesn't matter; he's got plenty of Zombies to carry out his plan. I don't see why he needs the soul gems" Illuzio admitted.

"He's using the soul gems to capture the souls of the slain Zombies. Those towers…these nodes that we've been hunting down cast a giant spell on the nearby Zombies, soul trapping them. People fight the Zombies, kill them, free the souls, and power the M.P.D" Nicholas explained, causing Illuzio to look utterly dumbfounded.

"No…then that…then that means that…" Illuzio murmured.

"You've been helping Richtofen the whole time. I doubt he even cares that you're helping us at this point, if he doesn't know already" Nicholas said.

Illuzio put his face in his hands and said "What have I done…"

"You just doomed us all, that's' all. You thought you were being sneaky, but you just played into Richtofen's plans anyway. And now I'm stuck in time" Nicholas said angrily.

"I have to stop this. All of this. I can't alter with the timeline, no matter what…I'll be back for you. Stop the cycle, or stay alive until it's time for the cycle to begin again" Illuzio said before snapping his fingers, causing Nicholas to suddenly become blinded by a white light and the jester vanished.

Nicholas woke up dazed and disoriented in a small pile of rubble inside of a small library, which was destroyed for the most part. Two large holes were in the wall, and there were metal bars next to him.

"Where…where am I?"

"Hey guys! Come here!" a man yelled.

"Don't….move"

Nicholas looked up, seeing a large muscular man with blue eyes and dark hair aiming an M1911 at him.

"Who the hell are you?" one of the men asked, pointing a pistol at me…uh...I mean Nicholas.

"Something tells me this is going to be a rough night" Nicholas sighed as he raised his hand in the air, while the other one dangled uselessly. Three more men walked into the room, though they didn't point their guns at him.

"Alright kid, what the hell are you doing here…and who the hell are you?" one of them asked.

"Billy, hold on a sec. This kid might know something" another man in a blue jumpsuit said quietly, smiling slightly.

"Weasel, help pop the kid's shoulder back into place" the man said with a smile.

The man known as the Weasel walked over to Nicholas and said "This'll only hurt a second kid"

Nicholas yelped as his shoulder slammed into the stone wall, popping it back into place. After the man let go of him, Nicholas shrugged his throbbing shoulder gingerly and said "Thanks"

"No problem. Now, mind telling us what the hell is going on?" one of the men said rather quietly, as though trying to sweet talk him.

"Alright, I can see where this is going. You tell me what I want to know, and I'll tell you what you wanna know" Nicholas said, smiling slightly.

"And why the hell should we tell you anything?" another man said coldly.`

"Because…I'm the only one with a ticket off of this island. And if we stick together, I might be able to convince him to take you guys along too" Nicholas bargained, and he knew he had said the magic words. The men all lowered their weapons and relaxed slightly.

"Alright, so you ain't as dumb as I thought. Fine" the man said with a satisfied smile.

"What's your names?" Nicholas asked.

"Finn O' Leary" a man with somewhat spiky brown hair said with a grin, shaking Nicholas's hand. He seemed to be friendly enough, though since they were in a prison, he knew that he couldn't entirely trust him, like the other mobsters. He had on a blue dress shirt that was splattered all over the front with blood, wearing a pair of light brown slacks. A prisoner number tag was on his shirt, reading 481B.

"Albert Arlington, nickname's Weasel" the man with the hat and black overcoat said, looking at Nicholas suspiciously with two differently colored eyes, one of which was green while the other was blue. He had the look of someone who could con a man out of everything cared about. He also seemed very ill-at-ease, and somewhat depressed.

"Salvatore Deluca" the man with a sly smile on his face said. He wore a blood-spattered blue dress shirt with a prisoner number, 386A, on it, and a pair of khaki slacks. He seemed like a man who would be the mastermind…the boss. Nicholas also sensed this man was either a great smooth-talker or a master manipulator…probably both.

"Billy Handsome" the scowling man grunted, not looking directly at Nicholas. He seemed like a very violent sort of man, the kind of guy who would shoot you in the heart and laugh manically. He wore a faded blue shirt and a pair of khakis, and had short dark hair.

"Is that really your last name?" Nicholas asked.

"Do you care?" Finn asked, laughing slightly.

"Not at all, just curious. I'm Nicholas…Time-Traveler, I guess. I'm from the year 2011. Right now Zombies are attacking the United States, and through a series of events to complicated to go into now, I got sent through a portal to the past that sent me here" Nicholas explained.

"Well, normally I'd say you're drunk if you'd think we'd believe that…but recent events sorta make anything believable" one of the men said, looking at Nicholas with a slight grin.

"So what's happening? What happened to Alcatraz?" Nicholas asked.

"I don't know. They've taken over the island…We tried to escape the prison, but we got stopped by the Zombies. We tried to fight em' off, but we got…killed, I think. We then got sent to some ghost world where we had to revive ourselves" Sal explained.

"Afterlife" Weasel corrected.

"Alright. I've been through something like this before, so how about this. I'll help you guys survive. The asshole who sent me here should be back at some point, and I'll try to convince him to let you guys come with us. Deal?" Nicholas said.

"Deal" Sal said with a satisfied grin.

"Hey kid, you sure you can keep up?" Billy asked skeptically.

Nicholas raised an eyebrow and spun around, sucker-punching Billy in the stomach with his Galvaknuckle. Billy yelped in pain and collapsed onto the ground, clutching his stomach.

"I can handle myself. Now come on, we've got to kill Zombies and get points, and we use those points to get better weapons" Nicholas said to the mobsters, who nodded.

"Alright, I don't really know my way around here. Tell me anything you can about this place and what's going on" Nicholas said.

"Weasel, tell him. It's your escape plan after all" Sal said to Weasel, who nodded.

Weasel nodded and began to explain the escape plan that the mobsters had had. Utilizing supplies laying around the prison, they would construct a makeshift plane named Icarus, and fly away on it. Nicholas was told about each of the sections of the prison, and how the escape plan was initiated.

Weasel had killed Stanley Ferguson and taken his keys, and had freed the other mobsters. He also explained how the Zombies had suddenly overrun the cell block and how the group had fought against them using stolen weapons from the Warden's Office, but were eventually overwhelmed and sent to the Afterlife.

"Alright, so how many waves of Zombies have come so far? I need to know what round we're on" Nicholas asked he group.

"Every time we've killed a certain amount of Zombies, some music echoes through the prison, and they stop coming for a few moments. I'd say this has happened about three times so far" Finn explained.

"Aright. We should get out of the Cell Block" Nicholas said, looking over at Sal.

"Since you have the most points at the moment, can you open the door?" Nicholas asked.

Sal hesitated, and then nodded. He walked over to the door and said "How the hell do I open it?"

"Put you palm on it" Nicholas said to the Mobster Leader.

Sal did as he said, and the door opened. Finn noticed that another door in the cell block opened as well.

"Which way should we go?" Finn asked Sal.

"We need to get the Warden's Key. It should be this way" Sal said pointing at the door they were next to"

"Your call" Billy said to Sal.

"Behind you!" Weasel yelled suddenly.

Sal turned around and saw a Zombie two feet away from him. He quickly pistol whipped it in the face and unloaded an M1911 into its skull.

"Come on, I ain't getting any younger" Sal said as he walked up the stairs and down a small path, jumping down the ledge and landing next to a gated entryway. The others joined him, and Nicholas spotted the golden electrified key hanging in front of them.

"So…who wants to grab the key?" Sal asked, eyeing the electrified key with distaste.

"I nominate Weasel" Billy said.

"I second that notion" Finn added.

"No guys. Look!" Nicholas said, pointing to a generator above them, protected by a set of steel bars.

"Hey, can we get around those?" Sal asked the others, who shrugged.

Weasel scoffed and said "Come here"

Weasel walked over to a small red electrical box and said ""Fuse box, kills ya quick, but don't worry, it ain't permanent."

"How do you know?" Nicholas asked.

Weasel smiled twistedly and pulled the lever, screaming in agony as he collapsed onto the ground as a wave of blue electricity surged around him. A small blue wisp of energy flew by them and flew towards the wall.

"What the hell?" Sal asked as the generator shorted out due to blue lightning shooting it.

The blue wisp floated over to Weasel's body, which was sitting down on the ground, and Weasel suddenly stood up and shook his head, as if trying to wake himself up. The group didn't have time to stare, due to the Zombies finally catching up to the mobsters. The men drew their pistols and opened fire.

Nicholas noticed the MP5 on the wall, but kept it to himself. After all, this was kinda funny to watch in a weird way.

Nicholas, still having his Galvaknuckle, then ran forward and punched a Zombie in the skull before spinning around and sucker-punching another Zombie in the stomach.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Billy asked warily as Nicholas took out five Zombies in a matter of seconds, increasing his point total from 0 to 910 in just a matter of seconds. The mobsters watched as Nicholas took out the remaining Zombies with a series of swift punches"

"Galvaknuckles. Just another advantage of coming from the future" Nicholas grinned as the Monsters looked at the melee weapon enviously.

Weasel cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention back to him. He pointed at the Afterlife Box and said "We can see things when were dead, things that we can't see otherwise" Weasel said to the others, who nodded slowly.

"_How does he know this?"_ Nicholas asked himself.

Sal walked over to the Warden's Key, and grabbed it. He flashed it to the others before saying ""We have the key, so let's get on with the f*ckin' plan!"

"Sounds good" Finn said with a grin.

The group opened another door and made their way down a small catwalk, entering another part of the cell block. Weasel opened another cell door, which allowed them to go back to the starting room.

"What's that?" Nicholas asked as the round started again.

Nicholas pointed to a dark red dog symbol on the wall. Weasel shook his head and said "We're all being played here…every one of us"

"_What's with this guy?"_ Nicholas thought before the Zombies started to come at them.

"Billy. Finn. Watch the left. Nicholas, Weasel, you two watch the right" Sal said to the mobsters and teen.

"And what are you doing?" Nicholas asked.

In response, Sal whirled around, grabbing a Zombie that had snuck up from below him and grabbed it by they had, jamming his knife into its skull and twisting it violently before kicking it onto the ground. Sal walked over to the Zombie, stomped his foot down on its neck and unloaded the rest of his M1911 into its head.

"THAT. Is what I'm going to do" Sal replied.

"Wow…that was badass" Nicholas said with a grin.

"Thanks"

"_**AWOOOOO!"**_

"What the hell!?" Nicholas yelled as a flaming dog head shot from the wall. It was similar to a Hellhound, save for the flames shooting from it and the fact it was just sticking out of the wall. It opened its maw and a rush of air came from the dog as it sucked the slain Zombie that Sal had killed towards it, grabbing it with its teeth and throwing it into the air before chomping down on it and devouring it whole.

The group didn't have time to gawk, as the Zombies started to come at them. Each of the mobsters bought a B23R off of the wall and proceeded to blast apart the Zombies. Nicholas used his Galvaknuckles and continued to punch any Zombies that came close enough for him to punch. As the Zombies fell around them, the hellhound continued to suck in the Zombies that they had killed.

"Keep killin' these freaks! Somethin's definitely gonna happen!" Billy yelled as he jammed his knife into a Zombie's throat before slitting it, smiling gleefully as the blood splashed everywhere.

As the Zombies numbers dwindled, the Hellhound finally howled and sank back into the wall, with a somewhat cool music playing in the background.

"Alright, so what did that do?" Nicholas asked as he sucker-punched the last Zombie in the chest, killing it.

"No clue. But we should get moving. We've got a plane to build and a prison to get the hell off of" Sal said to the others, who nodded in agreement.

(Round V)

Meanwhile:

Starch and Serenity stood at the top of the Danger Line with Jax and Andrew, discussing Samantha and the current events going on. The others were either on supply runs or keeping watch eslewhere. All was calm, until the distress call came.

"Hello!? Can anyone read me!? Is anyone there!?"

Starch looked at his hip in surprise and pulled out an old-fashioned radio.

"Hello? Is that you Emmanuel? What's up man, where are you?" Starch asked seriously.

"Oh you know, out for a Sunday drive with the kids, out getting ice cream, you know, all that good stuff-WE'RE STUCK IN THE MIDDLE OF ZOMBIE NEW YORK CITY SURROUNDED BY HELLHOUNDS AND ZOMBIES! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!" the teen yelled over the radio.

"Jeez, calm down. Where exactly are you?" Starch asked.

"A few miles away, you know where that crashed UPS truck is that Serenity blew up is? We're in the building next to that" Emmanuel said to Starch, who nodded.

"We can get some people over there to help you guys in a bit. Hang in there" Starch said.

"Hurry up. Jordan got hurt pretty bad, I think he got bit too" Emmanuel said quietly over the radio.

"Oh no!" Serenity said quietly, looking worried.

Starch scowled and said "Keep him awake and alert, alright? If he turns…well…you know what to do"

"Yeah…just hurry up man. He's looking bad" Emmanuel said quietly before the radio shut off.

"We need to get there, fast" Jax said as the group looked at each other.

"Alright. Me and Serenity will get a group organized and go find them. You two, stay here. We need someone who can keep the Zombies off of us when we get back. God knows we'll need the backup" Starch said seriously as he jumped down from the gate, Serenity close behind.

"You're serious today, aren't you?" Serenity asked.

"Hey, when it's my friends, I'm serious, alright? There's always a time and place for everything, this isn't the time" Starch said quietly, and Serenity nodded.

Starch and Serenity burst into the hotel and said "The Scout team needs help. Emmanuel radioed me and said they're surrounded in a building a coupe streets down"

"Are they all OK?" Alec asked, with Joe Nick walking behind him.

"Jordan got bit" Starch said to the others, who all flinched in response.

"We need to get there, quick" Nick said seriously.

"Get where quick?"

Jess rode into the room on Fluffy, who was panting happily, with Tyler and Marcus close behind.

"OK. We've got some guys trapped in a building a couple streets away. Marcus, let the Captain know now" Starch said to the teen, who nodded and walked out of the room.

"Damn, his is not good" Tyler said worriedly.

"We should get Clutch here as well. For some reason I feel better when he's fighting with me" Starch said.

"Probably because he grew up with some of the deserters from Mason's group. He's probably the best trained guy here for this sort of thing" Tyler added.

"Did you mean…Alex Mason?" Nick asked, and Tyler nodded.

"Wait…you mean the Campaign stuff was true too!? NOT JUST ZOMBIES!?" Joe yelled angrily.

"Uh…for the purposes of advancing the plot, yes. Luckily we don't have to worry about the campaign interfering with the story, since FlygonN cares solely about Zombies" Starch said with a grin.

"YO CLUTCH!" Starch yelled.

A man towards the teens, and said "You called?"

Clutch Odd stood at about medium height, and seemed a few years older than the teens around, probably in his early twenties. He had short black hair and green eyes, with a somewhat muscular build. He wore a black and red jacket with a black pair of jeans and a black T-shirt, a Remington 870 was on his back and a B23R was clipped to his belt, while a hunting knife was jammed into both of his black boots.

"We got a distress call. You wanna go on a rescue mission?" Starch asked.

"Sure. I'm always ready" Clutch replied, twirling a long bladed-Tonfa in his hands with a grin.

Captain Thomas walked over to the group, Marcus close behind.

"Alright, Marcus told me what happened. Joe, Nick, Jess, Starch, Serenity, Alec, and Tyler. You all go into the city and find them, bring them back safely. Get what you need from here, find them, and make your way back here as soon as possible. Understood?"

"I want to go too. Jess still had a broken ankle!" Marcus said to Thomas, who shook his head.

"Jess, Fluffy listens to you, right?" Thomas asked the girl.

"Yep!" Jess said cheerfully, and Fluffy nodded.

"As long as she's with Fluffy, she'll be fine. Plus, I wanted the dog to go with them anyway…its dangerous out there, and I don't want anyway else dying today. No more people go with them, that are final" Thomas said to the group. Marcus growled in annoyance, but saw his point. Thomas then added "You can go to the gate and keep an eye on things, and watch out for her when they head back towards the Danger Line. Marcus nodded, and the group got their supplies and guns ready for the quick run. As the group neared the gate, Marcus gave Jess a tight hug and said "Come back safe, all right?"

"Sure thing!" Jess said cheerfully, and Marcus kissed her on the cheek, causing Jess to blush dark red.

Andrew handed Joe his Quick Revive pack, and said "It might help stave off the infection if anyone gets bit"

"Good idea Andrew" Joe said with a grin as he trapped the pack to his hip.

"Come on, we've got to hurry" Clutch said to the others.

The gate to the Danger Line slowly opened, and the group shot out of the gate and onto the street, back in no man's land. Alec looked around and said "Why is it so quiet?"

"Well, well, well, look what we have here?" a voice said to them from the shadows

"…you HAD to say something, didn't you?" Nick and Starch said at the same time.

"…my bad"

A young man stepped from the shadows of an alleyway, admiring the group with a wide grin. He had shaggy black hair and wore a black T-shirt and white cargo pants. He shouldered a Galil that had flowing red and orange designs on it, as though it were covered in lava.

"Steven! Is that you?" Tyler asked.

"Yep. Dude, what are you doing here?" Steven asked, walking over to them.

"Some of the guys got surrounded by Zombies and…wait…why are you out here?" Alec asked suspiciously.

"See…about that…" Steven said with a nervous chuckle.

Steven's eyes suddenly turned a glowing electric blue, and he lunged at Alec, who ducked and hurled the teen off of him. Steven flipped in midair and landed in a crouch, muscles tense and ready to strike.

Jess rolled off of Fluffy and said "SIC EM!"

The Hellhound wasted no time and lunged at Steven, who screamed as the Hellhound rushed by him, tearing one of his arms off. Steven howled in agony and whirled around to see Fluffy advancing on him, slowly growing in size and burning with a fierce aura of fire around her.

Steven aimed his Galil with one hand and opened fire on Fluffy, firing laser-like bullets, who took the bullets head on and tore Steven's other arm off, causing him to drop his Lamentation (the Galil was Pack-A-Punched) onto the ground.

Fluffy proceeded to tear the Reclaimer limb from limp, devouring him whole. The others watched on in horror and awe as Fluffy licked her chops and barked happily.

"Yep…that's Samantha's dog alright" Joe said, sounding nauseous.

"Poor Steven…" Serenity said softly.

"Screw him. He gave me some really bad pot the other day. Serves you right you stuck up prick" Tyler said angrily, picking up his Lamentation.

"Good choice in guns though. I'll hold onto this for him" Tyler said with a grin.

"Come on, let's go before the Zombies come" Alec said.

"Raaah…"

"Reaaahh!"

"SAM!"

"…anything else you wanna predict?" Nick asked.

"…No…I'm, I'm good…" Alec said with a sigh.

"How about Emma Watson doing nude cartwheels down the street. That'd be nice" Starch said with a grin, earning a kick from Jess, who used her good leg, and a punch in the arm from Serenity.

The group opened fire on the undead hordes coming their way, but a Molotov flew above them and slammed onto the ground in front of them, engulfing the undead hordes in liquid flames. Jess looked upn and saw Marcus standing on top of the Gate, two more Molotov's in his hands.

"GET GOING NUMBNUTS!" Marcus bellowed as he hurled another Molotov.

"Hehe…numbnuts" Jess giggled as the group surged forward, guns a blazing and making their way towards their destination.

Meanwhile:

"Damn it…AGH…just kill me already, hehehe"

"You're not dying on us! Not F*CKING happening!" Emmanuel said angrily as he tore a piece of cloth apart with his teeth and made a bandage, wrapping around Jordan's arm.

Jordan laughed roughly and said "Never thought it'd end this way…I always wanted to die in someway that's cooler…like fighting a dragon"

"Sorority blowjob massacre. Not sure how it works, but I want it" Emmanuel said with a grin.

Jordan was semi-tall man wearing black USMC T-shirt and a pair of blue and white cargo pants, covered in blood. He had short brown hair and blue eyes, which were currently screwed up in pain. His face was drenched in sweat as his shoulder continued to bleed though the bandage Emmanuel made. He had several other injuries on his arms and legs, caused by the Zombies that had swarmed them while scouting the city for other survivors.

Emmanuel was a little younger than Jordan, but had short blond hair and dark black eyes. He wore a purple Iniquity Rhymes T-shirt. He had a large kitchen knife jammed into his belt, with an MP5 strapped to his thigh. He had a Ballista strapped to his back.

"Nice…how about you Jared?" Jordan said to another young man, standing by the window holding a black and green sniper rifle.

"Eh…sounds good to me. Better than getting torn apart by the undead hordes outside" Jared said with a grin.

Jared was about Emmanuel's age, and was somewhat taller than Emmanuel. He wore a green T-shirt and blue jeans, with black sneakers. He had short and straight dark brown hair, and had grey stormy looking eyes. He glanced down at an N shaped scar on his hand, winced, and said "Yeah. Sorority blowjob massacre works"

"How about you Jameson? BJM?" Jordan asked, groaning slightly as a wave of pain washed over him again. Emmanuel pulled out a water bottle and said "Here…It's still cold. Just stay awake, alright"

"Y-yeah…so…Jameson…BJM?" Jordan asked shakily, sloppily drinking some cold water.

Another one of the teens looked over at him and shrugged. That was Jameson for you. He was not as mute as Red was, but he was pretty much a recluse. He stood at about 6 '3', with close cropped black hair and blue eyes. He was very skinny and had the build of a runner. He had a Remington 870 on his back and held a long KABAR in his hands. Though he was quiet, he was good at communicating at least.

"Fair enough. Damn…can't believe I got bit…" Jordan muttered with a painful grin on his face.

"You're not dying on us, and we're sure as hell not letting you turn" Jared said as he aimed his rifle.

"Hey, what exactly is that thing anyway? I know it's not a normal rifle, but-" Emmanuel began to say before there was a loud roar in the distance.

"It's a special rifle that fired special high velocity pellets, soaked in meat and blood. Nasty stuff, but it attracts Zombies like no tomorrow. Perfect for diversions…plus the scope is useful too. I call it the Tagger" Jared explained.

"Damn it…we can't stay here for much longer…" Jordan groaned, slowly getting into a kneeling position. Jameson looked outside and window, eyeing the Zombies roaming around with distaste.

"Hey, sit back down man" Emanuel said to Jordan, who picked up an DSR-50 off of the ground and got to his feet. He checked to make sure the Bowie Knife and two Five Sevens on his belt were secure before saying "I've rested enough…I'm not letting you guys die because of me"

"FLUFFY! KILL ZHEM ALL!" a female yelled loudly a short distance away.

"The hell?" Jared said, aiming his rifle through the window.

"Hey, here comes the cavalry. It's some new guys, and Starch, Tyler, Clutch, and Serenity!" Jared said with a grin.

"Let's go out to meet them. Jared, give us some cover. I can't move that fast" Jordan said, gesturing to his leg, covered in cuts and slashes.

"Right, when I say go. Go. I'll be right behind you guys" Jared said, and the others moved out of the building and onto the streets.

Jared took aim and fired the Tagger twice, nailing two Zombies a block away from the building. Several Nazi Zombies walked towards the two Zombies that were hit, and Jared jumped out of the window and jumped down to meet his partners.

"Nice work. Jameson, help Jordan. Me and Jared will keep them off you. GUYS!" Emmanuel yelled, waving his Ballista in the air.

"Hey guys!" Serenity yelled cheerfully.

"Watch out!" Jared yelled.

Serenity looked to her left and saw a Blade Zombie charging at her. Nick lunged at it and swung at it with his knife, blocking a slash from the deadly Zombie. He ducked under another slash and stabbed it in the chest, killing it instantly.

"I love this knife" Nick said as he twirled it in his hands fondly.

"Jordan's hurt pretty bad. We need to get him out of here!" Emmanuel said as he aimed his Ballista at a few Zombies and fired a shot, killing one instantly.

Jess frowned thoughtfully and said "He can ride Fluffy. You guys protect us while we get him to the Danger Line"

"Noted" Joe said as he cracked hi knuckles, the Hands of Thor discharging electricity as he did so.

The group made their frantic run back to Times Square, fighting Zombies along the way. Clutch was at the front with Jess, bashing at Zombies with his Tonfa while shooting at them with his B23R. Jared was able to keep the group from getting overwhelmed by sheer numbers, while Jess and Jordan rode at the front, with Fluffy clearing the way by shooting fire at the Zombies. Jordan was managing to fight despite his wounds, firing his rifle with just one hand. Jess grinned and directed Fluffy back towards the Danger Line, where Marcus, Jax and Andrew fired at the Zombies hordes around them from the Gate. Judith, Juliet, and John joined them, firing their guns frantically to make sure the group got to the Danger Line in one piece.

Joe began punching Zombies left and right, sucker-punching, socking, and judo-punching Zombies as quickly as he could. Jameson pulled out his KABAR and went to work, slicing and hacking at any Zombie unlucky enough to go near him. He ducked under a swipe from a Screecher Zombie and sliced its arm and head off in one swift motion, twirling the KABAR in his hands as he did so.

Emanuel, Tyler, Starch, and Serenity went to work by shooting their guns at everything in sight, Another Reclaimer, a large bald biker man, lunged at Serenity, only to get a fist in the head from Alec. Tyler crept up behind the man and stabbed him in the back with both of his katanas, and Jordan finished it up by no-scoping him from fifty yards away, killing the man as the bullet soared through his head.

"_**RAAAAH!"**_

"What in the name of Alternative-Rock group Falco was that?" Jess asked, getting off of Fluffy.

"Guys! Get through the gate! We'll hold them off!" Tyler yelled to the injured survivors, who helped Jordan up and ran into the safety of the camp.

"Go Fluffy! I'll catch up" Jess said to the Hellhound, who bounded towards the camp.

"Aw crap" Starch said with a wince, pulling out his ACR and looking around as the roar reverberated throughout the city.

"_**YOU SHALL PAY!"**_ the voice yelled again.

Serenity turned around and yelled "What did you do to him THIS time!?"

"A Lake, an RPG, several bags of grease, Fluttershy, and the theme song from the first season of Pokémon" Starch replied rather hastily.

"Seriously? Again with this crap?" Alec asked, smiling as though he were trying not to laugh.

"…what the f*ck are you talking about?" Joe asked.

"Trust me, when it comes to this dork and his stalker Napalm Zombie, you don't wanna know" Serenity said as a huge fireball appeared in the middle of the street.

"That my friends, is Nelson the Flaming" Starch said.

"Wow, a gay joke. Nice one FlygonN. Smooth" Nick said.

Nick paused, and then said "It's nice not to get hit for a change"

"FlygonN thought we should give that joke a rest for a bit" Joe replied as the Napalm Zombie took form.

"What's that?" Tyler asking, pointing at something sticking out from it.

"Is that a…" Jess trailed off.

"Why does he have a pitchfork shoved up his-" Alec began to ask.

"Uh…no reason" Starch said innocently.

"Starch, you've got to stop trolling that Zombie" Tyler said with a laugh as it charged at them.

"Its even more annoying because it's a fireproof pitchfork" Starch said with a grin.

"OPEN FIRE!" Joe yelled as everyone opened fire on the Napalm Zombie, causing it to explode violently in several seconds.

"For a Napalm Zombie…not all that strong. Then again, we had like fifteen people shooing at it at once" Nick said with a grin.

"Why is he following you again?" Serenity asked.

"No clue. Though at this point, I think I've pissed him off enough to where he'll probably keep coming after me forever. Especially after what I did in New Jersey" Starch said with a shiver.

Alec, Tyler, and Serenity all shivered as well, and Joe asked "What happened in New Jersey?"

"Bro…you don't want to know" Tyler said with a shudder.

"HEY!"

Two balls of green energy shot out from an alleyway, slamming into two of the Juggernauts charging at them, causing them to crash onto the ground. The group saw Samantha walking towards them, her Death Machine on her back. The remaining Zombies all converged on Samantha, who flung her hands out and released a green wave of energy the enveloped all of the Zombies.

Samantha grinned evilly and said "Samantha says…_**bye bye**_"

She then clenched both of her fists, causing all of the Zombies to scream in agony before their heads exploded in a shower of blood and gore.

"That…was…AWESOME!" Jess and Serenity yelled cheerfully.

"Yeah. What the hell was that Sam?" Joe asked.

"I've always been able to do that" Samantha replied.

"Then why didn't you do it in D.C., the hospital, Babylon, or on our way here?" Nick asked.

"Because…uh…huh…Penguins" Samantha decided.

"Penguins?" Tyler asked.

"Yes. Penguins"

"What do penguins have to do with any of this?" Starch asked.

"Everything"

"…"

"Anyway, back on topic" Samantha said to everyone, who nodded.

"Why are you here Sam? What's up?" Andrew asked.

"I'm here because Captain Thomas said to get ready" Samantha said.

"What do you mean?" Judith asked.

"Well, I don't plan on surrendering to Jason. I'll have to kill him and the other Reclaimers to free them from Richtofen's control and to find the node. Since that's the case, we need to prepare for whatever they plan on sending our way" Samantha said to everyone.

"How do you think Nicholas is doing?" Nick asked Samantha.

"I don't know…I hope he's OK" Samantha said, looking up at the moon for a moment before turning and saying "Come on. We've got three days to prepare for whatever's coming"

"Let's hope that what the Reclaimers are sending after us is all that we have to worry about" Tyler replied, and the others couldn't help but shiver at the thought of what else had their eyes set on New York City.

If only they knew what was coming back to haunt them.

If only they knew.

Meanwhile:

"Alright guys, let's start finding stuff. You said there's five parts to the plane, right?" Nicholas said to the Mobsters as the Zombies began to slow down. Weasel was currently running the Zombies around back at the starting room, giving the others a chance to think about their situation.

"Sheets, engine, rigging, oxygen tank, and the control valves" Finn said, rattling down the list.

"Alright. So, you guys know where these parts are, right?" Nicholas said.

Sal nodded and said "They're scattered throughout the prison"

"Alright. We should find Juggernog first. It's gotta be somewhere around here" Nicholas said to the mobsters.

"Juggernog?" Finn asked.

"In these, well, we call them "Zombies Maps" in the future; there are soda machines that give you abilities and stuff. Juggernog is the most useful of them, because it increases the amount of damage you take before you down" Nicholas explained.

"And there's some of these on Alcatraz?" Sal asked skeptically.

"Can't hurt to look for them, right?" Nicholas said with a shrug.

"Nah, I guess not" The mobsters decided to split up and spread out over the Cell Block to explore this hellacious version of the prison. Nicholas and Finn walked over to the Warden's Office, but found it locked.

"Hey Finn, how do you think we get in?" Nicholas asked the Irish mobster.

"Hey look" Finn said, pointing to an Afterlife Box behind Nicholas.

"These things have to be the key to getting all the stuff on this map. Every map has a theme, a quality that makes it special. This has to be just one part of this thing that makes it incredible" Nicholas said, eyeing the small box with a grin.

"You make it seem as though this is just another day in paradise" Finn remarked.

Nicholas grinned as he put his hand on the lever and said "It kinda is"

Nichols pulled down on the lever and screamed in agony as the electrical charge shocked him to death and he fell down into a sitting position on the ground.

Nicholas opened his eyes and found himself once again in the Afterlife. He looked around, watching as Finn began to fight off the few stragglers coming at him while Nicholas looked around.

He spotted a wall portal above him, and quickly floated up through it and went down a hallway, and then quickly floated down the stairs. Nicholas spotted one of the small wall generators and let loose a bolt of electricity from his palms, shocking the generator and causing the cell gate to the Warden's office to open. Nicholas quickly soared back to his body, but went into the Warden's office, skimming over everything there. He grinned widely as he chanced upon the Speed Cola machine, shocking it and turning it on.

Nicholas quickly got back to his body and revived himself. He slowly got up off of the ground, sucker-punched a Zombie in the chest before slamming it headfirst into a wall, causing the Zombie to crash down onto the ground.

Nicholas walked into the Warden's Office, taking note of the Uzi on the wall for later. He also spotted a glowing engine part inside of an interrogation cell, but the door to the cell was electrified. Finn ran into the room and said "Hey. What's in the Warden's Office?"

"It looks like an Uzi" Nicholas said as he pointed to the gun outline on the wall. Nicholas walked past a strange looking box and into the warden's office, which looked very dark with its candles and skulls everywhere. Nicholas eyed the Speed Cola machine he had turned on and said "See?"

"While I'll be damned. You're right!" Finn said with a laugh, clapping Nicholas on the shoulder.

"GUYS! Come here! We found some stuff!" Finn yelled, his voice echoing throughout the prison.

Arlington come through first, followed by Billy and Sal. Sal however noticed a strange device on the ground that Nicholas had missed, and he picked it up, eyeing it curiously.

"Hey Weasel, what did you say this thing was?" Sal said to Arlington, who smirked.

"Huh. Looks like a part to the Acid Gat" Weasel said, taking the part from Sal.

"What's the Acid Gat?" Finn asked.

"Something important. Just look for the other two parts" Weasel said as he grabbed an Uzi off of the wall and unloaded on the three Zombies that had ran into the room.

"What's that?" Sal asked, pointing at the strange looking coffin in the room with question marks on it. There were flames shooting out from underneath it, and it looked more like a coffin than what Nicholas had seen before.

"I've seen this box before... gives you weapons, like a slot machine..." Weasel murmured under his breath as he took a few steps towards it.

Nicholas walked over to it and placed his hand on it. His points dropped by 950 and the coffin like chest opened up, revealing a series of a weapons that vanished and reappeared while being engulfed in a golden glow.

"Mystery Box. You can spend points here and get a random weapon. You can get lucky, or get screwed" Nicholas grinned as he grabbed an AK-47 and aimed down the sights.

"Very nice" Nicholas remarked before letting the other mobsters gave a crack at the box.

Nicholas walked over to Weasel as the other three men rolled on the Box, allowing him a moment with the mobster, who was currently staring off into the distance.

"So, how DO you know so much about what's going on Weasel?" Nicholas asked quietly, firing a few shots at the last few Zombies.

"I can't tell you…stop asking questions, OK? It ain't going to help any of us none" Weasel muttered as the last Zombie fell onto the ground, ending the round.

(Round VI)

Sal walked over to them, holding an FAL in his hands with a grin.

"Remember the turf wars of '22? Having a 12 gauge like this saved my behind more than once." Sal said as Billy walked over to them, holding an Uzi that he had got off the wall.

"Stupid box" Billy muttered.

Nicholas walked back over towards the box, where Finn had rolled three times now. He finally got a Galil, trading a DSR-50 for it.

"A man of my taste and experience knows how to appreciate something like this." Finn said with a grin.

"Hold up. I want something better" Billy said, rolling on the box again.

Instead of a weapon, a small lock appeared and the Box suddenly sank into the ground. Billy swore angrily and kicked the box furiously.

"I think you just rolled snake eyes" Finn chuckled.

"…shut it"

A distant rattling sound then echoed throughout the prison, causing the five Zombie slayers to look around in confusion.

"Hey…you guys hear that?" Nicholas asked as the Zombies began to break in again.

A large yell echoed then throughout the prison. A very loud, loud yell.

"What…the f*ck…was that?" Sal asked.

"Oh no…" Weasel murmured.

"Something's coming…" Nicholas said uneasily as he took a few steps back.

A huge fiery explosion went off about forty yards ahead of them down the hallway, and a large strongly built Zombie suddenly spawned, dressed in a torn officer's uniform with spikes sticking out from his body. He had glowing red eyes and carried a thick club with him, with a helmet on his head.

"_By the way…this is Brutus_" Illuzio said gleefully in his head.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Brutus roared.

"GUYS! RUN FOR IT!" Nicholas yelled as Brutus charged at them at the dead end Warden's Office with no escape in sight.

End of Chapter:

_Alrighty, so that's another chapter in the books._

_Please review and let me know what you thought._

_Be sure to follow the carnage on Twitter, follow me at FlygonNick._

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	32. Keep Calm and Carrion

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_I've been offline on PS3 for a week or so now, mainly because my TV is broken. So I can't play Zombies for now._

_WHICH SUCKS._

_And no, I didn't do it, my brother broke it. I'll add whoever wants me to play Zombies with them when I can, but it won't be for a little while. Sorry guys. =(_

_Yes, I'm getting a PS4. Nuff said on the subject._

_Shoutout to Vengeance, the upcoming DLC for BO2, and Buried, the brand new Zombies map. I'm excited as always for anything new when it comes to Zombies, and for those of you who read this when the DLC comes out, drop a review telling me how it is so far. I'd appreciate it a lot. If you want to check out some major Zombie action from a pro Zombie expert, check out syndicate on YouTube. That's where I go to get the lowdown on new maps and how to do well on them._

_Shoutout to the awesome people who review last chapter, which included Knightmare Frame Razgriz, Dustchu, Serena and Abella, tjelledge262, Trapinchh, Jess (yes, that Jess), StaticBomb324, Justplainawesome, Justsomeperson7734, hellfire lord, Snake-scent00, Alec Damon, and another guest. Also, shoutout to two new reviewers,_ _katerinavalentine62601 and The Zambie Man. Thanks for the feedback and support everyone! :D_

_This chapter is a tad shorter because there was some computer difficulties on a part that Joe (JC785) wanted to use, so I couldn't use it. Bad luck and all that. It happens, you know?_

_I personally feel this chapter was lacking a bit, but the next few should be some of the coolest ones yet. I'm already excited for chapter 33…_

_Anyway, on to the chapter that I do have done._

_Enjoy._

**Chapter 32: Keep Calm and Carrion**

The five Zombie-slayers opened fire on Brutus, who charged at them. Billy then yelled out as a Zombie tackled him to the ground from behind and clawed at him, which downed him.

"Billy!" Finn yelled, unloading on the Zombie with his Galil.

"Nicholas! Finn! Go help Billy! Weasel, you're with me!" Sal said, running towards Brutus.

"If you say so…" Weasel muttered as he sprinted towards the guard.

Both men ducked under Brutus's swipe and ran in the other direction, shooting him a bit to distract him. Finn ran over to Billy, who was on ground, clutching his arm.

"Hold still" Nicholas muttered to the mobster, who nodded.

"Finn, keep lookout for a sec, all right?" Nicholas said to the mobster, who nodded and said "Sure"

Finn keep watch while Nicholas injected Billy's wound with a syringe, sealing it up. Nicholas helped Billy to his feet, and the mobster nodded and grunted "Thanks"

"No prob" Nicholas replied.

Nicholas, Billy and Finn ran down the hall in time to see Sal go down in with howl of pain, bursting into a cloud of blue lightning as he did. Weasel was backed into a corner as Brutus came at him. Nicholas, Finn, and Billy opened fire on Brutus, causing his helmet to fall off. Nicholas jumped off the ledge and punched Brutus in the back of the head with his Galvaknuckles, killing him instantly.

"I WILL BE BACK!" Brutus groaned as he exploded and fell to his knees, and vanished, leaving behind a Max Ammo.

Finn was about to walk through it when Nicholas said "Hold up. Everyone reload your guns"

The mobsters reloaded and Nicholas walked through it. Samantha's voice screamed _**"MAX AMMO!"**_

"Now that's more like it!" Billy said with a grin.

"Alright. The kid was right about those drinks, so finding that Juggernog thing is a good idea" Fine said.

"There's a Gondola up the stairs over there. That can get us down to the docks" Weasel said to the others.

The group made their way up the stairs and to the next set of doors, which Nicholas opened. While they walked down the catwalk, Billy spotted a new Perk-A-Cola machine, Electric Cherry.

"I wonder what this thing does?" Nicholas asked himself.

"How do we get it to work?" Billy asked.

"We've got to go into Afterlife. Come on, there's a fuse box over there" Finn said to the others, who followed him over to the box. Finn pulled the switch this time, and with a scream was sent to the Afterlife

The Gondola, which was currently powered off, was suddenly switched on thanks to Finn, who shot the power controls for it. He also floated over tot Electric Cherry and turned it on.

"Good work boys" Sal said with a grin.

"Wait, we should check out the Infirmary first. We should check everywhere we can for more stuff" Weasel said to the others.

"Guy's got a point. You can never be too thorough" Sal agreed.

"That's what she said" Nicholas chuckled.

"HUH?"

Nicholas sighed and said "Never mind. Let's check out the Infirmary"

The group ran down the catwalk by the Electric Cherry, bought another door, and went down the hallway. Nicholas spotted a green tube looking object and picked it up.

"Is this another part for that Acid Gat?" Nicholas asked Weasel, who nodded.

"Come on" Sal said walking into another part of the Infirmary.

The group took note of the other Uzi on the wall and the dog symbol next to Deadshot Daiquiri. Nicholas immediately thought of Nikolai, and how he probably would've wanted a drink right then.

"I wish Nikolai and all the others were here…they'd know what to do" Nicholas sighed.

"Nikolai. Nikolai. Nikolai. Nikolai. Why do I keep hearing that name?" Weasel muttered, and Nicholas gave him a look.

"HEY! Wake up! We've got company!" Billy yelled as he blasted apart a Zombie, activating the fiery dog behind him.

"Right!" Nicholas said as he unloaded a few shots in a prisoner Zombie.

Weasel covered the rear, where Zombies were jumping down from the ceiling. Finn tried to open the door to the roof but found it locked, so Sal went into Afterlife to find a way up top. Nicholas, Billy, and Finn took out anything that came at them towards the front, feeding the massive Hellhound as they did. Eventually, six Zombies later, the dog was fed and retreated into the wall once more.

"The door for the roof just opened. Sal, if ya can hear me, turn on this soda machine too!" Weasel yelled.

The Deadshot Daiquiri machine activated and turned on, and the group made their way to the roof, where Sal joined them a moment later. Nicholas spotted the last two Zombies and hurled a Frag grenade at them, blasting off their legs and making them crawlers.

"What was that for?" Billy asked.

"The round doesn't end until all of the Zombies are killed. Making crawlers at the end of a round can let you do stuff without having to worry about any Zombies. It's pretty standard stuff in Black Ops" Nicholas said with a grin.

"Clever. I like that" Sal said, an ounce of respect in his tone.

A large runway ramp was on the roof, and Weasel said "This is where we build the plane. Bring the parts up here"

"Noted" Nicholas said.

"Alright, so what now? We go to the docks?" Finn asked.

"Yeah. Come on boys" Sal said with a grin.

The group made their way down to the Gondola again, and Nicholas found himself wondering about the mobsters. What was their past like? What they did do to get here? Why was Illuzio trapping them here?

Weasel turned on the Gondola and the group took a calm ride to the docks. The round ended the second the Gondola stopped.

(Round VII)

"What happened?" Finn asked Nicholas.

"The Zombie died. It happens sometimes when you make crawlers" Nicholas admitted as the door opened and the group walked onto the path.

"Alright. Me and Nicholas will check over here. You guys check the docks for anything useful" Sal said to the others, who nodded and ran down the stairs.

"Follow me" Sal said as he walked down the path. Nicholas saw Juggernog as they walked down a few steps and said "This is Juggernog. It makes you more durable and can help you take more hits"

"Good. Go to Afterlife and get it on" Sal said to Nicholas, who nodded and pulled the lever on the fuse box, sending him to Afterlife.

Nicholas laughed as he floated around and sped towards Juggernog and turned it on for Sal, who smirked and bought a bottle of Juggernog, chugging to down. Sal smiled widely and said ""Ahh, I needed that. Can't even remember when I last tasted one!"

Nicholas, not wanting to waste an Afterlife, floated down to the docks and saw Billy, Finn, and Weasel fighting off Zombies coming from all directions. He let loose a blast of lighting at a crowd of Zombies, saving Weasel.

"Thanks Nicholas" Weasel said thankfully, wiping his sweaty brow.

"_Guys! Open this door!"_ Nicholas yelled to them, feeling his Afterlife running out.

Sal threw Billy the key to the door, which Billy unlocked and said "There's a part to the plane!"

However, a gate was blocking his way. Nicholas spotted a power control box and shocked it, causing the gate to open, allowing Billy to grab the Oxygen Tanks, which he strapped to his back.

Billy laughed and said "Alright!"

Nicholas let Billy out of the fenced area and he flew back towards his body and revived himself before his energy ran out. Nicholas got to his feet and stumbled towards Juggernog, thirstily buying a bottle and chugging it down. Nicholas ran back down to the docks; where the Mobsters had taken out the rest of the Zombies, save for one, which Billy was training. Everyone grabbed a bottle of Juggernog and regrouped by the stairs.

"Alright, one part down, four to go. We've got to shut down the generators in the Power Room. We should keep an eye out for any more of those machines and anything else we can use" Sal said.

"I wish I had my Zombie shield" Nicholas scowled, looking down at his wrist. He had given it to Juliet, due to him worrying about her. He didn't want anyone else getting hurt, not after what happened to-

"No" Nicholas said firmly.

"No what?" Weasel asked.

"N-nothing. Anyway, we should look for something we can use as a shield. Do you think we could make one with some of the parts lying around here?" Nicholas asked Sal.

"Maybe. Come on, let's look around" Sal said to the others, who nodded.

The group spread out, taking out Zombies as they searched for parts. Nicholas swapped his M1911 for a gun off the wall, which he was informed by Finn was a Thompson. Nicholas grinned as he held the gun in his hands and said "I like it"

"Hey! Over here!" Weasel yelled to the others, who ran up the ramp.

Nicholas spotted a workbench, similar to the one he had seen in Babylon. Nicholas walked up to it picked up a small notebook.

"Zombie Shield and the Acid Gat. This is what the parts look like" Nicholas said, showing it to the other mobsters.

"Hey, I saw one of those parts by the docks! I'll grab it real quick" Finn said with a smirk.

Nicholas found himself alone with Weasel and Sal, and said to them "So…guys. There's something that's been bugging me"

"What's up kid?" Sal asked.

"Why are you guys here?" Nicholas asked.

"You mean why did we get locked up? Or why did we get stuck in hell?" Sal replied.

"Both" Nicholas asked.

"I don't know why we're here…honestly, not a clue. As for what landed us in Alcatraz, we'll, that's another story" Sal said to Nicholas. Weasel kept quiet, looking up at the stormy sky.

The group heard the end of round music, and then a swear from Billy.

"These things don't last very long! Do they!?" Billy snarled as he kicked the dead Zombie in the head.

(Round VIII)

"Nope. Hey look!" Nicholas said, spotting another red dog marking on the wall.

"Nice. That should be the last one" Weasel said as the Zombies started to come at them.

Nicholas grinned and opened fire on a Guard Zombie running at him, shooting it in the head and causing it to fall on the ground. The hellhound shot out of the wall and sucked up the slain Zombie.

"Keep at it!" Billy yelled as he opened fire with his Uzi.

The Zombies continued to pour in from the bridge and from the docks, and the five Zombie slayers bunched together and defended their position near the door that led to the Generator Room. The group continued to feed the Hellhound as the Zombies surged around them. Finally, the last Hellhound howled and sank into the wall once more.

"Come on!" Sal said, opening the door behind them and running into the next room.

We'll hold them off! You guys shut down the generators!" Finn yelled to Weasel and Sal.

Nicholas and Billy ran into the horde and went to town, shooting everything in sight. Nicholas was in awe of the mobster, who mowed down the Zombies with a bloodthirsty grin on his face. Nicholas blasted the faces off of the Zombies that came at him, and when his Tommy Gun ran out of ammo, he switched to his Galvaknuckles, punching anything that came at him.

Finn stood at the door, killing anything that came into the Generator Room. Weasel went into Afterlife and shut down the Generators while Sal checked the room, picking up a sort of door clamp as he searched.

"I don't know what it is but it's somethin'" Sal said as he clipped it to his belt for the time being. Weasel let loose a wave of electricity at the Generators, powering down the electrical door in the Warden's Office.

"Come on boys!" Sal yelled as Weasel revived himself.

Nicholas sprinted through a Double Points and an Insta-Kill, causing Samantha to scream out, and then yelled out "Knife them!"

"Why!?" Finn asked as the Zombies corned him near the edge of the docks.

"Trust me!" Nicholas replied, punching a Zombie in the head with his Galvaknuckles.

Finn drew his knife and lashed out at the Zombie, killing it instantly. Billy took note of this and went to town, swinging his knife wildly as he ran through the horde, racking up a boatload of points. The trio made their way to the Generator Room, where Weasel and Sal were fighting off Zombies.

"Alright boys, this way" Sal said, opening the door.

Weasel spotted a cell door frame propped up against the wall and said "Here's another part"

"I spotted another one of those workbenches in the Cafeteria, as well as next to that Electric Cherry Machine" Sal said to the others, who nodded.

The group opened a door and made their way up the stairs and opened another door. Nicholas spotted a locked up box, showing three power boxes with number above them , set to 0. Nicholas pointed it out to the mobsters, who took note of it for later.

The group made their way up the large tunnel that spiraled upwards, shooting Zombies along the way. When the got to the top, Sal grin as he saw the rigging inside of an elevator.

"How do we get to it?" Finn asked.

"Afterlife" Nicholas said pointing to the power Box.

"I'll go into Afterlife and figure out what's up. Stay here." Sal said to the others before pulling the switch.

The others stayed next to Sal's body and held their ground, shooting at anything that came near them. The round ended when Weasel blew apart a prison guard with his Tommy Gun.

(Round VIIII)

Sal floated down the elevator shaft tunnel, flying down rather quickly. He noticed a light blue 3 on the side of the wall, but kept going. He continued to float down the shaft, spotting a 7 to his left. He let loose a wave of lightning at a few nearby Zombies before reaching the last stretch of the tunnel, spotting a 4 on the wall as well. He stopped next to the 3 digit control box, knowing what he had to do now. He shocked the panels accordingly, the numbers he had seen along the shaft corresponded with the number of shocks each box needed, and he noticed the elevator beginning to move downwards as he shocked the third box for the fourth time.

Billy kicked a Zombie in the chest before bashing it over the side of its head with his empty Uzi. Nicholas ran up to the Zombie and uppercutted it in the head, sending it cartwheeling in the air and onto the ground dead. Billy laughed and switched to his Tommy Gun and opened fire on the Zombies running up the spiral pathway.

Weasel yelped as a Zombie crawled out from the earth and grabbed his ankles. Weasel fell to the ground, screaming, until Finn brought up his foot and stomped on the Zombie's skull repeatedly, killing it.

Nicholas glanced over at the rigging, noticing that the elevator was starting to go down. He pointed this out to the others, but before they could say anything Sal got up and said "Go down to the bottom! You can grab the part from there!"

"I'll grab it" Nicholas offered, and Billy tossed him the Warden's Key, and he started running down the path.

Nicholas ducked under a Zombie swipe and tossed a grenade at the wall, making it bounce off the wall and down the path. He heard an explosion a few moments later, and then jumped over the crawler he had made. Nicholas darted down a side path, shooting a prisoner Zombie in the head with his Thompson, and walked over to the elevator shaft. He unlocked the door and walked over to the rigging, wrapping it around his shoulders.

"Nice. Two down, three to go" Nicholas said with a grin as he ran up the stairs to regroup with the mobsters.

**Meanwhile:**

**The Two Days Later:**

**New York Survival Camp**

The Sun rose over New York, and those on Guard Duty were relieved of their shifts and got some much needed rest. Samantha, Joe, and Juliet looked out over the camp as the survivors continued the construction of the walls.

Essentially, the building Guru who had built the Danger Line gate had now began construction of three extra gates that led to the Danger Line, all made of steel, metal, and debris that made them dangerous. It had been taken 48 long and tense hours, but they had finally finished it.

Samantha sat down and sighed heavily, and muttered "I never knew how annoying having a body was"

"What's up Sam?" Juliet asked.

"Eating, sleeping,…other things that I didn't do when I was a ghost…I'm not used to being alive…hell, I'm still trying to adjust being an teenager" Samantha sighed.

"Well, your mind technically would've aged when you were ghost, and the body you're using now…well, she was like 18 or so when you took over. So you're an adult now, aren't you?" Joe asked.

"DAMN IT" Samantha growled, burying her hands in her face.

"Hey Samantha, see any cute guys here?" Juliet asked.

"W-what?"

"You heard me" Juliet said with a grin. Joe leaned closer to the conversation, smirking.

"Oh…I don't know…" Samantha mumbled, embarrassed.

"Oh come on Sam. There are so many good guys out here. I mean Nicholas is obviously taken, stay away from him I mean it, but seriously, you can't say there's not a guy who interests you?" Juliet said with a wide smile.

"Now's not the time for that Juliet" Samantha said tiredly, closing her eyes.

"You OK Sam?" Joe asked.

"I'm tired…so tired…" Samantha muttered.

"Sleep then. We'll keep watch and wake you up if something happens" Juliet said with a grin.

"You sure?" Samantha asked softly.

"Yeah. You deserve some shut eye. Plus, you're the only one here who can take down Jason. You need to be at your best" Joe said with a grin, and Samantha nodded.

"I'll be in the lobby of the Marriot if you need me…" Samantha said as she walked off.

"You think she's OK?" Joe asked Juliet.

"She's worried…heck, I'm worried Joe…ever since Yena fought us, I've been…well…" Juliet trailed off.

"You've been…?" Joe prompted.

"I'm scared Joe" Juliet whispered.

Joe looked at her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Juliet sighed, leaning on her chainsaw and said "We can't beat them on our own…we need help"

"What do you mean?" Joe asked, knowing full well what she meant.

"Yena…he destroyed us. We fought him with everything we had, and he toyed with us and murdered Liam. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Porter beat the hell out of us before you managed to weaken him with the Wonderwaffe, and then Samantha killed him" Juliet said softly.

"…"

"Even with all of these people, we're up against such odds…I don't blame the Reclaimers for giving in…because I'm scared too" Juliet said softly, turning around and walking down the road.

Joe stood there for a moment before letting out a sigh, his breath coming out in a puff that rose into the sky and faded into nothingness.

**A few Hours Later:**

"I spy with my little eye, something that begins with-" Joe began to say.

"Penis" Andrew said.

"W-what!? Come on man, it's not that" Joe snapped.

"Whatever bro. What does it begin with?" Andrew said.

Joe was about to speak before Samantha strode out of the Marriott, her Death Machine on her back.

Samantha walked over to the two teens and said "Get everyone in the camp's attention. I want to speak to them all"

"Why?" Joe asked.

"I've realized that there's a way to even the odds for us. To give everyone a fighting chance" Samantha said with a grin.

"What?" Andrew and Joe said, confused.

"Screw it. I'll do it instead" Samantha said as she walked on.

"_**MAY I HAVE EVERYONE'S ATTENTION!"**_ Samantha yelled in a demonic sounding voice. Every person in the camp turned towards her, and Samantha walked into the middle of the camp.

"Get everyone out here. Now. I have an announcement!" Samantha said loudly. Several people went into some of the nearby buildings to get some of the people who were sleeping or on guard duty. After a few moments, Samantha had assembled all of the survivors into the middle of the Camp. The survivors began to talk amongst one another, wondering what the strange girl could want.

"May I have everyone's attention!?" Samantha yelled from on top of a light post, drawing attention towards her once more.

Everyone looked up at her. Samantha sighed before saying "First of all, I'd like to thank you all for being here. This entire thing is my fault, and I will fix it…too many people have died and suffered because of me, because of my mistake"

"My friends and I have been traveling all across the United States, trying to stop Richtofen by ourselves. Edward has kept some of the members of Group 935 alive over the years, and they even have incredible powers now…I'll admit, it doesn't look good for us. The Reclaimers, Group 935, the of course, the Zombies themselves…we're outnumbered and outgunned"

"Someone's optimistic" Nick muttered. Samantha had explained the situation to the others, and they had all agreed it was necessary.

"Shut it numbnuts!" Judith muttered, elbowing Nick in the stomach.

"Hehe…numbnuts" Jess giggled.

"My friends and I have an advantage that a lot of you didn't have when you were fighting Richtofen's Zombies. I put them through training exercises, essentially putting them in real-life Zombie Maps. We've acquired some assets to help us even the odds against the Zombies and Reclaimers, to give us a fighting chance" Samantha said.

"And what's that?" Jared asked, leaning on his Tagger sniper rifle.

"Joe, release the machines" Samantha commanded.

Joe pulled out a capsule and pressed the trigger on it before tossing it onto the ground. A small explosion of smoke escaped from the capsule, and when it cleared a large red soda machine was revealed.

"Is that Juggernog?" Serenity asked in surprise.

"You bet it is" Juliet said with a grin.

Joe released the rest of the Perk-A-Cola machines, a Pack-A-Punch machine, and the crates filled with guns and ammo. The survivors starred in awe at the sight of video games becoming reality. Some stared at them with joy and glee, while some starred at them with disdain and suspicion.

"So, can we just break into them and get some Perks?" Starch asked.

"Perks?" an old man asked, clearly confused.

"These soda machines give out special drinks that give you special abilities. Juggernog makes you stronger and more durable, Stamin-Up increases how long and fast you can run, and all sorts of other cool stuff" Vice explained.

"I doubt it's as easy as breaking into the machine and getting bottle of Jug, right Sam?" Clutch Odd said with a laugh.

"Clutch is right. You have to get points to use these machines" Samantha said with a slight smile.

"Points?" Captain Thomas asked.

"It's a little hard to explain, but points are sort of needed to use these Perk-A-Colas. You get points by killing Zombies. To be honest, my powers are a little odd" Samantha said with a nervous laugh.

"Why points though?" Zero asked.

"Because, to use and acquire better items and perks, you have to prove your worth. You're ability to survive and fight is a measure of how many points you have. That's why Black Ops Zombies works the way that it does. The whole thing was a test to see how we'll you'd do in a real life Zombie outbreak. This is not only a way to make you all stronger. This is a test to see if you can survive what is to come" Samantha said softly, her voice carrying to all of them.

"Richtofen is evil…and he is not to be taken lightly. He has allowed you all to live because it amuses him to see you try to fight for your lives. He underestimates us, and that will be his undoing" Samantha said.

"I will watch over you all as you travel through my special Zombie-Training Map. Return here when you get the points necessary to get four perks of your choosing, and to Pack-A-Punch your weapons. We'll organize into teams to make sure no one gets seriously hurt" Samantha said.

"Is this some sort of game to you?" Thomas asked angrily.

"It was a game to most of you two weeks ago…It has NEVER been a game to me" Samantha said coldly to the Police Captain, who looked away, unable to meet her gaze.

"I have suffered so much because of Richtofen, more so than any of you could possibly imagine. I want him dead and gone, so he can't hurt anyone else ever again" Samantha said to everyone, who nodded and murmured in agreement.

"First team heads out in ten minutes. I'll be watching you guys while you're out there, and while I can't control the Zombies out there, I can interfere if I need to protect you" Samantha said to the survivors.

"How come you can't keep the Zombies from killing us?" Alec asked casually.

"The node here in New York is interfering with my ability to control the local Zombies, so you will have to be very careful out there… I'm simply creating a means to get you points to use these devices. You can grab a new weapon here or keep what you've got. The Pack-A-Punch Machine will accept nearly anything" Samantha said to everyone, who nodded.

Joe muttered something into Andrew's ear, causing him to stifle a laugh. Jax looked over at them in confusion, and Joe pointed to his crotch, and Jax snickered, catching his meaning.

"Joe, you could Pack-A-Punch that thing ten times, it wouldn't get any bigger" John muttered causing Joe to scowl at him.

Samantha looked at the others and said "Guys, you should go relax for a bit. There won't be much time for it later"

Samantha jumped down from her perch and walked a short distance away. Samantha put her fingers to her mouth and whistled, and Fluffy appeared in a burst of flames, panting happily. Samantha knelt down to her beloved dog and hugged her tightly, Fluffy barked happily and licked Samantha's face, causing her to smile and laugh.

"Good girl…Fluffy…Ich möchte, dass sie zu schützen. Wenn sie in ernsthaften Schwierigkeiten sind, retten. Verstanden?" Samantha murmured to her dog, which nodded.

"Gut. Sie wissen, was dann zu tun" Samantha said, patting her dog on the head. Fluffy barked happily and burst into a raging mass of flames before bounding forward and sinking into the ground.

"Fluffy's going to play interference for me. She'll be busy keeping the Reclaimers off of them while I keep watch" Samantha said as she pulled out her Death Machine.

"Be careful Sam" Juliet said quietly. Samantha looked back at the others with a grin before kicking off of the ground and landing on a tall light post, overlooking the no-man's land that was past the three gates and the Danger Line.

Iva looked down at the ground, testing the weight of her injured leg. It was doing better, but it still hurt. She had lost quite a bit of blood by the time she had gotten it treated via Quick Revive syringe. The physical wounds form her ordeal with Yena had nearly healed, but watching her father, uncles, and lifelong friends be cut down like that…well, calling her traumatized was an understatement.

Joe wrapped a comforting hand around her shoulder, and Iva sighed weakly and leaned against Joe for support.

"You alright?" Joe asked.

"No…thanks for asking though…it's nice to have someone who cares" Iva said with sad smile on her face.

"You're one tough woman, you know that?" Joe said admiringly.

"I get it from my parents. My mom was a master survival expert and my dad was a Soviet super-soldier. Plus, I grew up learning how to fight and survive with Kara and Chan. I had to be tough" Iva said with a grin.

"So what now?" Judith asked as the survivors scurried through the site, forming teams and preparing for a trip into no-man's land. Where they would have to prove themselves in the eyes of Samantha and get points, just for the edge to survive what was coming.

"I need some vodka" Iva replied, laughing slightly.

"I could go for some too" Juliet said, grinning widely.

"Let's get wasted!" Jax said with a laugh.

"Come on, there's got to be some high end vodka around here somewhere" Joe said, and the group set off in search of liquor and a way to pass the time.

**One Hour Later:**

"You ready?" Serenity asked Vice and Starch.

"As I'll ever be" Starch shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" Vice said spinning his wooden staff around, wearing his trench knives as well.

Clutch Odd chuckled at them and said "You guys aren't worried?"

"Nah" Vice said with a grin.

"Good, just checking" Clutch said, pulling out his B23R and his Tonfa.

The other survivors that had followed the guidance of Samantha over the past few days gathered together, ready to charge out into the no-man's land and prove themselves. They needed any advantage they could get.

"Ready…?" Samantha called.

"Set…"

"_**Begin**_" Samantha said ethereally.

The groups burst out through the Danger Line and out into the open. Almost immediately shots were being fired as the Zombies lunged at them.

Starch, Vice, and Serenity found themselves together, fighting the undead hordes.

"Come on!" Vice said to the other two teens, who nodded and followed his lead.

Meanwhile, Red and Jameson Morris, the two mutes of the group, found themselves together, watching each other's back. Red didn't speak at all, while Morris spoke only when necessary, and even then there wasn't much conversation.

"Come" Jameson said as pulled out his KABAR as a few Nazi Zombies stumbled towards them.

Red wasted no time and took aim and fired, shooting one of the Nazi Zombies in the throat. Causing it to crumple onto the ground senseless. Red quickly moved on to the other Zombies, shooting them and eliminating them with very little effort.

A Screecher Zombie suddenly jumped down from one of the rooftops and landed next to Red. Before the Zombie could even screech, it's head was severed from its neck with a machete.

Jameson nodded appreciatively to the culprit, which was Zero. Zero twirled his machete around and said "Not bad, huh?"

Alec, Kris and Tyler walked over to the two mutes and other young man, panting slightly. Zero spotted some survivors having trouble and sprinted off to help them.

"Nazi Zombie almost grabbed me" Tyler explained, gesturing to his torn shirt.

"Come on. Let's keep moving" Alec said, the group reloaded their weapon and went further into the city, shooting, punching, kicking, and slashing at everything in sight.

Red kept his distance, preferring to snipe at anything that came into view. He imagined Jason with every shot…imagined that it was his blood that was being spilt. He would pay dearly for what he did.

Red ducked as a Screecher Zombie charged at him and his pulled out his TAC-45 and unloaded an entire clip into its head as it charged at him again. As the Zombie went limp, he kicked it in the head, sending back onto the ground. Red closed his eyes for a moment and saw he had 2870 points. He opened them again and ran after his allies.

Jameson went to work with his KABAR, silently cutting his way through anything that came at him. His KABAR was excellent for cutting through the undead that came his way. He glanced back at Red, who had caught up now, and nodded at him before spinning around and beheading a Nazi Zombie with a powerful double-handed slash.

"Come on Jameson. First to ten thousand points wins" Clutch Odd said with a grin.

Clutch Odd ducked under a Zombie swipe and bashed a Zombie's skull in with his Tonfa before kicking it to the ground. Tyler dashed by, slashing and hacking at the undead hordes with his two Katanas, both of which were incredibly deadly and efficient. Tyler ducked as Clutch shot at a Zombie next to him with his B23R and slashed upwards with his two Katanas, chopping off another Zombie's arms before stabbing it through with a snarl on his face. He kicked the Zombie off of his swords and spun around, slashing and killing another Zombie.

Alec and Kris stood back to back, shooting and killing anything that came at them. Alec carefully aimed his M8A1, blasting the heads of any Zombies that wandered into site. His father had been in the military, and he had grown up with weapons like this. This was second nature to him, and he grinned as he cut down Zombie after Zombie with an expert aim and a steady trigger finger.

Kris pulled out his RPG and fired it, and the explosive rocket soared across the street and slammed into the side of a building. Large chunks of the building fell into the street, crushing and killing about fifteen Zombies.

"Nice" Alec said with a smirk as he reloaded and continued shooting.

"Well, you know, I am pretty great" Kris laughed.

Alec then spotted a glowing green perk that formed when a nearby Zombie was shot. He sprinted through the glowing golden skull and Samantha screamed _**"Insta-Kill!"**_

"Go for it!" Alec grinned evilly, pulling out a combat knife and slashing away at the nearby Zombies.

Meanwhile, Jordan, Emmanuel, and Jared were hanging out in the center of the map. Jared had secured an RPD and was using it to rack up points. Meanwhile, Jordan and Emmanuel were sniping anything that wondered into sight, blasting Zombie's skulls off with deadly accuracy. Jordan was now 100% recovered from his injuries, thanks to the medical treatment in the form of Quick Revive syringes.

All of a sudden a large man with glowing blue eyes burst out from one of the abandoned building and lunged at the small group. Jared pulled out his Tagger and shot the Reclaimer in the face with the sniper rifle.

"UGH! What the hell is this?" the Reclaimer asked, trying to wipe the nasty meaty goo off of him.

Several Zombies suddenly wandered over to the man, who shied away from the Zombies. All of a sudden the Zombie's converged on the man, who screamed as the Zombies tore him to pieces and began to eat him.

"_**I was planning to have Fluffy kill any Reclaimer that came after you all…but that works too"**_ Samantha laughed in Jared's mind.

Jared laughed and said "Works for me!"

Another Reclaimer jumped down from a nearby rooftop, and, Jared took aim and fired another shot with his Tagger, but missed. The woman picked a heavy chunk of concrete off of the ground and hurled it at the teens, which scattered and avoided the attack. Jordan took aim and fired a shot from his rifle, hitting the woman in the shoulder. She howled in pain, but seemed to be able to walk and fight still. The woman pulled out an RPK and opened fire, but before she could do more than fire a few shots, a loud growl came from behind her.

"What the-!?" the woman yelled before Fluffy leaped from the shadows and tore her to pieces.

"Jesus…that dog scares the hell out of me" Jared muttered.

"Agreed" Emmanuel and Jordan said, nodding as Fluffy devoured the woman whole.

Vice yelled out as a Zombie swiped at him, scratching him on the arm. He promptly spun his staff and caved in the Zombie's skull, earning 130 points.

Starch made his way down the alleyway, shooting all of the Zombies with his ACR's under-mounted shotgun, making quick work of them. Serenity blasted away any Zombies that Vice and Starch had missed, mowing them down with her beloved AK-47.

Serenity jumped on top of a trash can and opened fire, mowing down the entire row of Zombies with a yell of fury. Starch sprinted by her, his ACR shooting each of the Zombies in the head and taking them out with little effort.

"Come on Serenity, just a few more points and we're home free!" Starch said as he looked behind at the girl.

"Watch out!" Serenity yelled.

Starch turned around and found himself face to face with a Juggernaut Zombie, which swung a huge meaty fist at him. Starch ducked under the swipe, dropping a Frag grenade as he ran by, blasting the Zombie off of its feet. Serenity and Vice opened fire on the Zombie, with Starch shooting it as well. The Juggernaut roared in anger and made its way towards Starch and Vice, only for a machete to impale itself in its forehead.

"AAAGHHH!" the Juggernaut roared in agony as it fell onto the ground.

"Hey guys" Zero said coolly as he walked up to the Juggernaut, pulling out his machete.

"Zero, thanks for the save man" Vice said with a grin.

"No prob" Zero said as he looked around.

"They're starting to thin out a bit. We've all got plenty of points, more than enough to use the equipment back at the camp…maybe with that stuff we can end this fight" Zero muttered.

"I wish I could go back to playing video games…Man I miss that" Starch said with longing in his voice.

"You mean like that Dead or Alive game you were telling me about?" Vice replied.

"Isn't that all about half-naked girls and volleyball?" Zero asked, amused.

"Perv!" Serenity said angrily.

"Hey! I only play that game because I'm a keen follower of the sport of Volleyboob…I mean, uh, Boobyball…I mean…Boobyboob…I mean uh…shut up" Starch said sheepishly.

Zero shook his head silently before returning to the fight.

The groups continued to fight and shoot into the night, and eventually one by one, they began to return to the camp to prepare for what was going to come next. Whatever Jason was sending their way, they'd be ready to fight.

No matter what the odds, they'd continue to fight until nothing was left.

Meanwhile:

Alright guys, this way!" Sal said as Billy opened the door at the top of the stairway.

"Hey, the box!" Finn said, rolling on it with a grin.

The Irish mobster laughed in delight as he got an RPG, and he yelled out "Aw yeah! This'll bring the pain!"

Weasel rolled on the box and got a Ray Gun, which he accepted with a smile.

"Looks like something out of one of your comic books Weasel" Sal muttered as Weasel clipped the weapon to his belt.

"As long as you keep giving weapons like this, then everything's great" Weasel said, nodding at the box.

"Right…Come on guys, let's-" Nicholas began to say before Billy shot at the crawler, killing it and ending the round.

"Why did you do that!?" Nicholas asked angrily.

(Round 10)

"I was bored" Billy shrugged.

Nicholas scowled and walked off towards another hallway, pushing one of the bodies hanging from the ceiling out of the way. He stormed over to a section of wall that head three red dog markers on it, and then realized a chunk of wall was destroyed.

"Hey guys! Come here!" Nicholas called to the mobsters, who walked over to him.

Inside of the hole, engulfed in a red ray of light, was a tomahawk. It looked as though it was carved out of molten rock, and had an archaic sort of look to it.

"_Looks like you found the Hell's Retriever. Well done"_ Illuzio murmured in Nicholas's mind.

"Alright, this thing is called the Hell's Retriever" Nicholas said to the mobsters as he walked over to the tomahawk and picked it up, twirling it in his hands as he did so.

"It looks like it might be a Wonder Weapon, like the Ray Gun. So you guys should grab one" Nicholas said with a shrug.

Each of the mobsters grabbed one, and Billy said "We need to get back up to the plane"

"Which way do we go?" Nicholas asked.

"We split up. Finn, Billy, Nicholas. Go that way and grab the engine. Me and Weasel will go to the Showers and grab the sheets. Meet up at the roof" Sal said, and the group nodded and split up.

The Zombies were now coming at them, and Nicholas sprinted down the hallway, making note of the Double Tap Root Beer II machine fore later, and opened the door, leading them back up to the Warden's office. Nicholas directed the others back to the Speed Cola machine, where they each bought a bottle. Nicholas went into Afterlife to turn on Double Tap and the three mobsters bought a bottle. Finn grabbed the engine as well, and the trio began their long trek back to the roof, shooting and fighting along the wa. As they made their way up to the roof, the three Zombie-slayers each bought a bottle of Electric Cherry, which tasted like Cherry Coke to Nicholas.

Weasel turned on the Washing Machine, which began to turn around and around with the sheets inside. Weasel and Sal reloaded their guns and opened fire as the Zombies charged at them through the mist that had appeared, taking them down long before they got close. A sudden yell and a explosion ripped through the fog, and Brutus came charging at them. Sal and Weasel shot at Brutus's helmet, which went flying off, and then combined their gunfire at his head, which after a few moments downed the Warden.

"Get outta here!" Sal yelled with a grin, as he cockily walked over to the Max Ammo that had spawned in the resulting explosion, grabbing it.

"_**MAX AMMO!"**_ Samantha's voice yelled.

Sal and Weasel suddenly realized that they had much more Ammo on them than they did before, and Sal chuckled and said "This is some crazy sh!t, but I ain't gonna complain"

Weasel walked over to the dryer and grabbed the sheets out of them, balling them up and stuffing them under his arm, the Ray Gun held in the other hand.

"Come on!" Weasel said to Sal, running up the nearby set of stairs.

The two ran up the stairs and Sal spotted briefcase –looking object on the ground, and when he pointed it out to Weasel, he grabbed it and said "That's the last part. We can build the shield later, let's get this thing built now. Over here"

Sal followed Weasel to Cafeteria and pulled out the green pod looking part that Nicholas had given him. Sal handed it to Weasel, who began to put together the Acid Gat kit right there. Sal kept watch and took care of the Zombies coming at them. The round ended a few moments after Sal had killed the last Zombie in the room, meaning someone in the other group had killed the last Zombie.

(Round 11)

"Come on Weasel. The others should be on the roof by now. Let's head up there" Sal said to the mobster, who said "There's a few of those soda machines around here. We should find them"

"There's one back in the Warden's Office. Come on!" Sal said, jogging out of the cafeteria.

"Just a little further!" Nicholas yelled, sucker-punching a Zombie in the chest and kicking it to the ground.

Finn ran over to a glass case and unlocked it, revealing the control valves. Finn jumped back as three Zombie lunged at him from the nearby doorway, only to get blown to bits by his RPG. Finn laughed as Billy ran through the smoke and up to the roof.

"We've got company!" Nicholas said as a familiar rattling Zombie echoed through the prison.

Brutus spawned several feet in front of Nicholas and swung his club at him, sending him crashing into the wall but not downing him. It did however knock his Thompson out of his hands, leaving with an empty AK-47. Nicholas found himself reaching for the Hell's Retriever, and he hurled it as hard as he could towards Brutus.

The tomahawk flew through the air and caught itself on Brutus's helmet, causing it to fly off. Billy and Finn hurled their tomahawk's at the same time as well and Brutus let out a yell of defeat and fell to his knees as both tomahawk's went through his head. The Hell's Retriever's went back to their owners, though their auras were gone. After a few moments the aura returned to the tomahawks.

"Looks like they've got powers too. We throw them and they come back like a boomerang" Billy said with a smile, twirling his glowing red tomahawk.

"You alright Nicholas?" Finn asked.

"Yeah. T-thanks guys" Nicholas said shakily, picking up his Tommy Gun.

"Don't sweat it kid" Billy said gruffly, giving Nicholas a rough pat on the back.

"Hold up, I'm going to go find the others and build a Zombie Shield real quick" Finn said to Billy and Nicholas, who nodded as the Irish mobster ran down the hallway.

"So…Billy?" Nicholas said as the group walked up the steps.

"Yeah?"

"How'd you guys wind up in jail?" Nicholas asked. Billy glanced at Nicholas before considering his answer.

"Hmm…well, you have the big boss, Sal DeLuca. Built an empire off prostitution, booze, and gambling, all under the noses of the cops…and was the kind of guy I dreamed of working for…and when I got his attention, I got a lot of work…see, Sal didn't dirty his hands, heh. That was MY job" Billy said as they got onto the roof.

"You killed people?" Nicholas asked quietly.

"Yeah. I'm a messed up guy Nicholas, I know that much. I've got a lot of blood on my hands, and I don't regret it. Not everyone can take a life, and it's not something to be done lightly…stay pure, got it?" Billy said sharply, and Nicholas nodded.

"Yeah…I killed lots of people…Burned em, iced em…cut em and bleed them dry. Sometimes the kills were quick and clean, other times they were slow and messy…Anything to make the headlines…and then you had the money handlers" Billy said as he attached the oxygen tank to the plane. Nicholas handed the rigging to him, and he continued working.

"Al Arlington…he's the kind of guy you can go to and get the job done, if you can get past his greasy smile and the feeling that you're selling your soul to the devil. Then there was Finn O'Leary, the only man who could cheat a cheater and get away with it. Yeah, he had a pretty little thing for a wife too…until she sold him up the river" Billy said with a smirk as he attached the rigging to the plane.

"She ratted him out to the police?" Nicholas asked.

"Yep. From what I can tell, the guy still loves his wife, despite what she did….poor guy" Billy muttered as he got to his feet.

"Come on, Finn should be done with that Zombie shield" Billy said to Nicholas, who nodded and followed the Mobster downstairs.

Billy and Nicholas wandered over to the Electric Cherry machine and grabbed a Zombie shield, already built. Sal and Weasel, along with Finn, met up with the others on the catwalk.

"Alright, let's go to the roof" Sal said with a grin.

The five made their way to the roof, with Billy grabbing the last part, the control valves. The last Zombie ran after them, but Weasel kept it distracted.

"I can't believe we're getting off this rock" Finn said with a grin.

"Yeah…" Nicholas said.

"_This is too easy…Illuzio trapped them here because of what they've done in the past, I know it…but what else is there behind this?"_ Nicholas thought to himself.

Finn suddenly clapped Nicholas on the shoulder and said "You know what Nicholas. You're alright kid"

"Really?" Nicholas said in surprise.

"Yeah. You held your own against these Zombies, and you've watched our back the whole time, even though we're hardened criminals and all that…you're alright kid." Finn said with a smile.

"Gotta admit, you surprised me too. You're a natural" Sal admitted.

"Yeah…I guess you did alright" Billy said with a slight smirk.

Weasel glanced at Nicholas, who locked eyes with him. Nicholas once again wondered what this man was hiding. How did he know so much? What had happened?

"DONE!" Billy laughed as he put the finishing touches on the Icarus.

"This thing better make it off the ground, Weasel" Sal muttered to the criminal, who nodded silently.

"Get on!" Sal said, hopping on the plane first.

Nicholas, Billy, and Finn hopped onto the plane next. Nicholas extended a hand to Weasel, who gratefully took it and hopped onto the plane. The plane started moving on its own, and soon enough Icarus took to the skies. The plane soared through the stormy air, and Nicholas laughed as the cold air whipped by him, making him feel as free as a bird.

"Like Icarus, we take flight!" Weasel yelled, a faint smile on his face.

"Hahaha, we're home free boys!" Sal yelled gleefully.

The plane suddenly shifted direction, going through a thick storm cloud. When the group emerged from the cloud, they realized the plane was heading right towards a large bridge. There was no way to change direction, they were going to crash.

"HOLD ON EVERYONE!" Sal yelled grabbing onto the plane tightly.

Icarus slammed into the bridge and exploded, and the five Zombie slayers fell seven stories towards the stone cold ground.

End of Chapter:

_Alright guys, that's another chapter done. Next chapter, the real fun will begin, and will be mark where the plot gets serious…as well as a revelation that will surprise everyone! _

_I did sort of feel as though this chapter was lacking, so I'll make up for it by making next chapter even more awesome than normal. Already working on it and it looks amazing._

_What sort of Zombie will the survivors have to contend with? Will Nicholas escape? And what else could possibly be coming to New York!?_

_FIND OUT NEXT TIME!_

_Until then, show your support for the story by leaving a review in the section below. Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated._

_You can also follow the trail of carnage on Twitter, follow me at FlygonNick._

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	33. Hell is Cold

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Hehehehe…AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_

_Oh my god…so unbelievable. I can't believe the sort of awesomeness that is Buried. Both sides of the Easter Egg are incredible. Its twists like that that make the Zombies storyline so amazing. I will cover Buried at some point. As to how, I'll find out later on once I play it for myself._

_I have finally gotten a new TV, and will be back to playing Zombies ASAP. I may be organizing a play-date or something if anyone wants to help me in my quest to get the Easter Eggs. Anyone who wants to play Zombies with me, just add me. Just be ready for a long haul, as these Easter Eggs are long and time consuming._

_As for what my username will be when I get a PS4, it will remain as is on the PS3._

_To be honest, I've been debating changing my FF . net name to the full version of my internet name, but FlygonN stuck. Ah well, can't change it now. Otherwise there'd be mass confusion and stuff. I dunno, what do you guys think? Should I "evolve" my name, or keep it as is?_

_Oh right, on to other stuff._

_I didn't make the cut for Phase One: Genesis. Freaking sucks, but hey, it just means I can refine my OC and try again next time._

_Also, I will be taking a weeklong vacation at the end of July, so there will be a three week gap in between this update and the next. Sorry, but I doubt I'll finish this next chapter before I leave. Don't message me because I won't be able to reply._

_Shoutout to those who reviewed last chapter, which included Justplainawesome, Dustchu, katerinavalentine62601, a guest reviewer known as nikolia Belinski, Jess, Trapinchh, Justsomeperson7734,_ _tjelledge262,hellfire lord, Lord rage quit,StaticBomb324, Serena and Abella, Alec Damon, Bu11etBiss115, two new guest reviewers known as S4656guy and lanstetil51,_ _Knightmare Frame Razgriz, another two new guest reviewers known as Josh G. and Blackspark (btw, it won't let me add you for whatever reason), and Silent elite warrior, and 4 new reviewers known as 200footdrop, DylanKTB, MetaKnight0011,and jlbean. Once again, thank you so much for the feedback and support. It makes this story all the more fun to do. _

_Shoutout to RandomName3064, who won my last contest, and will have his original Zombie creation in this chapter. All credit goes to him for the idea, which is pretty damn cool if I do say so myself._

_Also, shoutout to my co-writer and best friend, JC785, who had major surgery done on his foot today. He's doing fine now, and is expected to make a full recovery._

_**_EDIT: I am no longer taking OC's for this story. I'm sorry, but I asked for them four chapters ago. I even did the wuss option and accepted all of the OC's submitted when I did Chapter 29, which is FREAKING HELL on my part. I can't take any more OC's guys. Its just too much for me. No matter how good they are, I just can't put them in. Do not submit any OC applications in the review section. I'm also done with contests and the like for the remainder of this story. Once again, sorry everyone._**_

_The name of this chapter was inspired by a chapter title in one of my favorite books, Clockwork Angel, by Cassandra Clare._

_This is a chapter I've been looking forward to for a while. I'm expecting a lot of feedback from this one._

_Enjoy._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 33: Hell is Cold<span>

"_The descent into Hell is easy" -Virgil, The Aeneid._

* * *

><p><span>Golden Gate Bridge:<span>

(Round 12)

Nicholas slowly opened his eyes, and found himself on the soaked concrete. He felt someone shake him roughly and heard a voice say "He's OK!"

Nicholas rolled onto his back and found Billy and Finn looking down at him. Finn looked relieved and said "Good. Are you OK?"

"Y-yeah. I'll be alright" Nicholas muttered as he was helped to his feet.

"This place...it's weird. I think we've been here before." Sal said, sounding amazed.

"Sure we have. It's the Golden Gate Bridge." Finn replied, looking around curiously.

"New Year's Eve! It's always New Year's Eve!" Sal muttered, looking nervous as he continued to look around the bridge, eyeing the fireworks in the sky with something like fear.

"How hard you land Sal? You ain't makin' any sense!" Billy said, sounding worried.

"Sal's right! The escape plan, the plane, everything? We've done it all before!" Weasel said to the Mobsters, who looked incredibly confused and worried.

"GUYS!"

The mobsters turned around to see Nicholas looking at them.

"The one who sent me here is screwing with you all. He made that storm and crashed us here, I'm sure of it" Nicholas said to the Mobsters, who nodded, seemingly regaining their composure.

"Right…" Sal replied, still looking worried.

"_So that's your game, huh Illuzio? You take all of your anger and frustration out on those who are damned to hell anyway…"_ Nicholas thought.

"_No. What I plan on doing to them is much worse than hell Nicholas...These men are scum, and as such will pay for their sins, or else…well, you'll find out soon enough"_ Illuzio replied before his presence faded away.

Nicholas turned around and found himself starring at something that made him grin.

"Guys, wait! Look!" Nicholas said, pointing to a familiar white machine, just sitting there.

"Pack-A-Punch" Nicholas breathed with relief as he ran towards the machine, putting in his Tommy Gun.

The mobsters walked over to him, and were amazed when he pulled out his old weapon, but when wicked flowing designs on it, like lava.

"This machine can be used to make your weapons much stronger" Nicholas said to the other's as Weasel Pack-A-Punched his Ray Gun.

Dong…dong…dong…

A strange chiming sound echoed through the area, and all of a sudden Zombie's started climbing over the edges of the bridge.

"Not again!" Weasel yelled as he opened fire with his PX2RG, taking out an entire wave with the Ray Gun.

Nicholas ducked under a Zombie's swipe and opened fire with his Pack-A-Punched Thompson, the Speakeasy. He covered Finn as he Pack-A-Punched his RPG. The Irish Mobster took the rocket launcher out of the machine and fired it and a crowd of Zombies, blowing them to bits.

A huge burst of fire exploded in front of Sal, and Brutus loomed over him. Before the Warden could do anything though, Nicholas opened fire on Brutus's head, causing his helmet to fall off. Weasel hurled his Hell's Retriever at Brutus's skull, killing him in one shot.

"_**IT WILL NEVER BE OVER!"**_ Brutus screamed as he collapsed onto the ground and faded away into ashes.

Sal Pack-A-Punched his FAL to the WN and opened fire, using the red-dot sight to blast the heads off of the Zombies the surged around them like an undead tidal wave. He watched Billy's back as he Pack-A-Punched his Uzi into the Uncle Gal.

"They just keep coming!" Sal growled as he continued to shoot at the undead charging at them.

Nicholas uppercutted a Zombie with his Galvaknuckle and opened fire with his Speakeasy, mowing down an entire row of Zombies. Nicholas heard a surging electrical sound behind him and when he turned around, he found five electric chairs just sitting there. A terrible banner read "NO ONE ESCAPES ALIVE"

The round ended when Sal tripped a Zombie and shot its head off.

(Round 13)

"Now what? We're stuck on this bridge now. No way off of it" Billy growled.

Weasel walked over to the edge of the bridge, looking down at the water below. Icarus, the crashed plane, glowed bright green and vanished on the spot.

"We need to get off the bridge. Now!" Weasel said to the others.

"How?" Nicholas asked.

Weasel smiled twistedly and pointed over at the electric chairs that were waiting for them.

"You're nuts" Nicholas said with a laugh.

"No f*cking way!" Billy growled angrily.

"Like before, we won't really die! You're gonna have to trust me on this!" Weasel said desperately as the Zombies started to spawn around them.

"Are you f*ckin' kidding me Weasel?!" Sal replied as he blasted the heads off of the Zombie charging at him.

"If you're wrong, I will haunt you forever Weasel!" Billy snarled as he unloaded his Uncle Gal onto the undead hordes around him, the quick rate of fire mowing down the Zombies with ease.

"At this point? I'm about ready to believe anything" Finn said quietly, and Weasel let out a sigh of relief that someone believed him.

"Guys, if this is going to be the end, then it's been a pleasure fighting with you all" Nicholas said with a grin as he kicked a Zombie in the leg and shot its head off.

"You too kid" Sal said with a smile as he turned around and faced down Brutus, who had spawned in front of them.

All of a sudden, another huge explosion went off on the other side of the bridge, and another Brutus came charging in after them.

"Not two of these undead morons!" Nicholas yelled angrily, reloading his Speakeasy with a quick hand motion.

"Billy, Weasel, help me take this guy out! Finn and Nicholas, deal with the other one!" Sal ordered as he opened fire on the first Brutus.

Finn ran over to Nicholas, and the two began to lead the second Brutus away from the others. Finn spun round and fired a PAP rocket into the Warden, knocking his helmet off. Nicholas grabbed his Hell's Retriever and held it over his head. The tomahawk pulsed in his hand, radiating a strange energy twice before stopping. Nicholas hurled it as hard as he could and it slammed into Brutus's head, killing him instantly.

Nicholas sprinted past Finn, unleashing a barrage of gunfire into the skulls of the undead around them. Sal let out a yell as a Zombie swiped at him, giving him a nasty cut on the arm. Nicholas hurled three grenades over to the other side of the bridge, helping stem the flow of Zombies.

"We need to go now!" Billy snarled as he blasted apart three Zombies with his Uncle Gal.

"Come on!" Sal yelled, and the five Zombie slayers hurried to the edge of the bridge.

The group threw themselves into the chairs. The straps of the chairs magically fastened around their wrists and a huge electrical surge ran down the two spires in the bridge and head straight towards them.

""Let's get this done! RIGHT, NOW!" Billy yelled.

Nicholas closed his eyes and prayed to God that he'd see his friends again. See his family again. That somehow, someway they'd make it out of this special slice of hell.

Nicholas screamed as the Mobsters screamed as the chairs shocked them into the Afterlife.

Meanwhile:

"Everyone ready?" Samantha said.

It was the third day now, and night was quickly approaching. Jason's deadline was drawing nearer, and the survivors were making some final preparations.

"Just about" Zero said as Red pulled out a Shadowy Veil Utilizer out of the Pack-A-punch machine.

"I don't like this" Captain Thomas muttered as he pulled out his SPAZ-24.

"None of us do Captain, but it's our only chance" Jared said as he shouldered his Tagger Rifle, which was one of the very few things that didn't go in Pack-A-Punch.

"ALRIGHT! TIME'S UP!"

Jason's yell echoed throughout the city. Samantha, Joe, and Jess hopped up onto the top gate of the Danger Line, the three gates they had erected stood between them and a horde of Zombies. Reclaimers stood at the edges of the massive horde of Zombies, holding everything from pocket knives to RPD's, some were even Pack-A-Punched.

Jason appeared in a burst of blue lightning. He had a Winter's Howl in one hand and a strange looking gun in the other. It was a somewhat long dark purplish-type of device with an intricate looking tip. It looked very complicated and looked shiny and new.

"That looks like some kind of new Wonder Weapon" Joe muttered as he eyed the weapon with distaste.

"Alright Sam. What's your answer? Will you surrender peacefully, or do I have to drag you into hell myself?" Jason said with a smile.

Samantha took a deep breath, but before she could speak a hand grabbed her shoulder. She turned around and saw Red starring at her intently with his crimson eyes. He nodded once to her, and Samantha smiled to herself.

The ones she had been guiding across America to safety…those brave young men and women, had her back. She wasn't alone in this fight, and even if the chances of victory looked bleak…at least they would go down putting up one hell of a fight.

"My answer is no" Samantha said to Jason. Jason shook his head and turned around, facing the growing crowd of Zombies. The survivors on the wall saw the Reclaimers joining the Zombie's ranks, armed to the teeth.

"Alright then...Reclaimers! This stubborn girl is what is preventing Richtofen from achieving his goal! A world of peace and safety. Kill her. Kill her and all of those that follow her. Do it in the name of Edward Richtofen!" Jason called to the Reclaimers, who cheered loudly.

"As for you fools, it's time for me to introduce you to one of Richtofen's most powerful creations!" Jason said, snapping his fingers. The sound reverberated through the air, and then the wind picked up.

Judith began to shiver and said "Is it getting colder? Or is it just me?"

Jess let out a breath, and a puff of large white air came out of her mouth and floated upwards. Marcus scowled and said "This doesn't feel right"

"Wait…what's that?" Jared asked as he looked through his Tagger. Everyone who could look over the wall's gaze shifted to a point several hundred yards away, where a small ball of white had formed.

"I don't like this…" Clutch Odd murmured uneasily.

The balk of Light began to expand and contract, and then began to pulsate wildly. The temperature began to plummet, and soon everyone was shivering uncontrollably. Joe and Iva were wrapped around each other for warmth, as were Jess and Marcus. Serenity had even found herself wrapped her arms around Starch in this sudden wave of cold that chilled them to their very soul.

"_**At last…"**_

The ball then began to take form.

It started out as a humanoid shape, and then began to gain features. It was slim, and had no flesh on its body. It was like a skeleton made of pure white, with shining blue eyes. As it stepped on the ground, the ground froze instantly. The ice began to spread from where it's feet touched, spreading further down the road. When its feet touched the ground, a strong whirling white snowstorm-like aura began to envelop it, swirling around it and making it hard to see.

It slowly walked down the street with deadly purpose, the Reclaimers and Zombies giving it wide berth. The ground continued to freeze as it walked by, even reaching to the sides of the buildings. Windows froze on the spot and shattered from sheer cold. White puffs flew into the air from the Reclaimer's mouths, but they seemed otherwise unaffected. All of a sudden one of the Zombie's stumbled towards the icy Zombie, and it went stiff and froze on the spot. The Zombie fell over and shattered into a thousand pieces of ice on the concrete.

The Zombie then raised one hand into the air and a small ball of white energy formed in its palm.

"You think you morons can beat me and my Reclaimers huh?" Jason laughed as he walked down the street.

"I think it'll be a cold day in hell when you can stop me" Jason said as the ice Zombie's hand closed into a fist.

The white Zombie's hand drew back and it punched the ground, causing a white pulse of energy to surge through the entire street, and flurry of snow and ice trailing behind the wave itself. Everywhere the wave touched, a thick coating of ice suddenly formed.

"TAKE COVER!" Captain Thomas yelled.

Luckily they didn't have to do that, as the wave of ice energy had nearly dissipated by the time it got to the survivors in their camp. It did however send a powerful wave of cold through each of them, causing two people to collapse onto the ground, shivering uncontrollably. The air was now bitterly cold, and the street looked as though it had been hit by some sort of supernatural blizzard. The entire street was coated with ice, as were the sides of the buildings. The ice zombie then looked up at Samantha and pointed at her, a terrifying smile barely visible on its frozen face.

"_**Samantha Maxis…we meet at last…"**_ the Zombie's voice whispered in everyone's mind, its words brushing against their minds like a whisper in the wind.

"Cool, right? I call it the Blizzard Zombie! The name kinda fits, I think!" Jason cackled as he walked down the street.

Judith lined up the shot and fired her Shadowy Veil Utilizer at the Blizzard Zombie. The shot soared across the street and flew towards the Blizzard Zombie's skull. As the bullet flew closer, it exploded in a shower of ice. The shards of the bullet fell lightly in the street, and Jason snickered.

"What the heck?" Judith said in surprise.

"OPEN FIRE!" Captain Thomas yelled, and about twenty snipers line up their shots and fired at the Blizzard Zombie.

The ice zombie just stood there and let the bullets fly towards him, but the result was the same. The bullets would all explode in a shower of ice before getting within thirty feet of the Zombie.

"What's going on?" Joe growled.

"I have a theory" Zero said as he walked over to the others.

"Think about it. Richtofen's a mad scientist, and he's dabbled in certain realms of science…isn't it possible for him create a Zombie resistant to all gunfire?" Zero said to the others.

"Not this immune crap again!" Joe growled as he pulled out his Wunderwaffe DG-7 and charged it.

"EAT THIS!" Joe yelled as he pulled the trigger, sending a stream of lightning at the Zombie.

The lightning bolt slammed into the Blizzard Zombie, which stumbled backwards a few steps and fell to one knee. For one moment, it seemed as though the Wonder Weapon had done the trick. As the electricity stopped flowing into it though, it rose to its feet, laughing ethereally. It then turned to face Joe and fired a beam of ice energy from its palms towards him.

"Get down!" Iva yelled as she tackled Joe to the ground. The ice beam soared into the sky and slammed into the side of a building, causing a massive pillar of ice to appear on the side of the building several hundred feet in the air.

"Thanks" Joe said gratefully.

"No problem" Iva replied as she got back to her feet, helping Joe up.

"It's temperature is so low that its freezing everything around it, even as it flies towards it in midair…what could be that cold…?" Zero muttered.

"Absolute Zero" Iva replied, stepping forward, eying the Zombie with distaste.

"Papa told me a story about some 935 plans he stumbled across once. It was at Der Reise...This thing looks just like what he told me was on the plans. Richtofen was furious when Papa showed him the plans, and he took them away from him. This thing will freeze anything that comes near it, even bullets and fire itself. The Wunderwaffe won't do much against it either. Absolute Zero is the lowest temperature possible. Nothing can melt it, and nothing can touch it…anything that comes close to it will be frozen solid. Richtofen had those plans for the Zombie years ago…" Iva growled as she pulled out her Afterburner.

"He must have spent all that time perfecting this Zombie" Jess said in horror.

"That would correct" Jason said reappearing in front of them in a burst of lightning.

Jason turned to face Samantha and said "Let's take this fight somewhere else, shall we?"

Jason aimed the strange weapon at the ground and fired it, creating a beam of energy that shot him into the air and off into another section of the city.

"OK, I have _got _to get me one of those" Marcus said with a grin.

Samantha whistled and Fluffy appeared in a burst of flames. She hopped on the dog and said "Be safe. If I take him out, maybe those he controls will die as well" Samantha said.

"Be careful Sam" Jax said to the girl, who nodded.

Samantha nodded and Fluffy shot down the road, bounding over one of the smaller gates with ease.

"So now what?" Vice asked, eyeing the Reclaimers watching them.

"We'll take the Blizzard Zombie" Joe said, holding his Wunderwaffe in his hands.

Jess growled angrily and said "What about me!?"

"Well, seeing as your real world counterpart is getting annoyed at your lack of screentime, Marcus can carry you on his back, since your ankle is broken" Joe replied.

Jess squealed happily and Marcus bent down so she could hop on. Nick snickered.

"What's so funny?" Jess asked as she got on Marcus.

"So, I guess it's time for you to mount Marcus and ride into the night, huh Jess?" Nick laughed.

Joe, Andrew, and Jax burst into laughter, and Jess pulled out her Sliquifier and sprayed them all with it, causing them to yell out and crash onto the ground. Strangely enough, the liquid didn't freeze despite the coldness in the city.

"Nice one" Marcus said with a grin, and Jess laughed cheerfully.

"Jeez, if it's that big of a deal, I can have C.N. heal her" Nick said angrily.

"Really?" Jess asked hopefully.

"_Yep. But you owe me" _C.N. said.

"Sure, you've got it!" Jess said as Marcus set her down gently.

Nick walked over to Jess and said "You may want to close your eyes"

"Why, what are you going-AAAAHHHH!" Jess screamed as Nick plunged the knife into Jess's broken ankle.

C.N. flashed white and Nick pulled out the knife, the wound sealing up immediately. Jess got to her feet and kicked Nick in the balls with her fixed foot.

"YOU JUST STABBED ME!" Jess screamed.

"You stabbed her and her foot's healed. That's Zombie logic for you… Hey Nick, if I get shot in the head, can you rub my neck with Aloe Vera?" Joe asked sarcastically.

"_Let's call it an experiment"_ C.N. said evilly.

"…I don't want to do this anymore"

"_Good"_

"Alright…this is it everyone. We will fight the Reclaimer's their zombie hordes, while the others fight the Blizzard Zombie. We cannot let them breach this camp. We have wounded here, who wouldn't last a minute against these sort of forces…We don't fight today just for our lives…this is for our futures. For our children's futures…this is not just a fight for survival, this is a fight for humanity…ATTACK!" Captain Thomas yelled, and the survivors cheered loudly.

A small opening in the three gates to the Danger Line opened, and the survivors went through them and into the No Man's Land, where the Reclaimer's, Zombies, and Blizzard Zombie were waiting for them.

"Come on; let's lead him away from the fight!" Juliet said as she sprinted towards the ice Zombie.

Juliet swung her chainsaw and activated the Chainsaw Dash, shooting forward in an insane burst of speed. She shot by the Blizzard Zombie, keeping as far from it as possible, and the Zombie turned around and shot a beam of ice energy at her. Juliet sun around and blocked it with the blade edge of her chainsaw, sending the beam skyward. Juliet glanced down at her chainsaw and saw ice all along the edge. She turned on her chainsaw, breaking the ice.

The Blizzard Zombie took a few steps towards Juliet, only to get shot in the head by a massive burst of lightning. Joe grinned as he lowered his Wunderwaffe and said "Come on guys!"

Everyone sprinted at the Zombie, drawing its attention away from the other fight. Two fierce battles raged in the city, while a third one was just about to start elsewhere in the frozen and ravaged city that was New York.

Meanwhile:

Nicholas opened his eyes and found him floating in midair. He saw his body on the floor and floated over to it and revived himself. He awoke to see the Mobsters glancing around.

"This is the room we started in" Sal muttered.

"Weasel, what's going on?" Finn asked.

"I don't know. It should've worked" Weasel said to Finn, who scoffed.

"Weasel…" Sal growled angrily.

"Guys, shh! Listen…" Nicholas said to the others.

The sound of Zombie breaking into the room could be heard, and the mobsters reloaded their weapons and got ready for another round of hell.

The mobsters and young man held their ground as the Zombie's poured in from both sides of the room, but the Pack-A-Punched guns helped them make quick work of the Zombie's.

(Round 14)

"_Well done. You know, there's a few hidden toys on this island that could help you went you return to your own dimension"_ Illuzio said in Nicholas's mind.

"Such as?" Nicholas asked

"_The Golden Spork for one, as well as the hidden Blundergat "_ Illuzio said.

"What in God's name is the Golden-" Nicholas began to say before a familiar sound echoed through the prison and a giant Zombified Prison Warden appeared in front of them.

"OPEN FIRE!" Sal yelled, and the five Zombie Slayers fired their weapons as one, quickly putting down the guard.

"_**NOOOO!"**_

"Now that that's done with, what now?" Finn asked the others Brutus collapsed onto the ground, giving them a nuke, which Nicholas walked through.

"_**KABOOM!"**_ Samantha said in her demonic voice.

"The plane's back on the roof. We can fuel it up again and try to fly it again" Weasel said to the others.

"How? It crashed into the bridge" Nicholas asked Weasel, who shrugged.

"Alright, as weird as it is, we've got to look for the fuel cans" Sal said to the others.

"Should we split up?" Nicholas asked.

Sal nodded and said "Between the five of us, those fuel cans should be a breeze to get"

The group then split up and went to different parts of the prison to get their fuel cans. Nicholas found himself walking towards the Gondola with Finn. Nicholas had to admit, out of all of the mobsters, he liked Finn the most.

"Hey kid"

"Yeah?"

"You got anyone waiting for you back in the present?" Finn asked as they reached the Gondola.

"Well…kind of" Nicholas said.

"Kind of? What do you mean 'kind of'?" Finn asked.

"I met this girl a few days ago. We kind of like each other, but you know, we did just meet" Nicholas said.

"Well kid, here's some healthy advice. First off all, don't ever live a life of crime" Finn said as he activated the Gondola.

"Noted"

"Not everyone can do it, and it takes a certain set of skills to do what we do. You're a good kid, don't waste your future like that" Finn said seriously.

"OK" Nicholas said with a nod.

"My second word of advice, don't take your woman for granted. Cherish her every day, and always tell her that you love her, no matter what" Finn said rather quietly.

He then sighed and said "Angela…"

"Billy told me about her…do you really love her still? Even after all of this?" Nicholas asked curiously.

"Of course I do. And when we get out, I'm going to find her. I'm going to be a better man when I find her…a man she deserves, and can be proud of. I don't hate her for what she did, I just want to see her again…"

"I bet she misses you too Finn" Nicholas said with a smile.

Finn looked at Nicholas and said "You think so?"

Nicholas nodded and Finn smiled.

"You're alright kid" Finn said with a grateful smile as the Gondola slowed to a stop.

"Anyway, don't take your woman for granted. Keep her close, especially during any times that are rough" Finn said as they both sprinted off of the Gondola.

Nicholas thought of him and Juliet laying down on a rooftop, in what seemed like an eternity ago, curled up close to each other. Nicholas smiled at the thought and said "Right"

Finn pulled out his Galil and opened fire on a wave of Zombie's charging at them. Nicholas hurled his Hell's Retriever at a Prisoner Zombie's skull, tearing through it with ease. As the tomahawk flew back to him, Nicholas spun around and opened fire with his Speakeasy, tearing through three more Zombie's with ease. Nicholas swiftly reloaded before picking up a Max Ammo.

"_**MAX AMMO!"**_ Samantha screamed.

"Magic bullets? Sure, I'll take your magic bullets" Finn said lightly as he reloaded his Galil.

Finn bashed a Zombie in the skull with his Galil and shot it on the skull, killing it, before running a few steps down the stairs, opening fire on the Zombie's charging up at him.

"You can kiss my Irish ass!" Finn laughed as he took down a row of six Zombies.

"REAAH!"

Finn stumbled forward as a guard Zombie swiped at him, leaving a long scratch on his arm. Nicholas quickly shot the offending Zombie in the head with his Speakeasy before reloading his gun.

"Fall back to the Gondola!" Finn said as Zombie's came from all three dictions at them.

Nicholas and Finn sprinted back to the Gondola, shooting back at the horde coming at them all the while. Nicholas put his back against the wall and crouched while Finn stood above him. The two stood their ground and took on the wave of the undead, and stayed in that spot until the round eventually ended.

(Round 15)

"Come on!" Finn yelled as he sprinted down the stairs, Nicholas close behind. Finn sprinted down towards the docks, picking up the fuel can.

"Okay! We got a fuel can!" pulled out his Galil, holding it with one hand and shooting a few Zombie's. Finn set down the fuel can and reloaded his Galil before picking it back up. Nicholas quickly took care of the remaining Zombies on the docks with his Speakeasy, tearing through the undead with the Pack-A-Punched weapon with ease.

"Cover me while we make our way up to the plane. Got it?" Finn said to Nicholas, who nodded,

The two began their journey up through the citadel. Nicholas picked up and fuel can in front of the code machine. Finn and Nicholas continued to sprint up the slopped path, shooting Zombies all the while. Nicholas spotted the Mystery Box at the top of the staircase, and stopped so he could roll.

The box eventually landed on a strange-looking weapon Nicholas had never seen before. It looked like sort of older model of a double-barreled shotgun, crossed with something else. It had a rather evil feel to it, but Nicholas swapped it for his AK-47 regardless.

"One shot huh?" Nicholas said skeptically.

Nicholas noticed four Zombie's running up the stairway and carefully aimed the weapon before firing a shot. The blast tore through all five Zombie, causing their bodies to crash down the stairs. Nicholas flipped open the gun and reloaded it, a wave of blue lightning enveloping him as he did.

"Cool stuff kid" Finn said as he picked his fuel can back up.

"Yeah. Come on, let's keep going" Nicholas said as he switched back to his Speakeasy.

The dup made their way up to the rooftop, where they placed their two fuel cans. Weasel was already waiting for them, and nodded silently at them. It didn't take long for Sal and Billy to show up, and add their cans to the plane.

A familiar rattling sound echoed through the air, and Brutus spawned in front of them. Before anyone else could do anything, he slammed his club down on the plane, enveloping the front part of the runway in a wraith of red flames.

_**"PRIVILEGES ARE REVOKED!"**_ Brutus roared as he swung at Billy, who ducked and unloaded an entire clip of his Uncle Gal into Brutus's face. Weasel and Nicholas both charged up their Hell's Retriever's while Finn and Sal finished off the rest of the Zombies. As the two tomahawk's flew through Brutus's skull, killing him instantly, the round ended.

_**"I WILL BE REBORN AGAIN!"**_ Brutus screamed as he collapsed onto the ground.

"The hell? That son of a b!tch locked it!" Billy growled.

Nicholas walked over to it and placed his hands in the flames, which were cool to touch, and used 2000 of his points to unlock the plane.

"Come on! Hurry!" Billy yelled as he hopped onto the plane.

Nicholas, Sal, Finn, and Weasel joined him, and the plane shot off into the sky once more. Nicholas felt a thrill of excitement once more in him as they took to the skies once again, but then felt horror spike through him as the plane went through a familiar storm cloud, which caused them to go off course once more. Billy let out a yell of surprise as they shot towards the bridge and spiraled out of control.

"We're going down?! Again! AAAHHHH!" Weasel screamed as the plane slammed into the bridge again, and the five Zombie slayers fell towards the ground once more.

Meanwhile:

"Come on out Jason!" Samantha yelled as Fluffy continued to bound down the street.

"Fluffy, Jason finden. Wir müssen ihn finden, wenn wir dieses Blutbad ein für alle Mal beenden wollen " Samantha said to her dog, who increased her pace. Samantha found herself in a side-street that advertised an upcoming Pokémon game with a Jolteon and a Luxray on it.

Samantha jumped off of Fluffy and said "He's close. I can feel it"

"Fluffy, Helfen Sie den anderen ... OK?" Samantha said, kneeling down and looking her dog in the eyes.

Fluffy nodded and licked her owner in the face, causing Samantha to laugh and hug her dog tightly. When Samantha let go, Fluffy barked cheerfully and bound off in the opposite direction, flames trailing behind her as she went.

Samantha pulled her Death machine off of her back and said "Come on out Jason!"

Jason's voice bounced off of the walls, strangely amplified.

"Samantha…this is the end, isn't it?" Jason said to her.

Samantha continued to walk down the street, her grip on her Death Machine tightening. Jason then sighed and said "I wish things could go back to the way things used to be…Don't you Sam?"

"Every single day" Samantha replied softly.

"Yeah…things change though. You left me at the mercy of Illuzio, and you got a body a few years later. I got recruited into Group 935 against my will and gained powers of my own, as well as my own cult" Jason said to Samantha as she continued to walk down the street.

She eventually came to a small road where a few parked undamaged cars were. Samantha could feel Jason's presence nearby.

"Come out you coward!" Samantha yelled.

Jason stepped from the shadows and said "Hey there Sam…let's end this, shall we?"

"Shut up! I'm going to kill you. If you die, so will Richtofen's control over the Reclaimers, and they will go back to normal!" Samantha snarled as he lifted up her Death Machine.

"It doesn't matter. Richtofen's already won. You should see the bigger picture here Sam. He, like you, has suffered because of this horrible world. And it's because of this that this world will change" Jason said calmly.

"Richtofen did all of this to me! He's the reason for all of this! He killed my Daddy!" Samantha yelled angrily.

"Maybe so, but Richtofen's actions are very justified. If only we had time for explanations" Jason said as he pulled out his Winter's Howl.

"ENOUGH!" Samantha snarled as she opened fire with her Death Machine.

Jason took cover behind a car as Samantha opened fire, tearing through the car with ease. Jason leapt away from the car as it exploded violently. Jason rolled and fired three shots with the Winter's Howl, causing Samantha to jump to the side to avoid the beams of ice.

Samantha took aim and fired another burst at Jason, who vanished in a burst of lightning and reappeared in front of Samantha, tackling her to the ground. Samantha kicked Jason off of her and picked up her Death Machine, unloading another wave of bullets at the Reclaimer Leader. Jason took cover behind a dumpster and vanished in a flash of lightning. He appeared above Samantha and fired several shots at her with his Winter's Howl, causing her to jump backwards to dodge. He began walking alongside one of the buildings, continuing to fire at Samantha, who was quickly dodging the blasts of ice.

"Hahahahahaha! This is a blast, huh Sam!?" Jason cackled as he floated down to Earth using his strange Wonder Weapon, still aiming his Winter's Howl at Samantha.

Samantha silently reloaded her Death Machine and continued to shoot at Jason, who fled from the bullets with ease. Samantha continued to shoot at Jason, growing steadily more annoyed as he continued to vanish in bursts of blue lightning.

"Sam, are you done yet?" Jason asked casually.

Samantha suddenly grinned and vanished on the spot in a flash of green light.

"What the-!? Where is she!?" Jason said as he took a step back.

Jason bumped into something cold and metallic that was touching his back. He then heard a soft voce whisper into his ears "Behind you."

Jason howled in agony as bullets tore through his chest as Samantha opened fire from point-blank range. Jason vanished in a flash of blue light and fell onto the ground a short distance away, coughing up blood.

"H-how!?" Jason asked.

"You're not the only one touched by Element 115. I was in control long before Richtofen was" Samantha said as she opened fire once more. Jason vanished on the spot once more and reappeared behind Samantha, shooting her in the hand with his Winter's Howl and causing her to drop her Death Machine.

Jason's finger's traced his wounds, causing the blood flow to stop and to heal the wounds to a degree. Samantha hissed in pain as her arm throbbed from cold, feeling it go numb a few moments later. Jason grinned and fired another three shots at Samantha, who jumped to the side to dodge. Jason balled up his hands and fired a bolt of blue energy at Samantha, who swung her other fist at the energy blast and sent it flying into another building. Samantha smashed her frozen hand on the ground and freed her hand.

"Not bad" Jason said admiringly as Samantha flexed her stiff and cold fingers.

Jason clipped the Winter's Howl to his waist and pulled out his AK-47 with a laugh.

Samantha primed her Death Machine and growled angrily.

"Your move" Jason said with a grin.

"_**No…"**_

"_**Kill her…"**_

"_**Make her suffer…"**_

"Stay out of this! This is my fight too!" Jason suddenly barked at the sky.

Jason looked back at Samantha, only to find her in front of her, a fist flying at him. Jason let out a groan as Samantha's fist connected with his skull, sending him flying down the street. Jason crashed onto the ground and rolled a few times on the ground before stumbling to his feet. Samantha charged after him, Death Machine firing all the while.

"ALRIGHT THEN! BE THAT WAY!" Jason howled as he opened fire with his AK-47 at Samantha.

The girl quickly spun around, dodging the first burst of gunfire and blasted Jason in the heart with her Death Machine, causing the Reclaimer Leader to fall to the ground, coughing up blood. Samantha kicked off of the ground and soared into the air, crashing down onto Jason with tremendous force, causing Jason to scream out in agony as his ribs shattered.

"Time to die" Samantha snarled as her Death Machine's tip rotated ominously in his face.

"Sam…don't do it…" Jason whispered as blood dribbled from his mouth.

Samantha's eyes softened, and she said "I didn't mean to leave you behind…Illuzio…he was going to capture me in his spell…and bring me to Richtofen...I'm the only one who can kill him, so…I had to leave you behind"

Samantha looked down at the ground as a tear rolled down her face. Jason looked at her face in wonder as she whispered "I didn't want to leave you Jason…I'm so…so sorry"

"So am I"

Samantha's eyes widened in shock as a large beam of purplish energy slammed into her side and sent her crashing onto the ground. Samantha slowly opened her eyes to see two Jason's walking towards her. One of them tossed the new Wonder Weapon to the other clone and vanished, leaving one Jason standing.

"Like it? It's one of Richtofen's older models, but it's still effective. He calls it the Paralyzer" Jason grinned.

Samantha felt her limbs screaming at her as she slowly pulled herself into a sitting position, only for Jason to kick her in the skull with his steel-toed boot.

Samantha's skull crashed onto the ground, and her vision blurred as blood rolled down her head. She then became aware that Jason had her pinned to the ground with his foot, while the tip of the Paralyzer was aimed her head.

"This is the end Sam. I'd say it's been fun, but it really hasn't been. Say goodnight…" Jason whispered as his eyes flashed blue momentarily. Samantha tried with all of her might to move, but her body was responding too slowly. She couldn't get him off of her.

"Bye bye!" Jason said softly as another tear rolled down Samantha's face.

Jason grinned evilly and pulled the trigger, but a shotgun blast knocked him backwards and onto the ground. Samantha looked up and saw Captain Thomas standing above her, SPAZ-24 aimed at Jason.

"You're not going to hurt anyone else, you got it you little punk!?" Thomas growled as he aimed his SPAZ-24 at Jason, walking towards the downed man with a snarl on his face.

Jason grinned and vanished in a burst of lightning and reappeared a few feet away. He charged at Thomas, who fired a few more shots at Jason, who avoided them and tackled Captain Thomas to the ground. The two wrestled for control of the shotgun, but Jason was kicked away and was shot three more times in the chest by the SPAZ-24.

Jason stumbled backwards, clutching several bleeding holes in his stomach as he fell to one knee. The Pack-A-Punched shotgun had caught him off guard, as he was amazed that he had been hurt so badly. Jason's fingers traced the wounds, which sealed up as blue energy cauterized the wounds immediately.

"Time to die old man" Jason growled, a blue aura surrounding him.

Samantha sighed as she regained feeling in her arms and legs and pulled herself to her feet. Samantha dropped her empty Death Machine on the ground and pulled out her Mustang and Sally, limping over to Captain Thomas. Captain Thomas swiftly reloaded his SPAZ-24 and said "Come on Sam. Let's put this punk down"

Samantha nodded with a smile and said "Let's do this "

"Touching, but you're backup means nothing to me" Jason growled as he pulled out his Paralyzer again.

Samantha jumped to the side as Jason blasted at her again with the Paralyzer. He scowled as he continued to attack her with the Wonder Weapon, but Samantha was too quick and managed to avoid the beam every time.

Jason turned his attack to Captain Thomas, who fired another shot from his SPAZ-24 at Jason. Jason blasted himself into the air with the Paralyzer and soared downwards towards Thomas, landing on top of him and pinning him to the ground. Captain Thomas managed to aim his SPAZ-24 at Jason and blast him point-blank in the chest, but the Reclaimer Leader snarled and said "THIS IS THE END!"

"NO!"

Jason was hurled off of Captain Thomas as Samantha fired a ball of energy at Jason, who slammed onto the street. Jason staggered to his feet, healing his gunshot wound again and said "You morons are testing my patience"

Jason pulled out his AK-47 and opened fire, causing Captain Thomas to take cover behind a car. Samantha jumped on top of the car and fired a few shots with her Mustang and Sally, causing Jason to retreat as the explosions immersed him in a sea of smoke.

"Come on Sam! You're better than this!" Jason called as he took aim and shot her in the chest.

Samantha fell off of the car, bleeding from her chest, and crumpled onto the ground. Captain Thomas gasped in concern, but as Jason opened fire on him, he had to go on the defensive.

Meanwhile:

"TAKE COVER!" Vice yelled as a War Machine fired a hailstorm of grenades at them, engulfing them in a series of explosions.

Emmanuel reloaded his rifle and took aim at the culprit, a large man with a mustache just as large. Emmanuel lined up the shot and pulled the trigger, and winced as Pack-A-Punched bullet met its target, causing the man to crumple onto the ground in a bloody heap.

"Nice shot" Kris said with a laugh.

"Thanks. So what, it's 24-19?" Emmanuel said.

"You may be winning, but the fight's just started man" Kris laughed, getting out from their cover.

Kris pulled out his RPG and fired it at two women who were shooting at Serenity with KAP-40's, taking them both out at once. Serenity gave the dark-skinned teen a salute and sprinted off to join Clutch Odd, who was currently going hand to hand with a large muscular man in a tank-top. Clutch ducked as the man threw a punch at him and dislocated his arm before putting his B34R to the main's neck and shooting him in the jugular. Clutch looked at a nearby horde of Zombies that were charging at him, but they suddenly changed directions and clustered next to a destroyed car. Clutch glanced over at Jared, who was aiming his Tagger towards him, and gave him a thumbs up. Jordan, the marine sniper, took out the Zombies from afar with Jared next to him.

Serenity ran up to Clutch and said "You OK?"

"Yeah…these guys are tough. Richtofen must have given them enhanced speed and strength or something" Clutch said as he reloaded his B34R with a swift hand motion. Serenity glanced around, taking advantage of the slight lull to analyze the battle. Right now, they had taken out roughly a fifth of the Reclaimer's, while they had lost a fourth of their own forces. They were outnumbered, but they had the advantage of superior weapons and perks. The Zombies were easier to take out, but were still a threat. Serenity watched from afar as Tyler sprinted at a trio of Nazi Zombies, dual-Katanas raised.

Tyler ducked under the first Zombie's swipe and slashed both of its arms off by swinging his blades upwards. He dropped to the ground and kicked the Zombie in the leg causing it to crumple to the ground. Tyler spun around and stabbed the second Zombie in the chest before swiftly pulling out his sword and slashing it across the chest, killing it instantly. Tyler turned around to face down the third Zombie, but found Jameson already slitting its throat with his KABAR.

"Aw, you took my kill!" Tyler groaned, though with a smirk.

Jameson shrugged before spinning the KABAR in his hands and hurling it, impaling large man aiming a RPK at them. The blade slammed into his skull, causing him to clutching his skull in agony as blood spurt from his face. Jameson pulled out his shotgun and fired a shot at the man, who staggered backwards, but still continued to stand.

The man aimed the RPK with one hand and fired at the two men. Jameson reacted first, and shoved Clutch Odd out of the way before falling to the ground as no less than ten bullets slammed into his chest and went through and through.

Clutch gasped in surprise and quickly took aim with his B34R, shooting the Reclaimer in the throat with his Pack-A-Punched pistol. The main crumpled to the ground, finally dead, and Clutch Odd ran over to Jameson, who was coughing up blood and lying on the ground.

"Damn it! Hold still!" Clutch said to Jameson, who nodded weakly as Clutch Odd pulled out a Quick Revive syringe. Clutch injected the blue fluid into the gaping wounds, causing them to seal up. Within a few seconds, the wounds had been healed completely, and Clutch was helping the recluse to his feet.

"Thanks man. I owe you one" Clutch said to the silent young man, who nodded and limp over to the man's corpse to retrieve his KABAR.

"STARCH! WATCH OUT!" the two survivors heard Jared yell.

Starch fell to the ground as a huge fireball spawned in front of him, revealing his stalker, Nelson the Flaming. Starch looked up in horror as the Zombie raised a flaming fist and raised it high into the air.

"Get away from him!"

Vice and Serenity sprinted past Starch and opened fire with their Pack-A-Punched weapons, causing the flaming Zombie to take a few steps away from Starch, who got to his feet. Starch snatched a grenade from his belt and said "Guys! Get back!"

Vice and Serenity jumped to the side as Starch hurled a grenade at Nelson's face. The grenade went off in the Napalm Zombie's face, causing him to explode violently in a massive burst of flames. Serenity yelped as some flames got on her shirt, and batted them off quickly.

"Jeez, that guy just doesn't quit" Vice laughed.

"He owes me a new sweater" Serenity pouted, gesturing to the singe and ash marks on her sweater.

"I'll buy you a new one when the Apocalypse is over Princess. Thanks by the way guys" Starch said gratefully.

"Incoming!" Vice yelled as a Blade Zombie sprinted towards them.

Serenity ducked under its first slash and tossed a Symtex grenade at the Zombie, which slashed at it in midair, causing it to explode but otherwise not damage it. The Blade Zombie took a step towards Serenity before Starch sprinted up to it, shooting it in the back with his ACR's shotgun attachment. The Blade Zombie spun around and slashed at Starch, who fell to his knees and aimed skyward, shooting the Blade Zombie in the face. The Zombie stumbled backwards, only to be bashed in the face with Vice's wooden staff, which was now sporting a black double-edged blade thanks to being Pack-A-Punched.

"Together!" Vice yelled as he lunged at the Zombie.

The Blade Zombie raised its arm and slashed at Starch, who was caught in the chest and sent flying backwards, bleeding profusely from a massive slash wound in his chest.

Serenity and Vice yelled out to Starch, but the Blade Zombie advanced towards Serenity with its eyes narrowed. Serenity continued to fire her Pack-A-Punched AK-47, Reznov's Revenge, at the Blade Zombie, which narrowed its eyes in annoyance but otherwise continued to walk towards her. Serenity continued to shoot, but suddenly tripped on the frozen ground.

"Leave her alone!" Vice yelled, hurling a grenade that exploded at the Zombie's back.

The Blade Zombie turned towards Vice and lunged at him. Vice pulled out his trench knives, both emitting a faint red glow and with longer blades due to being Pack-A-Punched, and said "Come on big guy!"

Vice blocked the first slash and swung at the Zombie, hitting one of the parts of the body not covered in a blade. The Zombie stabbed at Vice, only for him to shot in the head by another machine gun.

Vice looked behind him and saw Starch standing behind him, looking furious, as well as Zero, who was twirling a flaming machete with a grinning skull on the hilt.

"Need some help?" Zero asked casually as he walked over to Vice.

Serenity pulled out two shock charges from her boots and held them high above her head. Zero saw her and nodded, and said "On three guys"

"One"

The Blade Zombie lunged at Zero, who jumped back and swung the flaming sword at the Zombie, causing it to retreat.

"Two" Starch opened fire on the Zombie, causing it to have to deflect the shots and keep on the defensive. Vice switched back to his staff and got into position.

"THREE!"

Serenity flung the two Shock Charges at the Blade Zombie, which snarled in pain as the electricity surged through it and immobilized it. Starch aimed at the Zombie's faced and unloaded an entire clip into it.

Zero sprinted behind the Zombie and jumped into the air, kicking off of Vice's staff and soaring higher into the air, above the Blade Zombie. Zero raised his flaming sword above his head and delivered a powerful two-handed slash across the Blade Zombie's neck, decapitating the powerful Zombie.

The Blade Zombie collapsed onto the ground and Zero landed on the ground. Starch looked at the others with his purple eyes and said "Nice job guys"

"Yeah, that went really well" Serenity agreed cheerfully, shouldering her AK-47.

Zero nodded, though he shuddered and said "Is this cold getting to anyone yet?"

The others nodded hesitantly.

The icy environment was slowing them down. Anyone who wasn't wearing gloves had numb hands, while anyone wearing less than a jacket was shivering uncontrollably by now. They had each seen several survivors die due to the frozen environment, whether from slipping from the icy ground or freezing to death.

"Guys! Stay lively!" Jordan called as he fired a shot from behind a wrecked car, shooting a teen with an RPD who had just killed a young woman and was still shooting at her corpse.

"Gotcha! Come on, let's keep moving!" Vice said, gripping his staff.

Red and Alec walked over to the group and joined them, and the six survivors jumped back into the fray with their guns firing wildly.

Meanwhile:

Joe hurled a grenade at the Blizzard Zombie, which chuckled softly as the grenade froze solid in midair and landed on the ground where it turned to frozen ash.

"_**You'll have to try harder than that, mortal…"**_ the Blizzard Zombie whispered as he continued to walk towards them, causing them to constantly keep moving.

"What the hell?" Joe muttered as he pulled out his Wonderwaffe again and pulled the trigger, charging it up once more.

Jess ducked as the Blizzard Zombie held out a palm, facing her. A ball of white ice energy formed in its palm and fired at her. Jess screamed as the blast shot towards her, but just before it hit her she was knocked out of the way.

"LEAVE HER ALONE YOU FROZEN MAGGOT HEAD!" Marcus yelled as he hurled a Molotov at the Zombie. Jess looked up to him with a wide grin and he looked back at her with a reassuring smile. Jess got to her feet and said "Thanks"

"No prob" Marcus said with a grin.

"NICK!"

The two teens turned around in time to see Nick sprinting towards the Blizzard Zombie. C.N was gripped tightly in his hands, raised over his head, gleaming in the moonlight

"_**You must have a death wish…"**_ the Blizzard Zombie said, humor laced in its tone.

"C.N, we've got to time this right!" Nick said to the dagger.

"_Just make sure you hit him!"_ C.N. barked.

Nick drew his hand back and flipped the golden dagger in his hands.

"_Alright kid, here's a taste of my true power"_ C.N. said coolly.

Nick's eyes suddenly went dark red and he flung the dagger at the Blizzard Zombie. The Zombie chuckled ethereally and said _**"Fool, I doubt that-"**_

The dagger soared through his freezing aura and slammed into the Blizzard Zombie's arm. The Zombie's entire arm exploded in an incredible burst of golden light, causing the Zombie to scream as it beheld its destroyed limb.

"_**How…?"**_ the Blizzard Zombie said with wonder in its voice.

C.N. came flying back into Nick's hand, gleaming bright white with no traces of ice on him. Nick's eyes had returned to normal, but a fierce grin was on his face.

"_You're starting to understand. Soon you can master this power, but you lack the understanding to take advantage of it"_ C.N. muttered to Nick, who nodded.

"Nick, what the_ hell_ was that?" Andrew asked as the Blizzard Zombie clutched its arm in agony and fell to one knee.

"C.N.'s true form was unlocked when we fought Yena, and with that I can use his ultimate ability. I can only use it for a few seconds a day, but it's worth it" Nick said with a grin.

"What's the ability?" John asked, sounding skeptical.

"I can become one with Chuck Norris and do anything! Destroy buildings, stop oceans, and force FlygonN to update faster! AHAHAHAHAHA!" Nick said with a mad smile.

"For only a few seconds" Jax said to Nick, who nodded.

"Apparently there's more to this power, but I can figure that out later. This thing isn't indestructible guys, and that means we can beat it!" Nick said with a grin.

Iva shook her head and said "We can try, but this thing is made to be unkillable"

"REAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Speaking of unkillable…" Jax said nervously as the group looked towards the end of the road, where a familiar looking figure floating near the end of the road.

It was the Reaper Zombie. The one that they had trapped in the baseball field before going to Babylon City.

"I guess that generator couldn't last forever" Jess said nervously as the Reaper Zombie raised its scythe above its head.

"I serve the Phantom now…you will be destroyed…" the Reaper Zombie cackled as it soared towards the Blizzard Zombie.

"_**Sentient ones such as you and I are supposed to be loyal to the end to Master Richtofen…I shall annihilate you, traitor!"**_ the Blizzard Zombie growled as it raised a hand and shot a beam of ice at the Reaper Zombie, which soared around it and hurled its scythe at the Blizzard Zombie. The blade froze and clattered to the ground just before it hit the Blizzard Zombie.

"_**DIE!"**_ The Blizzard Zombie whispered as it shot a beam of pure ice energy at the Reaper Zombie, which dodged it.

High above the city, a woman watched the two ensuing battles below with awe. She had shot blond hair and was rather beautiful. Her dark red eyes twinkled with amazement at how the survivors were fighting and holding off so many enemies at once.

"So that's what he meant…" Eris muttered as she drew the black trench cloak she wore around her, glad for its warmth in this supernatural coldness.

Flashback:

"I'll be back shortly. I have to gather all of the darkness I can before I enter the battle myself" the strange man had said as he gazed down at the battle below.

"But…Master…" Eris said softly.

Her Master looked at her, his crimson eyes regarding her thoughtfully. He walked over to her and took off his trench coat, draping it over her.

"Eris…you must stay here. Your powers are manifesting themselves now, and you have to stay safe so they can develop" the man had said quietly.

"But…I don't want you to go out there alone" Eris said quietly.

The man had smiled rather darkly and said "I'll be fine. I'm quite durable; it's no easy feat to kill me"

"What if…what if you die?" Eris has asked the man.

"Then the shadows will always be with you. Your blood is my blood, and my blood is your blood. It always returns to shadows and blood Eris" the man had said with a smile.

"Farewell" the man had said before sinking into his own shadow.

End of Flashback:

Eris smiled and said "Shadows and blood…it always returns to shadows and blood"

"OH MY GOD!" Judith yelled as the Blizzard Zombie grabbed the Reaper Zombie around the throat.

The Shadowy Zombie howled in agony as it froze completely. It didn't stop there, as the ice suddenly turned pure white, and with that the Blizzard Zombie dropped the Reaper onto the ground, where it shattered completely in a shower of ice.

"_**So…who's next?"**_ the Blizzard Zombie asked softly as it turned itself attention to the horrified teens.

"If an unkillable Zombie couldn't beat this thing, what the hell can!?" Andrew yelled as he opened fire with his Skullcrusher.

Judith aimed the Devastator and charged it up before firing it. The fiery beam soared towards the Zombie, but dissipated completely as it drew closer to it.

"That should've worked" John said worriedly.

Joe carefully aimed his Wunderwaffe and fired a shot, sending the Blizzard Zombie to one knee. It was obvious that this Zombie was too powerful for even the Wunderwaffe, as even a direct hit only winded the monster.

"Nothing but the hottest flames can even get through its aura of ice. Everything else falls short" Iva said quietly, despair evident in her eyes.

"Come on guys! We can do it! I know we can!" Juliet said bracingly, but the rest of the group silently looked at her with skepticism.

Juliet sighed and said "I wish Nicholas or Samantha was here…they'd know what to do…"

The group looked at the Blizzard Zombie with fear and doubt as it got to its feet, grinning evilly as it charged up to palms full of ice energy.

"_**I think I'm done toying with you all…it's about time I destroy that camp of yours…and then the rest of the survivors…" **_the Blizzard Zombie hissed softly.

"NO!" Judith yelled as the Blizzard Zombie began to slowly march towards the camp, where the young, elderly, and injured were located, easy victims for the icy Zombie.

"We can't let him get past the Danger Line! Come on!" Andrew yelled as he sprinted towards the Blizzard Zombie, and the group followed him, adding their gunfire to his as they tried to slow the Zombies progress by any means necessary.

Meanwhile:

"One down, one to go!" Jason cackled gleefully as he swiftly reloaded his AK-47 and continued to shoot at the captain, who was taking cover behind a trash can. Captain Thomas unclipped his only grenade and pulled the pin out, waiting a few seconds for Jason to get closer. Samantha was slowly getting up, stabbing the wounds with a Quick revive syringe, stopping the bleeding.

"_Samantha, are you OK?"_ Dr. Maxis asked his daughter

"I'll…I'll be fine Daddy" Samantha said as she rested for a moment, panting from pain and shock.

Captain Thomas suddenly jumped from his cover, hurling the grenade at Jason, who yelled out as the explosion sent him flying backwards into a car.

"That's for the men and women you slaughtered!" Thomas growled as he pulled out his SPAZ-24 and shot Jason in the chest, causing him to yell out in pain as he went flying onto the ground, blood drenching the pavement. Jason vanished on the spot and reappeared behind Captain Thomas, kicking him in the back and sending him crashing onto the ground.

Jason vanished once more and reappeared next to Captain Thomas, putting a foot down on the man's rib cage and applying a deadly amount of pressure to it. Jason grinned as he aimed his AK-47 at Captain Thomas's throat. The Captain spat in Jason's face, and the young man grinned maliciously as he pulled the trigger.

Before the bullets could come out though, a glowing green fist slammed into the side of Jason's skull, sending the bullets into the sky as the AK-47 flew out of Jason's hands and clattered onto the ground.

"T-hanks Samantha" Thomas said as Samantha helped him to his feet.

"You're welcome sir" Samantha said with a smile.

"Alright. You ready to take back the city?" Captain Thomas asked.

"More than ready" Samantha replied.

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch"

Samantha turned around just in time to dodge a blast from Jason's Winter's Howl, which slammed into the side of a nearby window and froze it completely. As the window shattered into a shower of frozen glass, Samantha lunged at Jason and fired Mustang and Sally once at him, causing him to go sailing through the air at the combined force of the two Pack-A-Punched gun's explosive ammo hitting him.

Jason's hands glowed bright blue as static-like energy flowed from his palms and healed his burns and wounds. Jason put away his Paralyzer and pulled out his Winter's Howl, aiming the gun with deliberate lowness.

Jason fired a shot at Captain Thomas, who rolled to the side to avoid the attack. Samantha fired a few shots with her explosive guns, and Jason vanished again in a burst of electricity as Samantha swiftly reloaded her guns. Jason reappeared next to her and tackled her to the ground, blue energy sparking at his fingertips. Samantha aimed Sally up at him, only for Jason to smack it out of her hands and send it clattering to the ground.

Jason drew back his fist, only to be shot off of Samantha once again by Captain Thomas. Jason rolled to his feet and flung out his hands, and a massive burst of electricity flew from his hands and into Captain Thomas, who screamed in agony and was hurled backwards onto a destroyed car. After convulsing in agony for a few moments, Captain Thomas was still.

"NOOOOO!" Samantha yelled in anguish.

Samantha felt a spiking surge of anger in her as she turned starred at the Captain's unmoving form. Jason eyed the Captain's unmoving body and said "And another one bites the dust"

"JAS_**ON!"**_

Jason turned around and was met with a punch to the skull, sending him careening into the side of a building, which he smashed through. Jason got to his feet, only to be engulfed in a series of explosions that sent him flying through the windows on the other side of the building.

Jason got to his feet, drenched in blood, and saw Samantha standing above him. Her eyes were glowing bright green now, and her face was contorted into a horrifying snarl.

"You…you're not the Jason I knew before…my Jason wouldn't have done something like that!" Samantha growled as she clutched Mustang tight enough in her hand to shatter the pistol.

"S-samntha?" Jason said, quickly scrambling to his feet and taking a few steps back, pulling out his AK-47.

"You're going to die…right here…_**right now"**_ Samantha whispered as her palms became engulfed in a green aura. A touch of black flickered in the aura, and Jason's eyes dilated in fear as the wind picked up, a faint moaning sound filled the air.

"_Kill him Samantha…kill him slowly and painfully…"_ Dr. Maxis whispered in her mind.

Samantha grinned evilly and said "With pleasure Daddy"

"Wait, did you just say "Daddy"? Sam, you're listening to Maxis! Aren't you!?" Jason yelled out.

"Yes. But you won't be able to tell Richtofen…you'll be dead before you get the chance" Samantha growled as she took a few steps forward.

Jason shook his head sadly and said "That's where you're wrong"

Jason then began to convulse and shiver, and he fell to his knees, groaning in pain. Samantha looked at the strange young man with wonder before he looked up at her, his eyes glowing bright blue.

"Hello Samantha and Ludvig. So good to see you both again!" Richtofen said cheerfully from Jason's mouth.

Meanwhile:

Sal and Weasel got to their feet once more, helping the other's up. The Mobsters glanced around the bridge with horror. Nicholas winced as his hurt shoulder throbbed with pain after hitting the ground again like that.

"I don't think we're gettin' out. Not now, not ever..." Finn whispered as he eyed the falling and burning plane with a look of longing.

"Why do we keep doin' the same sh!t over and over? Are we in hell?" Billy asked angrily.

"I don't think so. I don't think hell knows where the bridge is" Sal said quietly.

"We're in purgatory..." Albert whispered.

"It's a cycle"

The mobsters looked at Nicholas, who sighed.

"It'll never stop repeating itself guys. We've got to keep moving and keep fighting. Maybe the guy who's doing this will change his mind…I don't know…but I do know that we have to stay alive" Nicholas said.

"What's the point? We can't escape!" Weasel whispered.

Nicholas lunged forward and punched Weasel in the jaw with his Galvaknuckle. The Mobster stumbled backwards while Nicholas looked at him angrily.

"You can't give up hope. There's always a way out Albert, we've just got to keep trying!" Nicholas said encouragingly. Weasel looked at the teen with something like respect and said "Yeah…yeah, you're right. Even if it is a never ending cycle, there's always a way to break it"

"Come on guys. We're not dead yet!" Sal said with a smirk. The group regained their drive and got ready for the incoming Zombies.

Nicholas took aim with his Blundergat and fired expertly at the Zombies skulls, tearing through four of them with ease. Sal and Billy stood next to each other, working as a team to mow down the undead hordes. Finn, Nicholas, and Weasel sprinted around the bridge, weaving in and out of the Zombie hordes and firing at anything that moved. The round ended when Nicholas hurled his Hell's Retriever at a Zombie, decapitating it and causing it's head to go flying off of the bridge and into the water below.

The group continued to battle on the bridge for another two rounds, racking up points and keeping the undead at bay. Eventually, as they ended their third round on the bridge, save for a crawler, tensions rose high again.

"Why!? Why is it the same things over and over again!?" Billy growled.

Weasel scoffed and said "You still don't get it, do you?"

Billy turned around to face Weasel and said "And what the hell is THAT supposed to mean?"

"Guys got a point Weasel, you've been acting weird all day" Sal said. Nicholas watched on attentively, keeping an eye out for any Zombies and watching the crawler they had on the bridge closely.

"Tell me what happened yesterday. Gimme one detail about what happened yesterday. Maybe Billy got another psyche exam. Maybe Finn didn't spend half the day on the can. Just give me one specific detail about yesterday, anything!" Weasel said desperately, and the three mobsters turned their heads. Fear and doubt was apparent on their faces.

"Guys. Come on, you're scaring me" Nicholas said.

"What the hell do we do?" Billy asked, his voice void all of its bravado and confidence.

"We keep fighting" Nicholas growled as he stomped down on the crawler's neck, killing it.

"We can't lose our nerve. We have to keep going. It's probably hopeless, or maybe there's a chance to end this thing once and for all" Nicholas said to the Mobsters.

"Kid…" Billy muttered, smiling slightly.

"Nicholas is right. We've got through tougher times than this!" Finn said bracingly.

"Yeah. I'm not ready to die yet" Sal laughed, clapping Nicholas on the back.

"Maybe…" Weasel replied, watching the Zombie's spawn around them.

"Come on! We'll break the cycle or die trying!" Nicholas yelled as he opened fire.

Three Brutus's spawned on the bridge at once, and the five Zombie slayers sprinted towards the Electric Chairs. They threw themselves in them once more and shocked themselves to the Afterlife. After reviving themselves once more, they walked up to each other and Sal said "OK, what now?"

"We fight, and we live" Finn growled, hefting his RPG over his back.

"Fine by me" Nicholas said, shifting the weight on his Speakeasy to his good shoulder.

"Split up and find the fuel cans! They appear once we finish a round here. We're going to keep flying the plane again and again until we're off this damn rock!" Sal ordered the others, who split up and went towards different ends of the prison.

Weasel headed up to the Gondola, where he heard a faint voice whisper in his ear.

"_So Albert, how are you enjoying my game?"_ the voice asked.

"You again…why are you doing this? Why me? Haven't we suffered enough you demented jester?" Weasel asked.

"_No. Richtofen destroyed my life, and destroyed everything I held dear. The least you all can do Is suffer for the crimes you committed, and atrocities you've done unlike me, who was innocent"_ Illuzio whispered.

"That doesn't make it right. We've done nothing to you" Weasel said softly.

"_Maybe so, but in all honestly, I don't really care. This is amusement for me until I regain my strength to bring Nicholas back to his own world"_ Illuzio replied.

"Why are you talking to just me?" Weasel asked.

"_Because, out of the four of you, you're the least corrupted. You're also just as much of a victim as I, so I will help you in your fight against the undead. The others will betray you again, and only you can truly break the cycle…"_ Illuzio said to Weasel, who nodded.

"OK, what do I do first?" Weasel asked Illuzio, who chuckled softly in his mind.

Meanwhile:

Red dropped to the ground as an RPG slammed into the building above him. He glanced up to make sure nothing was dislodged from the building before taking aim and shooting the perpetrator in the skull, putting a bullet in his head from over 100 yards away.

"RED! A LITTLE HELP BUDDY!"

Red turned around in time to see Jordan's sniper rifle go flying out of his hands a teenager with a HAMR shot his sniper rifle out of his hands. Red took aim and fired a shot, nearly hitting the teen. He turned around and aimed at Red, opening fire.

"Die you little b!tch!" the teen grinned.

Red took cover behind a small chunk of concrete, wincing as the bullets slammed into his cover. Jordan clutched his bleeding hand, scowling.

"No you don't!" Jordan yelled, running forward and kicking the gun out of the teen's hand.

Jordan ducked as the teen came at him with knife, knocking his arm aside and snapping it in half before jabbing the kid in the back of the head with his elbow. The teen crumpled onto the ground unconscious while Jordan stood over him, panting slightly.

"Damn. That was close" Jordan muttered as Red walked out from his cover.

Serenity came running over to the two snipers, bleeding from a cut on her head and looking out of breath, but otherwise fine. Serenity looked over and two and said "Good to…see you guys"

"What happened?" Jordan asked.

"We're getting slaughtered. Kris managed to kill the guys that had me pinned down, but we've lost half of the force. We're not going to last much longer without some kind of support" Serenity said tiredly.

"AHEM!"

The trio turned around to see fifteen Reclaimer's aiming a variety of weapons at them. The trio put their hands in the air, and a large heavyset man with dark skin said "Drop your weapons"

The trio did as asked, and the man said "Good. Now, pledge your allegiance to Doctor Richtofen"

"YEEEHAAAAWWW!"

A loud revving sound roared over the sounds of gunfire and the Reclaimer's looked to their left in time to see a motorcycle came screaming out of a nearby alleyway. Two Pack-A-Punched machine guns opened fire onto the group, which fell like dominoes onto the ground in a heap of blood.

"Hey guys" Clutch Odd said with a grin. Starch hopped off of the motorcycle, holding two Reznov's Revenge.

"Thanks for the save" Jordan said gratefully.

Starch tossed a Reznov's Revenge to Jordan, who grabbed the machine gun with a grin.

"We're losing" Clutch said in an annoyed tone.

"No really? What was your first clue?" Starch scowled as he aimed his Reznov's Revenge and shot a few bursts at a few nearby Zombies.

"We need a plan" Serenity said to the others, who nodded.

"How about we make a makeshift nuclear device and blow them all to Kingdom Come?" Starch suggested as they hid behind a large chunk of rubble.

Red slapped him upside the head.

"Thanks Red. Starch, we need an actual plan" Clutch said.

BOOOOM!

"Damn it, they're tearing through us!" Clutch growled as he pulled out a grenade and hurled it into the sky. A faint scream a few seconds later confirmed the hit.

"Come on guys!" Serenity said, running forward into the fight, her own Pack-A-Punched AK-47 firing onto the Zombie's.

"Girl's got spunk" Jordan said with a laugh as he reloaded his sniper rifle.

Clutch scowled and said "Spunk isn't going to save us"

Red took a few steps forward and took aim again before firing an entire clip from his Shadowy Veil Utilizer into the surging horde coming at them, blasting the heads off of the Zombie's with incredible accuracy. Jordan walked over to him and raised his sniper rifle as well and added his gunfire to Red's.

"Let's get back on the motorcycle. See what kind of damage we can do" Starch said to Clutch, who nodded and sprinted back towards his motorcycle, Starch close behind. Amongst the gunfire, explosion, and cries of the dying, no one noticed two young women burst onto the streets no the opposite end of the road from the camp.

"Come on!" a young Japanese woman yelled over the cacophony, running to the top of a pile of rubble.

"I am! Jeez, hold your horses" another girl with blond hair said to the Japanese girl next to her.

"Things really went to hell" blond-haired girl muttered, eyeing the destroyed city worriedly.

"The 9th circle of hell maybe" Japanese girl said with a wry smile as she observed the three battles going on. Joe and the others were fighting this huge Ice Zombie, while the other survivors fought off the Reclaimers. Samantha was nowhere in sight though. She had to be fighting the Reclaimer Leader then.

"Hurry! We must rejoin the fight!" a voice shouted, and three green lasers from a Ray Gun flew by and slammed into a male Reclaimer's head, killing him instantly. Three more Reclaimers charged at the man, who shot them to bits with his Ray Gun.

"DIE!" another voice roared as a Molotov flew overhead, smashing onto the ground and engulfing another Reclaimer in flames.

"ORAAAAH! I'LL KICK ALL OF YOUR ASSES!" a third voice yelled, and a barrage of Pack-A-Punched bullets shot through the rampaging Zombies, tearing through them effortlessly. The rather bloodthirsty man pulled out a grenade, yanked the pin out, waited a few moments, and then hurled it, catching a teen Reclaimer in the face with the explosive and sending him crashing onto the ground.

Three men charged into the fight while the two girls hung back, waiting for someone. A young man suddenly appeared in front of them in a burst of black flames and readjusted his black sunglasses, looking out at the battlefield in front of him. He pulled out a white and gold pistol and reloaded it, looking around some more with a scowl.

"He's here. I can feel it. Chan, Kara. Help the survivors, I'll find Sam and her friends…We've got to settle this before Yena gets here" Sieger said to the two girls, who nodded and headed after the three men.

"Vice! Watch out!" Serenity yelled as a Reclaimer threw a Symtex at Vice, who dodged the explosive, which landed behind him. Vice rolled away from the explosive, but then noticed a red laser resting where his heart was.

"WATCH OUT!" a man yelled.

Vice was suddenly pulled out of the way, right as a sniper shot the space where he had been seconds before. Jordan took aim and shot the Reclaimer in the head, a spray of crimson filling the air as he crashed onto the ground senseless.

"That was close…you alright?" the man asked gruffly.

"Y-yeah…wait a sec, you're-" Vice began to say with a grin before Joe yelled on the other end of the camp "He's breaching the last wall! Everyone fall back and regroup! He can't cross the Danger Line!"

The Survivors retreated, shooting and firing all the while. The Blizzard Zombie cocked its head before saying _**"Fools…you cannot escape…I will freeze your souls solid…for hell is cold…"**_

The Zombie held out its palm and a ball of pure ice energy charged up, firing at Joe, who was suddenly tackled out of the way again by Iva.

"Thanks" Joe said thankfully.

"What're we going to do Joe?" Iva asked shakily as she pulled Joe to his feet.

"Don't worry kids. We'll take it from here" a familiar voice said gruffly, and Joe looked up and saw three familiar figures walking towards them.

"N-no…no way" Joe said with a grin slowly spreading across his face.

"_**Die…" **_the Blizzard Zombie hissed, charging up another ball of ice in its palms.

"GUYS! Take cover!" Joe yelled, shielding Iva with his arms as the Zombie took aim.

"Not so fast!" a new voice yelled.

A black ball of flames slammed onto the frozen Zombie, knocking it off its feet and causing its attack to go skyward. A new figure landed in front of them, holding two white and gold pistols. He had spikey black hair and wore pure black glasses, which covered his eyes. He had a rather handsome face, clean-shaved and with creamy pale skin.

The young man looked at the surprised group and said "Don't worry guys. We'll take it from here"

He turned around to the face three familiar figures standing next to him and said "Tank, Nikolai, Takeo. You guys ready?"

Dempsey chuckled, shouldering his Lamentation and said "Damn straight kid."

"Takeo is ready Sieger-san! We shall defeat this demon and reclaim our honor!" Takeo said with a grin, aiming his Ray Gun at the ice Zombie.

Iva looked up at her father, tears of joy and relief rolling down her face as he walked by her, patting her head like he did when she was a little girl. He smiled gently for a moment at Iva before looking back at the Blizzard Zombie. His face was now contorted into the fiercest snarl Joe had ever seen in his life. The pure rage of a Soviet super-solider was contained in that snarl. As well as the rage of a father protecting his little girl.

"This Soviet will destroy you. _No one_ harms my little Iva" Nikolai growled, pulling out his M72 Anarchy and aiming it at the Blizzard Zombie.

Sieger looked casually at the Blizzard Zombie, who laughed ethereally and said _**"Sieger…my master has been looking all over for you…will you come quietly?"**_

"Not a chance in hell you overgrown snow cone" Sieger said calmly.

"_**So be it. I'll kill your friends and drag you back to him myself…" **_the Blizzard Zombie hissed as it took a few steps forward.

"Not happening. Guys, get ready!" Sieger said, running at the frozen Zombie with the three Zombie slayers close behind.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>Recap!<em>

_Sieger has arrived!_

_The Original Zombie slayers have finally returned, alive and well!_

_Stay tuned for next chapter, where the cycle will continue or be broken, and where the outcome of all three fights in New York will be decided._

_Follow the Carnage on Twitter, and stay updated by following me on Twitter at FlygonNick! I'll be honest, with how hectic my schedule is, Twitter is the best way to find out when the chapter's coming out. I'm always off when I post my updates, due to things changing the times when I can write. It'll be sometime in three weeks, due to me not having Internet when I leave for vacation. Expect a chapter just as awesome as this one was._

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	34. Reunion

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Alright, I had a long author's note planned for what a guest reviewer told me in my latest update, but I got rid of it because this chapter's long enough already._

_Bottom line is, I know that there are errors in this story. There's plenty of them of them. The fact of the matter is I'm a fairly busy person, especially with writing two active stories, updating an a frequent basis, and making sure these are good chapters or a decent length. Go look at some of the stories that I've favorited, and look at the last time they've updated a chapter. I think I do a pretty good job of updating consistently compared to a lot of people._

_Onto the second point. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but I'll soon start revising the entire story and combing through it, chapter by chapter, to fix any mistakes and to make it flow better. These won't be done over the next week, or even the next month, but I'll soon start re-uploading the chapters with a better version. Also ,I do write the entire story on Microsoft Word, and I do use spell check._

_I appreciate all forms of feedback, especially things that can improve the story in general. I love hearing good things about my story (it makes me a happy panda), but in the end, feedback is what helps writers learn and grow, and become better. Flaming is when you just say negative stuff about a story. Constructive criticism is one thing entirely different, and I appreciate constructive criticism just as much as praise._

_So, shoutout to the guest that brought this up. I'm not mad, far from it actually. You took time out of your day and told me what could make this story better in a rather long review, and I appreciate that. This is a prominent example that reviewing is important._

_OK, now that that's out of the way._

_Also, if you check out my profile (hopefully as of this update), I'll soon be posting dates and times when I'll be doing playdates, strictly Zombies. If you don't have all of the maps, then you probably shouldn't join my game for that day depending on the map._

_The maps will vary playdate to playdate, partly because I'm lazy, mainly because I don't want to play Tranzit all the time. Good map, just…you know, all the other ones are quite a bit better…even Nuketown Zombies. (Shoutout to Juggernog never showing up. Good one Treyarch)_

_Zombie maps and match times will be posted as well. Be ready to do any of the Easter Eggs, as I'm still trying to complete Tower of Babble in Maxis's favor. I'll eventually move onto Richtofen's side for all the Easter Egg's. This is also helpful for anyone who hasn't done the Easter Egg yet, as getting three random people online to help you isn't easy. Once I get Tower of Babble, I'll move on to the other Easter Eggs. _

_Also, if I haven't added you online yet for whatever reason and you put your username is the review section of the story at some point, just drop your PS3 username again in the review section and I'll add you. Or you can message me, that works too. I apologize if I've missed you, and it was not something I did on purpose. Also, make sure the name is typed correctly, because I've tried adding some of you and the names you typed in didn't work._

_Shoutout to everyone who reviewed last chapter, which included katerinavalentine62601,_ _RandomName3064, Dustchu,_ _Knightmare Frame Razgriz,_ _Justplainawesome, THE Jess, hellfire lord,_ _lanstetil51 (once a guest reviewer, but not anymore), StaticBomb324, tjelledge262, a Guest reviewer, Lord rage quit,_ _MetaKnight0011,a new guest reviewer known as FinnkissedBilly (once again, thank you for the CC, much appreciated), Trapinchh, MetaKnight0011, Justsomeperson7734, Snake-scent00, Killz718, another Guest reviewer, a new guest reviewer known as BobbyD, and two new reviewers known as AgelessAgera and Vengeance of One. Thank you so much for the feedback and support. It got me through this monster of a chapter._

_Sidenote: Not much OC Character stuff, too many things to get through. Seriously, this chapter is my longest yet. And I did this one on vacation. _

_Also, in case no one saw the note__**, I'm not taking any more OC's for this story**__. Sorry, but I asked for them ages ago, and I had set up a deadline, again, ages ago. I can't put any more in, and it's hard enough as is. No matter how good they are, I just can't put them in and give them justice. _

_Alright guys, here it is!_

_Enjoy._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 34: Reunion<span>

"_Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection"-_ Arthur Schopenhauer

* * *

><p><span>Alcatraz Island:<span>

Nicholas bashed his Speakeasy into a Zombie's skull and quickly shot it in the head, blasting its head clean from its body in a gush of blood. Nicholas turned around and took aim, quickly shooting several Zombies' jumping down from the ledge in midair. Their bodies crashed onto the ground from thirty feet in the air, humorlessly piling up in a heap.

"Man, this is getting a little rough" Nicholas said with a laugh.

Sal scoffed, wiping the blood off of a cut on his arm and said "This is nothing kid"

"Aw, come on Sal! You're better than this!" Billy laughed as he hurled his Hell's Retriever, taking out a line of Zombie's with a yell.

"Alright, so why are we waiting to go on the plane again?" Finn asked as they walked over to the Gondola.

"Weasel told us to wait" Nicholas reminded him.

"Anyone know why?" Finn asked.

Nicholas, Billy, and Sal shrugged.

Meanwhile, Weasel was hurling his Hell's Retriever at a telephone pole next to a small house. As the tomahawk came back, a blue skull followed it; landing in Weasel's outstretched hand. The skull dissolved into Weasel's hand, and he muttered "And that one makes five"

"_**Hahahahahahaha!"**_

Weasel turned around a saw a bed of flames appear from the Warden's desk, and a Blundergat appeared on top of it. Weasel walked over to it and grabbed it, eyeing the demonic-looking weapon with a smirk.

"_Well done. That was the last blue skull. With that, you're one step closer to breaking the cycle"_ Illuzio murmured in Weasel's ear.

"I want it to end already" Weasel said as he walked out of the Warden's Office.

"_You're close. Oh so close to the end…"_ Illuzio said with a laugh.

"I swear, if you're messing with me. I'll kill you myself" Weasel growled as he walked up the pathway.

"_You may want to walk back there"_ Illuzio said playfully.

"Why?" Weasel said with a scowl.

"_Because, you need to get the Golden Spork of course!"_ Illuzio said with a laugh.

"Fine!" Weasel said as he turned around and headed back towards the Warden's Office.

"Weasel!"

Weasel turned around and saw the others walking towards him. He shouldered his Blundergat and said "Hey guys"

"Weasel, what are you doing?" Sal asked.

"Evening the odds. I know a few places where we can find some stuff to help us" Weasel said to the mobsters.

"Right…anyway, I figure we should try to leave again. Third time's the charm right?" Finn said to the others.

"It'll just end the same" Weasel muttered.

"Well, won't know if we don't try" Finn said to Weasel, who shrugged.

The group made their way to the top of the prison and got ready for takeoff. Nicholas couldn't help but sigh as Icarus turned towards and bridge and slammed into it for a third time. As soon as he regained consciousness from the fall, he got to his feet and stumbled towards Pack-A-Punch, putting his Blundergat into the machine and getting back the Sweeper. As his vision cleared, he could make out Weasel and Billy yelling faintly.

"No way Weasel!" Billy snarled.

"I'm telling you. If we don't fire our guns, and only use the tomahawks, something good will happen! You've got to trust me" Weasel yelled.

"Do you realized how hard and annoying that would be?" Sal asked in an even tone.

"Yes! But we need every edge against these guys as we can get!" Weasel said desperately.

"Alright Weasel, I guess we're using only tomahawks for now" Nicholas said as he put away his Sweeper and pulled out his Hell's Retriever.

Ding…Ding…Dong.

Two explosions rang out in the night as two Brutus's spawned at the other end of the bridge, followed by a horde of Zombies.

"GO!" Sal yelled as he hurled his tomahawk at one of the Brutus's, taking out his helmet.

"I'll draw the Zombie's away!" Nicholas yelled, running forward and ducking under the swing of one of the Zombified Warden's.

The group managed to stay alive on the bridge, using only their Hell's Retriever's, for three entire rounds. On the fourth round is when things fell apart. Sal had just downed, and the Zombies were getting harder to kill.

"AGH! They're everywhere!" Billy snarled as the Zombie's swarmed around him. Sal got to his feet rather shakily and hurled his Retriever across the bridge, taking out a train of Zombies.

"Damn it Weasel! Can we shoot now!?" Sal asked angrily.

"No! We have to make it off of the bridge!" Weasel yelled.

"F*CK THIS!" Billy yelled as he opened fire with his Uncle Gal, quickly putting down the Zombie's that had following him.

"Idiot" Weasel muttered as he hurled his Hell's Retriever at the line of Zombie's chasing him, taking seven out in one throw.

"We've got to get through those Zombies! Then we-" Sal began to say before an explosion rang out behind him.

Sal looked behind him and starred into the eyes of Brutus, who glared down at him and raised his club. Sal crashed onto the ground with a yell as Brutus slammed his club over his skull, downing him. Brutus swung his club at the nearby Weasel, who ducked to avoid it and hurled the Retriever into Brutus's face. The Warden snarled in pain, stumbling backwards, and swung at him again, and Weasel took off towards the other end of the bridge.

"SAL!" Billy yelled helplessly.

"Damn it! Hold on Boss!" Finn yelled as he aimed his Rocket Propelled Grievance at Brutus and fired, knocking his helmet off.

"Weasel! Where are you going!?" Nicholas asked as Weasel threw himself in a chair.

"I don't want to die…" Weasel whispered to himself before a surge of electricity surged through him, sending him to the Afterlife.

"So much for his help! Hold on Boss, we're coming!" Billy yelled as the Zombies pushed him back, further and further away from Sal. Sal tried to push himself up, but the blood running down his head told him he was fading fast. He blindly looked up at the stormy sky, and contemplated his life. What he had done…and what he was willing to do.

"What's the matter Sal? You can't escape your own guilt? Do you feel it, deep down, nagging, eating away at you? Is that really what you want? What do you think will be waiting for you when you get out, Sal? You think the city will be just as you left it?" Sal muttered to himself.

"Hang on Sal!" Nicholas yelled as he frantically ran from the Zombies, training them away from Sal.

"We're coming Boss!" Billy yelled as he swiftly reloaded his Uncle Gal.

Finn and Nicholas hurled the Retriever's at the same time and killed one of the Brutus's from afar, sending him crashing onto the ground with a yell.

"You worked hard to get where you were, Sal…All those years, pulling and pushing those guys into shape, teaching them the value of respect. You had to kiss-ass to all those creeps at city hall, Mayor's office, and worst of all, Chicago's finest. They were all too happy to take your money. Kickback after kickback, bribe after bribe…Where were they when you really needed them? You worked hard to get where you were, Sal. But that was the outside. Where you were…It ain't where you are now" Sal murmured as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"There!"

Sal opened one of his eyes and saw Nicholas putting the needle into the gash on his head out of the corner of his eye. As his vision cleared and the pain faded, Nicholas extended his hand down to the mobster and helped him to his feet.

"Thanks kid" Sal said with a nod.

"No problem Boss" Nicholas said with a grin as he turned around and hurled his Hell's Retriever, decapitating a Zombie from afar with the magical tomahawk.

"We need to move! NOW!" Billy yelled as Brutus took a swing at him. Nicholas, Sal, Billy, and Finn all threw their Retriever's at Brutus as one, killing him instantly.

"GO!" Sal bellowed as he sprinted towards the other end of the bridge.

Each of the Zombie Slayers threw themselves into the chairs and as the straps fastened around them, the Zombie watched as the flow of electricity surged towards them.

"I'LL SEE YOU ALL IN HELL!" Finn bellowed before the electricity coursed through them, sending him and everyone else to Afterlife.

Meanwhile:

Sieger reached the Blizzard Zombie first and he let out a yell, flinging his arms downwards as the Blizzard Zombie aimed a beam of ice at him. Sieger's entire body exploded in a raging aura of black flames as he swerved out of the way as a beam of ice shot from the Zombie's palm, soaring into the side of a building and freezing the side of it solid.

Sieger flew towards the Zombie and slammed into it, causing the Zombie's ice aura to flicker for a moment and caused it to stumble backwards. Sieger suddenly reappeared in another burst of flames and aimed his two golden white pistols and fired two shots from each of them. A shining white bullet flew out from both of the guns, leaving a trail of white light behind them as a strange ringing sound filled the air. The Blizzard Zombie roared in pain as the bullets tore through its frozen flesh, which immediately sealed up good as new.

"Bah. Another Regenerative Model. He really needs some new tricks!" Sieger said with a scowl as he took aim and fired a shot into the Blizzard Zombie's skull, causing it to fall to one knee.

"What are you guys waiting for? An invitation?" Sieger asked the Original Zombie Slayers.

"Nah, it's just nice seeing someone besides us kick so much ass for once. Come on!" Dempsey yelled as he opened fired with his Lamentation.

"FOR MOTHER RUSSIA!" Nikolai bellowed as he fired a rocket at the icy Zombie.

"FOR HONOR!" Takeo replied even more loudly as he fired his PX2RG.

"FOR GO F*CK YOURSELF!" Dempsey yelled angrily.

Kara and Chan walked over to the others, who were watching the incredible fight going on in amazement.

"Chan! Kara!" Iva yelled, throwing her arms around her two childhood best friends. Juliet joined in the hug as well, and the four girls shared a touching reunion.

"Hey girl. What's up?" Kara asked with a laugh.

"I thought you guys died! How did you escape Yena?" Iva asked in amazement.

"Sieger saved us. He beat Yena and managed to save our dads before they bled out, and he's been leading us here so we can team up and stop Richtofen" Chan explained.

"So who is Sieger?" Jess asked curiously.

"I'm not sure of that myself" Kara admitted, looking back over at the fight as Sieger delivered a flaming roundhouse-kick to the face of the ice zombie, causing it to snarl in pain as it stumbled backwards.

"_Nice kick. I approve"_ C.N. remarked.

"He's got nothing on you though" Nick replied.

"_Damn Skippy he don't"_

"He's an ex-member of Group 935, and he's hell-bent on stopping Richtofen. I'm assuming you guys know what Richtofen's master plan is, right?" Kara said to the others.

"He's collecting souls using the nodes across America and is harnessing the energy in the slain Zombies we kill to power the M.P.D., which he's augmented with soul gems, to make himself a god and kill all of those who don't pledge loyalty to him and his supposed "Kingdom"" John recapped.

"Jeez…you're pretty smart, aren't you?" Kara said with a laugh.

"It's a gift" John shrugged.

"Anyway, Sieger's got a plan to stop Richtofen. He said we have to take care of Yena first though" Kara said with a nod to the others.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!" Dempsey roared as the Blizzard Zombie swiped at him with an icy claw, sending a wave of icy energy towards Dempsey, who barely avoided it.

"_**Fools. You cannot kill me. I cannot die. I am the Ultimate Weapon of Group 935…of Master Richtofen…you're fighting a losing battle Sieger" **_the Blizzard Zombie hissed as a rocket soared towards it and exploded in its face.

"Damn it. If I had known he'd activated Absolute Zero…" Sieger growled as he landed in front of the others.

"Kid, what's the deal with this thing!?" Dempsey yelled as he tore a chunk of ice off of his arm.

"This thing is the strongest Zombie in Richtofen's arsenal. Not only can it not be killed, but it can't even be hurt" Sieger said with a growl.

"It also a very cold Zombie" Nikolai stated as he let out a deep breath, watching the puff of white that came out float upwards into the sky.

"Thank you very much, Captain of the Obvious" Takeo replied, causing Nick, Andrew, and Marcus to snicker in response.

"That's what we were told about the Reaper Zombie" Judith said to the mysterious young man.

"The Doctor has a habit of boasting a little too much about his Zombies. Reaper could be killed, but it's very very hard to do. He made Absolute Zero in the case of betrayal within the group, as well as a trump card if Yena went rogue. I'm not surprised he released it, but it does make things difficult" Sieger admitted, shaking his head as he fire a few more shots at the Blizzard Zombie.

"Well, continuity's a b!tch" John replied.

"Tell me about it. You three, go help the survivors. I'll fight this thing alone" Sieger said to the three Zombie slayers.

"Not happening kid" Dempsey growled.

"You guys are next to useless here, no offense. Only experiments like me can take this thing on" Sieger said as he readjusted his sunglasses.

The three Zombie Slayers scowled, but lowered their weapons while Sieger began firing at the icy Zombie with bursts of black flames, drawing it away from the others.

"It's so good to see you again!" Juliet said as she threw her arms around Nikolai and Takeo.

"It is good to see you too, Juliet-san" Takeo said with a smile.

"It is good to see me too!" Nikolai agreed with a cheerful grin.

"Daddy!"

Juliet detached herself from Nikolai as Iva threw herself at her father. The two had a rather touching reunion, with Iva sobbing into her father's shoulder as they embraced. Nikolai patted his daughter's head and murmured reassuring words to her in Russian.

"So, Sieger?" Nick said to Dempsey as Sieger let out a yell, barely avoiding a beam of ice that destroyed an entire street like it was nothing.

Dempsey laughed and said "That kid, he's something else. He kicked that Yena guy's ass six ways to Sunday and saved us"

Flashback:

Iva let out a yelp of pain as Yena's shot tore into her leg, causing blood to spatter all along the road. As she rode away, Nikolai furiously threw himself at Yena, who went down.

"GET OFF!" Yena barked, kicking the Russian off of himself, shooting him three times with Wolf. The Russian collapsed onto the ground, bleeding horribly.

"**SO WHO'S NEXT?"** Hyena roared, but Yena pulled him back in.

Yena smirked as he regained control and said "So, the three first successful Super-Solider Prototypes of Group 935. Richtofen had such high hopes for that program…"

"Then again…" Yena chuckled to himself, taking a few steps forward.

"The Project has come a long way since he experimented on you three" Yena whispered as the shadows around him swirled menacingly, encircling the fighters.

"You three are obsolete. First you all will fall…" Yena whispered.

Dempsey tried to get to his feet, but fell to one knee, growling painfully.

"Then your little friends…" Yena continued, as smile playing at his lips.

"No…" Chan whispered as Yena's shadows began to encircle them. She tried to move, but her body failed her and she collapsed back onto the ground.

"And eventually Richtofen himself…" Yena whispered with an insane gleam in his eyes.

"D-damn it…" Dempsey growled as he got to his feet, only to find the barrel of Crow in his face, with Yena's hand on the trigger.

"DADDY!" Kara yelled as she somehow managed to aim a Calamity at Yena, only for a tendril of shadows to grab her by the throat and slam her into the ground face-first several time, eventually knocking her unconscious. Blood ran down her face as she slid face-first into the gravel.

"KARA! NO!" Dempsey yelled angrily as the others tried to get to their feet, but to no avail.

"Farewell, Tank Dempsey…enjoy hell" Yena said with a laugh as his finger slowly squeezed the trigger. Dempsey closed his eyes with a wince. This was it. The end of the road. They had fought through so much…only to be stopped by some psycho vampire freak. Dempsey snarled and said "You…I hope Sam rips your f*cking heart out!"

"As old Illuzio says…Ciao!" Yena said with a whisper as he pulled the trigger.

BAM!

Dempsey heard Yena scream in agony, and he opened his eyes in surprise. Yena was stumbled a few steps to the side, clutching his hand that was bleeding profusely. Crow clattered to the ground as it fell from Yena' grasp.

"What the-!?" Yena growled as he whirled around, eyeing the source of the gunshot with a growl.

The shot had come from a writhing mass of black flames that and shot out of nowhere. The flames didn't burn the ground, but instead seemed to pulse with a strange, yet familiar, energy.

"Just made it" a new voice said with a relieved laugh.

A young man with spikey black hair stepped out of the flames, aiming a golden pistol at Yena. He smiled widely and said "Hey there Harvey, fancy meeting you here, huh?"

"Sieger…about time you showed up" Yena muttered as his hand healed.

"Leave them alone Yena" Sieger said as black flames flickered around him and faded into nothingness.

Yena growled angrily and said "As much as I'd love stick around and blast you into nothingness, I've got bigger fish to fry"

"What?" Sieger said, sounding confused.

"Apparently some brats are causing trouble for Edward, destroying the nodes he spent so much time setting up. The weaklings here are just an appetizer to the main course, so to speak" Yena replied as he licked his lips.

"The kids from Bradburn? The one's that Samantha is helping?" Sieger asked, and Yena nodded. Sieger looked over at the dying Zombie slayers and said "You went too far Yena"

"Psh, yeah right kid. They were looking for a fight, so I gave them one" Yena said with a sneer. Sieger scowled and pulled the trigger of his gun, firing a shot at Yena, who was surprised and took the shot head on.

Yena howled in agony as the shining bullet slammed into his chest, passing cleanly through his body like it was nothing. The gunshot reverberated in the air, making a wicked sounding echo-like sound. Yena gasped in pain as blood gushed from his chest and growled "AGH! I forgot about those damn enchanted pistols!"

"Magic's a blast, ain't it?" Sieger said with a smirk before vanishing in a burst of flames.

Yena growled as he looked around, trying to guess where Sieger was, but cried out in pain as several shots rang out in the night, tearing through Yena like it was nothing. Unlike the gunfire from earlier, this seemed to actually hurt Yena, and his wounds were much slower to heal.

Yena took aim with Crow and fired it once, right into Sieger who reappeared in a burst of fire. The young man let out a yell as the bullet shot through him, and he exploded in a massive burst of black flames. Yena swore and flung his arms out, sending a wave of shadowy tendrils outwards. Sieger reappeared in a flash of flames and ducked to avoid a shadow tendril and sidestepped another one, firing a shot at Yena as he did so. The bullet soared through the air towards Yena, who flung a hand up in response.

A mass of shadows shot towards the bullet, but the bullet tore through them like paper and went through Yena's shoulder, causing him to yelp in pain. The writhing shadows retreated and withdrew into Yena, who gave Sieger a look of loathing.

"You're just like him!" Yena spat.

Sieger scoffed and said "Coming from you? The man who went back on everything he swore to protect?"

"People change" Yena replied, getting to his feet as his wounds sealed up.

"Story of my life" Sieger replied coldly, pulling out a second pistol.

"Not for you" Yena said with a laugh.

"No, but still" Sieger replied bitterly.

"I think we'll call this a draw. I need to prepare before I can kill you, Sieger…besides, I think I'll go after some easier prey…like those brats with Samantha!" Yena said with a demonic smile.

Sieger scowled and said "Enough! This ends now Harvey!"

"Ta-ta for now" Yena said as he sank into his shadow.

"NO!" Sieger yelled, lunging forward as Yena vanished.

"Damn!" Sieger growledas glanced around, looking for any traces of Yena.

"Father! Please! You have to stay awake!"

Sieger turned around and saw Chan desperately shaking Takeo, who had his eyes closed. His wounds were too severe to heal with a regular Quick Revive syringe. Sieger ran over to them and said "I'm so sorry. I got here when I could"

"Who are you?" Chan asked softly.

"A friend. I can save your father, but you have to trust me" Sieger said.

"Why should I trust you?" Chan asked skeptically.

"Because he's going to die unless I inject his wounds with this" Sieger said pulling out a syringe with green fluid in it the glowed brightly every few seconds.

Chan sighed and said "Just help him"

Sieger wasted no time and injected the syringe in Takeo's chest. The internal damage sealed up immediately, and as the damage repaired itself, Sieger handed Chan a syringe like the one that he had.

"Get Tank treated. Takeo will be fine, so I'll move on to Nikolai" Sieger said to Chan, who nodded.

"What…what happened?" Takeo asked as his eyes slowly opened.

"Shh…it's OK. Yena's gone. You're safe for now" Sieger said soothingly as he helped the super-soldier sit up.

"You drove that demon off? By yourself?" Takeo said, sounding impressed.

"I'm like him. Only someone touched by Element 115 can beat someone touched by Element 115" Sieger explained as he slowly helped Takeo to his feet.

"I see…you are from Group 935, aren't you young warrior?" Takeo asked softly.

"Yes and no. I was never really a part of the Group myself, but I know the members in it in any case" Sieger said quietly as he glanced around.

"It seems like Yena's left the area. He's probably after your friends, the ones that Samantha Maxis is helping. I'll explain some more later, but we need to get moving" Sieger said to Takeo as he walked over to Nikolai and healed his wounds.

"Ugh…I need some vodka" Nikolai groaned as he got to his feet.

"Don't worry, we can get you some later. For now, we need to get out of here" Sieger said as Tank and Chan walked over to him. Kara was still unconscious, but was in Dempsey's arms.

"Alright, first off, that was some pretty good shooting kid. Second, thanks for saving our asses back there. Third, who are you?" Dempsey asked.

"You can call me Sieger. I'm someone who's trying to stop Dr. Richtofen, that's all you need to know for now. Now that the node here is destroyed, what are you all going to do now?" Sieger asked as he leaned against a nearby tree.

"Meet back up with the other's. Iva went to go find them anyway, to warn them about Yena" Chan said.

"Wait a moment…what if Yena is following my Iva!?" Nikolai realized in horror. Sieger nodded and said "I intercepted her a few minutes after she left. That's when I realized what was going on. I followed her trail back to you"

"Was she OK? Tell me!" Nikolai demanded angrily, grabbing the young man's shoulders.

"She was hurt, but alive. Yena following her is, unfortunately, a very real possibility. Iva's bound to have some way of tracking down the others, and with how she was bleeding; Yena will have no trouble finding her. She's going to lead him straight to them… And I doubt Samantha is strong enough at the moment to take down Yena, even with help" Sieger said softly.

"Then we must aid them!" Takeo said seriously, and Sieger nodded.

"I'm going to see if there's anything left in the base. Get ready to leave soon, OK?" Sieger said as he turned around and walked down into the base.

Dempsey sneered and said "That kid knows a lot, doesn't he?"

"I'd be suspicious, but with how he saved us, I am thinking we can trust him" Nikolai said.

"Sieger-san seems honorable. I agree with the Russian" Takeo said softly.

". Plus, he seems pretty smart, which I also like" Kara admitted.

"You should have seen how he took down Yena Uncle Dempsey. Freaking amazing…plus the whole smart thing" Chan said with a grin.

Dempsey looked up at the moon, and muttered "I just hope the others are OK…if Yena destroyed us like that…God only knows what he'd do to the others…"

Present:

Dempsey chuckled and said "I hope Yena still hurts from that ass-kicking"

"Me too. He murdered Liam" Juliet replied coldly.

"WHAT!?" Kara and Chan yelled at the same time.

Judith's grip on her Shadowy Veil Utilizer tightened and she looked away, her eyes closed tightly. Takeo, Nikolai, and Dempsey exchanged looks as Kara and Chan walked over to Judith and gave her a hug, muttering words of comfort to her.

"How'd he die?" Dempsey asked quietly.

"Liam was the last one standing after Yena attacked us. He took on Yena himself and seemed to actually hurt him before Yena shot him in the chest. He was dead before he hit the ground" Andrew explained quietly.

"He died with honor then" Takeo said softly.

"That monster…he's going to pay for that" Dempsey snarled.

"_**Damn you…"**_ the Blizzard Zombie hissed as Sieger blasted him again and again with his pistols.

"Just die already!" Sieger barked in an annoyed tone.

"Are you still fighting that thing? Hurry up!" Dempsey shouted.

Sieger delivered a powerful uppercut to the Blizzard Zombie's skull, sending it stumbling backwards as black flames trailed behind Sieger's fist. Sieger looked over at the group and said "You know, this isn't exactly easy! This is sort of the crown jewel in Zombie Research, and took over forty years to develop!"

The Blizzard Zombie raised its hand upwards, and Sieger turned around worriedly and yelled "BRACE YOURSELVES!"

Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo all shielded their children with their arms while everyone else braced themselves for what was coming. Juliet glanced down at the armlet on her arm and slapped it, activating a wicked looking shield.

"Nicholas…" Juliet murmured as she held Aegis out in front of her.

"_**DIE!"**_ the Zombie hissed, aiming its hand at the group as a pulsating ball of white energy formed its palms.

"TAKE COVER!" Sieger yelled as he held his arms out.

A massive beam of energy shot from the Blizzard Zombie's hand, rocketing towards Sieger. Black flames raced around him as he let out a yell, and the beam struck his outstretched hands. Huge icicles shot up from the ground as waves of energy pulsed around Sieger, who was somehow stopping the attack in its tracks.

"Who IS t-this guy!?" Joe asked in disbelief as shook like a leaf from the coldness in the air.

"Right now, our only chance at staying alive at this point" John said as Sieger lowered his hands, panting slightly. He shook his frozen hands, which were now coated in black flames.

"_**Sieger…impressive, as always…It's a shame you can't kill the unkillable"**_ the Blizzard Zombie said softly.

Sieger scowled and said "Nothing is unkillable, not even you"

"_**We'll see about that…" **_

The Blizzard Zombie pulled back its fist as Sieger ran it once more.

Meanwhile:

"Richtofen…" Samantha hissed.

"Ah! Samantha! I see you haff reunited with Jason, ja? He was so pleased to meet your acquaintance again, ahahahahaha!" Richtofen cackled.

"_**SHUT UP!"**_ Samantha screamed, creating a shockwave that shook the earth.

Jason shook his head and Richtofen said "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You should know rage does not alvays solve your problems"

"_You're one to talk Edward!"_ Maxis barked.

"SILENCE! I vill not take lectures on right and wrong from anyone…least of all **YOU!"** Richtofen said furiously, the ground cracking at the emphasis of the last word.

"_You're damning this world to ruin! Stop this game already Edward!"_ Maxis yelled at Jason.

Jason's face contorted into the most terrible scowl Samantha had ever seen in her life. She could almost feel Richtofen's anger from here.

"You know_ nothing _Maxis…nothing about what I have suffered through…you would burn this world to the ground for Samantha…wouldn't you?" Richtofen said softly.

Samantha felt her father's emotions flicker for a moment, and realized his answer.

"I thought so...I am trying to save this world. The main goal of the group that you and I founded all those years ago, was to help benefit the world. To lead humanity to greater things. Humanity must be destroyed, so zhat something better can be built in its place…I vill change this world, and make it a true utopia…But first…" Richtofen trailed off.

Jason's eyes flickered white and he spoke in his own voice "We have to destroy those who wish to cling to this world of pain and corruption"

Samantha had time to blink before Jason punched her full in the face, sending her crashing into the side of a building. Samantha got to her feet, but felt something grab her head and slam it into the brick side of the building again and again.

"_Samantha! Fight back!"_ Maxis said worriedly.

Samantha drew back her fist and threw a punch at Jason, connecting with his skull. Jason yelled out and flew backwards out into the street.

"_Good. Now make him pay!"_ Maxis barked.

"Daddy…not…now" Samantha growled.

"_I will not allow anyone to hurt my little girl"_ Maxis growled.

"I'm not a little girl anymore daddy. And you've hurt me plenty yourself" Samantha snapped as she ran at Jason.

Jason frowned and pulled out the Paralyzer and fired a beam at Samantha, who pulled at Mustang and fired a shot at him. Jason let out a yell as the explosive round blasted the Paralyzer out of his hands and onto the ground. Jason looked over at his fallen weapon, and then back at Samantha, who was now in front of him.

Samantha swung a fist at Jason, who caught it and hurled her down the alleyway. Samantha spun in midair and skidded to a halt on the ground. Jason laughed as he pulled out his Winter's Howl and fired several shots at Samantha, who fired bursts of energy from her own hands at the icy blasts coming at her. The two energies cancelled each other out in midair, creating a thick veil of smoke between the two. Samantha pulled out Mustang and fired a few shots into the smoke, and she heard a faint yell of pain from Jason.

Samantha sprinted into the smoke, but was suddenly blasted out of it by a burst of energy. As she crashed onto the ground, Jason appeared before her with a grin. Samantha aimed Mustang in Jason's face ad pulled the trigger, shooting the explosive bullet into his face. Jason clutched his face in agony as he stumbled off of her, howling in pain.

Samantha rolled to her feet and grabbed Jason by the neck and threw him down the alleyway and back into the street. Jason slammed into a telephone pole, smashing through it, and slammed into the side of a building. He crashed onto the ground, only for Samantha to kick him in the ribs, sending him rolling down the street.

"You're on the losing side Sam…" Jason choked out as he got to his feet, aiming his Winter's Howl at her.

Samantha scowled at him and vanished once more. Jason gasped before Samantha slammed into him from behind, throwing him into the side of another building. Jason yelled out as he smashed through the windows and crashed into a wooden cabinet.

Jason slowly got to his feet, popping his dislocated shoulder back into place. He spat out a globule of blood out and said "Not bad Sam"

"Come on out Jason!" Samantha yelled as she paced in the street.

Jason jumped back out onto the street and aimed the Paralyzer and fired it at Samantha, who ducked under it and fired a shot with Mustang, blasting the Paralyzer out of his hands again. Samantha fired three more shots, sending Jason crashing down the street as the explosions sent him flying.

Jason stumbled to his feet and pulled out his Winter's Howl, firing a shot at Samantha. The beam slammed into her chest and she fell to the ground, gasping as ice spread across her chest. Samantha managed to get back to her feet, but couldn't move much more because Jason shot her in the leg and arm, immobilizing her. Jason smiled and sprinted at her as fast he could, and Samantha nearly closed her eyes as Jason drew back his fist and punched Samantha as hard as he could in the chest, shattering the ice and sending her flying down the street, sending her smashing through an abandoned school bus and crashing down onto the street. Jason bent down to pick up his Paralyzer with a grin. Samantha lay in the street , twitching in pain as blood dripped down her forehead.

"Aw, did that hurt?" Jason asked mockingly as he walked over to her and stomped on her chest, causing her to cry out in pain as she felt some of her ribs shatter.

"You know what else hurt? Richtofen torturing me! Where were you then!?" Jason bellowed as he grabbed Samantha by the neck and hurled her into a nearby car, smashing the hood as she crashed onto it. Samantha slowly opened her eyes, only to find the tip of the Paralyzer in her face.

"You left me to die Samantha. You left me and the others to die. Illuzio murdered them all…because of you…" Jason whispered as his hand tightened around the trigger.

"Jason…I'm so, so sorry…I've always regretted leaving you behind…I'm sorry Jason" Samantha whispered as tears rolled down her face, pain and regret apparent on her face.

"It's too late for sorry Sam. Time to die" Jason said as he pulled the trigger. Samantha screamed as the beam struck her at point blank range. She could almost hear Richtofen's laughter as Jason's Paralyzer slowly began to kill her. She could feel her body failing her as the beam tore her apart…she was dying…was finally going to die after all of this…she had failed…again…

"Farewell, Samantha Maxis" Jason whispered, leaning closer to her and smiling widely.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!"

Jason turned around in surprise and was suddenly blasted off of her as an explosive bullet slammed into him, sending him sprawling backwards. Jason stumbled to his feet, bleeding from his face and hands, and frantically looked around.

"Who are you!? Show yourself!" Jason barked.

Jason yelled out as another explosive bullet slammed into him, sending him crashing onto the ground once more. Jason fell to the ground, panting as he tried to get to his feet. Blue energy radiated off of him as his body tried to recover from the repeated explosives hitting him.

"Sa-Samantha…" a ragged voice said to her, getting loser. Samantha weakly looked to her left and saw Captain Thomas smiling at her. His face was drenched in blood, and he looked horrible, but he was very alive.

"Captain, how did you survive?" Samantha asked softly.

"Heh. I've been through a lot worse than that. I'm not going to let a little girl fight by herself…not so long as I've got life in my bones" Captain Thomas said simply.

"Captain…you have to get out of here" Samantha murmured as she tried to get up again, only to fall on her back once more.

"Not…on your life…I've still got some fight left in me" Captain Thomas said raggedly as he aimed Sally at Jason and fired another shot, blasting him into a light post.

"AGH! J-just die already!" Jason barked, sending a burst of energy at the Captain. Samantha tried to get to her feet, but the effects of the Paralyzer were still in effect.

Captain Thomas leaned to the left, avoiding the blast of energy, and fired another shot from Sally at Jason, who kicked off of the ground and latched onto the side of a building to avoid the bullet. Jason scowled at the Captain and said "Looks like I have to make sure you're dead this time!"

"Come on! I'm not scared of you!" Captain Thomas barked at Jason, shooting at him again with Sally.

"It isn't me you should be scared of" Jason replied as he kicked off of the building and landed in the street, aiming his Winter's Howl at Thomas.

Samantha slowly sat up as her body screamed at her in protest. She noted dryly that she was drenched in her own blood, and it had soaked through her shirt and jacket completely. Samantha gingerly got off of the car and stumbled forward weakly, nearly falling over.

"You OK?" Thomas asked, concerned.

"That Wonder Weapon…it's strong" Samantha muttered as she leaned against a light post, panting heavily.

"Don't think I'm done with you yet Sam! I'm coming for you next!" Jason snarled as he continued to avoid the shots fired by Captain Thomas. The Captain swiftly reloaded his gun and fired over and over again, but Jason was now able to keep well ahead of the Captain's shots.

Jason jumped high into the air and flipped in midair, firing his Winter's Howl as he did so, and froze the ground underneath Samantha and Captain Thomas. The two weakened fighters slipped and fell to the ground as Jason landed on the ground with ease. Samantha howled in pain as she hit the ground while Captain Thomas fumbled with Sally, trying to reload it again. Jason vanished and reappeared next to them, knocking Sally out of Thomas's grip. Jason grabbed Thomas by the collar and lifted him effortlessly by the neck and whispered "Are you scared yet?"

"Heh…it'll be a cold day in hell before I'm scared of you" Captain Thomas spat.

"Ja-Jason…don't…leave him…out of this…" Samantha breathed harshly as Jason scowled at the lack of fear from the Police Captain.

Jason narrowed his eyes and said "Cold day in hell eh? That's enough of excuse for me to do this"

Jason swiftly pulled out his Winter's Howl and jammed the Wonder Weapon's tip into Captain Thomas's mouth. Captain Thomas managed to let out a yell of indignation before Jason pulled the trigger. Captain's Thomas screamed in agony as the ice surged through his body, freezing his insides completely. Jason grinned maniacally and shot him three more times, turning the Captain's body into an icicle.

"NO! JASON!" Samantha screamed as her eyes widened in horror.

Jason chuckled to himself before kicking over the frozen Captain. The body shattered into nothingness as it hit the ground, and Samantha watched in horror as a green spark floated into the sky and vanished.

"Looks like Richtofen got another soul for his plan…you should've just given in when you had the-BAM!" Jason managed to say before he went flying down the street as something slammed into the side of his head. Jason howled in pain as he crashed down the street, slamming into the ground several times from the force of the blow. As he rolled to a stop, he got back to his feet and looked down the street.

"W-what? Who…no…no freaking way" Jason breathed as he took a step back. Samantha was now on her feet again, slowly walking towards him. Samantha's glowing green and black aura was back, and the wounds on her body were quickly sealing up. Her own blood was flowing back into her body as she let out a roar of anger and vanished in a flash of green light.

"_It seems as though her powers are growing…how annoying for me, and how bad for you_" Richtofen murmured in Jason's mind before fading away.

Samantha reappeared in front of Jason, slamming her fist in his stomach and sending him careening into the street, coughing up blood. He stumbled to his feet, only for Samantha to grab him by the arm in a grip of iron. She pulled him towards her and punched him again in the stomach, causing a fine spray of blood to go flying from his mouth. Samantha allowed him to stumble backwards before pulling him towards her again, this time punching him full in the face. Jason cried out as he landed on the hard pavement again with an insane amount of force, and he slowly rose to his feet once more.

"Sa…Samantha…just…just hold on…" Jason said with a tired smile.

"_He's wearing out…finish him Samantha!"_ Dr. Maxis murmured to her.

Samantha was about to reply when she heard a strange noise just out of her range of hearing. She noticed Jason looking around with an odd expression on his face.

"_What's going on?"_ Dr. Maxis asked Samantha.

"What are you doing Jason!?" Samantha demanded as the noise grew louder.

"This…this isn't me" Jason said nervously.

All of a sudden a black pool began to form a short distance down the road. Samantha eyed the pool with apprehensiveness. She knew that this was not a good sign, and she felt a thrill of silent horror growing in her heart as the pool grew. That was when a long black tentacle rose from the pool and extended into the air.

Samantha looked at the black tentacle with a look of terror and whispered "Oh no…not _you_…"

The tentacle shot toward Jason, tearing through his chest mercilessly. Jason screamed in agony as the tentacle wrapped itself around him, absorbing the blood gushing from his chest. He pounded his fist against the tentacle, blasting it again and again with bursts of energy, but the tentacle was stronger than him.

"NO!" Samantha screamed as Jason was raised high into the air. He stirred helplessly as the tentacle crushed the life out of him as it drained his blood.

"Well, well, well…what have we here?" a familiar voice said with a laugh. Samantha's eyes were drawn to a figure walking towards them from the pool of darkness, and her eyes narrowed in hatred.

He was clad in a skintight black shirt that looked somewhat like a straightjacket, but his coat was gone. His boots were soaked through with blood, and his crimson eyes regard Samantha with amusement. A black pistol and a silver pistol were clipped to his belt, while a black and red sniper rifle was strapped to his back.

"Samantha…it's so **good** to see you again" Yena said with a demonic grin as his eyes flashed dark red.

Meanwhile:

(Round 27)

Alcatraz Showers:

"Alright, so why are we doing this again?" Nicholas asked as Weasel aimed his Acid Gat at a nearby cluster of Zombies. He fired a cluster of green pods at the Zombies, who stopped in their tracks and starred at the pods for a few moments before they exploded in their faces, killing the lot of them. The others were standing next to the Washing Machine as Weasel killed any Zombies that came at them with the Acid Gat.

"Like I said, it's a hunch" Weasel replied as he killed another group of Zombies.

"Weasel gets all the fun" Billy grumbled.

"Aw, is someone feeling left out?" Finn asked teasingly.

"Shut it"

"Wanna talk about it?" Nicholas asked.

"Go to hell"

"Already there" Nicholas replied.

"_**Ahahahahahaha!"**_

"There. That should do it" Weasel said tiredly.

"So, we go back to that tub?" Nicholas asked.

"The one filled with blood, yes" Weasel replied.

"Come on, let's go!" Nicholas said as he ran up the stairway, shooting his Sweeper at the Zombie's running down it. Nicholas stepped to the side as the Zombie's fell down the stairs, landing in a heap at the bottom.

"Wait guys, we should go into Afterlife first!" Weasel said as they ran over to the young man.

"Oh yeah, for the new tomahawk?" Nicholas said to Weasel.

"Yeah. Come on, there's a fuse box over here" Weasel said, walking over to the fusebox and pulling down on the handle, sending a surge of energy into him and sending him to the Afterlife. Nicholas, Finn, Sal, and Billy pulled the handle and went to the Afterlife as well.

"_Alright! Now follow me!"_ Weasel said as he floated down the nearby hallway to the citadel.

Each of them flew over to the small hole where one could pick up a Hell's Retriever, but a soft blue light replaced the red one. Nicholas floated over to the new Retriever and grabbed it, flipping it in his grip as he did so.

"_What the hell? I can't get it!"_ Billy said.

"_Because you shot when I said not to. You can't get the Hell's Redeemer"_ Weasel said.

"_Figures"_ Billy growled.

The group made their way back to their bodies and fought their way up to the showers, where they sat around a tub.

"So…now what?" Finn asked.

"We contemplate the meaning of life…" Nicholas said, staring intently at the tub of blood.

Weasel gave him a dirty look and said "You can make fun of me all you want, but in the end, we'll see who's laughing"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nicholas asked, looking up at Weasel. Weasel smirked and said "You'll see. Look!"

The group watched in awe as a Zombified hand rose from the tub, holding a Golden Spork. Weasel grabbed it and said "Pretty, ain't it?"

"Huh. It's really made of gold?" Sal asked as Weasel swung the Spork experimentally.

"Man, I could sell that for a pretty penny, eh Finn?" Sal said with a laugh as another hand rose from the tub. Finn grabbed his own Spork and nodded.

"Who would make this?" Billy asked, sounding both annoyed and impressed as he grabbed his Spork.

Nicholas shrugged as he grabbed his Spork and said "Probably Treyarch"

"Who's that?" Finn asked as Sal grabbed his Spork.

"One of the greatest companies ever…of all time" Nicholas said with a grin.

"Right" Sal said before turning around, eyeing the three Zombie's running at them with distaste. Sal smirked and lashed out with the Golden Spork, killing the first Zombie instantly.

"Part of me was hoping that was a joke" Nicholas said humorlessly as Sal killed the remaining Zombies.

"Me too" Finn remarked as Billy grabbed his Spork.

"OK, let's head back down to the docks. I need to get more ammo for my Speakeasy" Nicholas said to the others, who nodded. The group quickly made their way back to the Gondola, slashing their way through the undead hordes with magical eating utensils. Seriously!? Who the hell came up with this idea, and what were they smoking?

Anyway, back to the plot.

The group quickly made their way down to the docks, where Nicholas bought more Speakeasy Ammo. As Nicholas turned around, he saw Brutus spawn at the top of the stairs behind Finn.

"FINN! BEHIND YOU!" Nicholas screamed.

Finn turned around slowly and was clubbed in the back by Brutus. Finn was sent flying into the nearby wall from the force of the blow, but was still standing tall. Finn aimed his RPG at Brutus and shot him point-blank with the Pack-A-Punched rocket launcher. The explosion managed to kill Brutus, but a few Zombies that had spawned behind Finn tackled him to the ground and clawed at him, which downed him.

"AGH!" Finn shouted as he slammed face-first onto the ground, cracking his skull on the hard ground.

The Zombies ran past him and went after Nicholas, who quickly pulled out his Sweeper and blasted through five Zombies at once.

"Finn! Hang on!" Nicholas yelled as more Zombies streamed down the stairs, pushing him further and further back. Finn let out a groan of pain and put a hand on his chest, eyeing the blood on it with distaste. He looked up at the storm above them, which seemed to never end, and thought about her. Just like he always did.

"It's always the dames, isn't it, Finn? Like... they got a sixth sense that leads them right into your blind spot." Finn murmured as he slowly pushed himself up, only to fall back down onto the soaked concrete.

"AGH! They just keep coming!" Nicholas yelled as he slashed frantically with his Golden Spork, killing five Zombies around him.

"Everything here is just a numbers game... isn't it Finn? Just like back outside. You share details, Finn, you shoulda known better. Secrets are there for a reason." Finn murmured as he slowly got into a kneeling position, panting slightly as his eyes shut in pain.

""I gotta few words for you: Go to hell!" Sal yelled as he skillfully aimed his WN and shot the heads off of the Zombie's baring the way to the stairs.

"But what about Angela? Your beautiful wife... she had it all figured out... and you didn't even see it coming…" Finn said with a painful smile.

"Come on! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Billy snarled as he drew an Executioner he had gotten from the box and blasted his way through a wave of Zombies charging at him.

"Not this time, though, pal. Angela will be different. She deserves it... doesn't she, Finn? Not only did you marry her, but you let her know the ins-and-outs of your business…" Finn murmured.

"Finn! Hang on man! We're coming!" Nicholas yelled as he stabbed a Zombie with the Golden Spork while firing his Speakeasy with his other arm at the Zombies around them.

"Are you still a betting man, Finn? Wanna bet on how all this will end?" Finn whispered as his felt his heart slow down.

"What happened Finn? I thought you had this!" Sal said from next to Finn as he inserted a syringe into the massive slash on his chest, sealing the wound up.

Sal helped Finn to his feet, helping him walk for the first couple steps until he could walk on his feet again, and the group made their way back into the citadel. Nicholas saw a Zombie latch onto Finn as they walked into the room take him to the ground, and Finn growled in anger as he tried to get to his gun. The others were too far away to notice this, and Nicholas was fighting his own horde of Zombies.

Nicholas ripped off his Galvaknuckle and threw it over to Finn, yelling "Finn! Catch!"

Finn managed to grab the Galvaknuckle and punched the Zombie off of him. Nicholas gave the mobster thumbs up as he headed into the citadel. Finn bought a bottle of Juggernog and ran after the young man. Nicholas hurled a grenade down the stairway as Finn ran by him, blasting the feet off of the last Zombie.

"OK, we can't just keep redoing the plane thing over and over. There's got to be more to this whole thing…something we're just not getting" Nicholas said to the others as he sat down on the ground.

"What do you mean?" Sal said.

"Every Zombie Map has some sort of official Easter Egg to it that advances the story…this place is no different" Nicholas said to the Mobsters.

"So…you're saying that there's something to all of this?" Finn asked, and Nicholas nodded.

Nicholas got to his feet and looked around the room, his eyes settling on the shock panel with the numbers on it that were changing rapidly. Nicholas smirked and said "Maybe…hold on"

Nicholas sprinted up the ramp-way and walked over to the Power Box, pulling the lever and screaming in pain as he was sent to the Afterlife. Nicholas floated down the ramp-way and faced the three power switches that were changing randomly.

"_OK…"_ Nicholas murmured as he shot a burst of lightning at the first box, setting it to one.

Nicholas took aim and shot the next one once, setting it to one. Nicholas aimed at the last one and shot it five times.

"1…1…5?" Sal said in confusion.

"_**NOT THIS TIME!"**_ Brutus yelled as the numbers suddenly changed to 666.

"_Weird…wait a second!"_ Nicholas yelled, quickly flying back to his body.

"Guys, I think I figured it out" Nicholas said with a grin as he walked down the steps. The numbers were now randomly changing at this point like they were before.

"OK, shoot" Billy said as he glanced at the crawler, who was growling angrily.

"This is it. This is the key to this map!" Nicholas said with a grin.

"What? That number thing?" Sal asked.

Weasel frowned and said "He's got a point…this thing…something's odd about it"

"Now, you can put three numbers in this thing. There has to be some sort of combination we have to put in…but what?" Nicholas said ponderingly.

The Mobsters shrugged and the group thought about it.

Nicholas looked at each of the mobsters, wondering what series of numbers could be important. Eventually his eyes noticed the small prisoner number on Sal's shirt.

"Wait…THAT'S IT!" Nicholas said with a laugh.

"You four were specifically chosen for this…so, it stands to reason that each of your prisoner numbers would be important in some way, since they're all three digits, which is the set of number combos you can put in this device…so you can put all four sets of numbers into the machine" Nicholas said with a grin.

"Huh…it's worth a shot" Sal replied.

"OK, we go in turns. Weasel, put your number in. Then Billy, Finn, and Sal. Each of you go into Afterlife and put the codes in one at a time, and we can maybe get to the bottom of this" Nicholas said to the mobsters, who nodded and made their way up to the top of the citadel.

Nicholas watched with growing excitement as each of the mobsters entered their prisoner number. Finally, as Sal punched in his number, 386, and finally they heard a familiar voice speak to them as Sal returned to his body and walked down the ramp-way.

"_**SO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH…"**_ Brutus growled as the numbers continued to flicker.

"Oh no…" Weasel whispered, taking a few steps down the ramp.

The group heard a clicking sound and their vision suddenly changed to black and white. Nicholas blinked in surprise, before he realized a voice was speaking to them.

"_My name is Stanley Ferguson…I was a guard in Alcatraz from 1933 to 1942. Today, I'm going to give you some insight into the more interesting tales of the prison's history. Over the decades, Alcatraz has seen more than its fair share of daring escape attempts. However, few were as audacious as the one undertaken by four inmates on New Years Eve, 1933. Thought to be the brainchild of an inmate by the name of Albert Arlington, the outrageous scheme was as unlikely as its mastermind." _a man spoke to them calmly.

"But…but we killed him…how could he be alive after that…?" Sal said in surprise as the clip ended.

"What the hell was that? A trick?" Billy said, sounding confused.

"Wait…I hear a power up…but we didn't kill anything, so how could one have dropped?" Nicholas said with a frown as he walked up the pathway, with mobsters close behind. Weasel stayed where he was, breathing heavily with pain in his eyes.

"I knew it…you _lied_ to me...the truth hurts" Weasel whispered as he turned around and walked down the pathway to the docks.

"Rejection hurts too...But it's not the worst thing...is it, Albert?" Weasel murmured as he walked past the crawler Zombie, snarling at him.

A glowing set of headphones were floating above the stairway, and Nicholas ran through the power-up. Ferguson continued his tale.

_"It is believed that Arlington, a.k.a The Weasel, somehow convinced three other inmates that he had devised a fool-proof plan to escape the Rock. It was a plan that would see them literally taking to the skies in a makeshift aircraft of Arlington's own design."_ The guard continued.

"Yeah, that was the plan alright" Sal said, and Finn and Billy nodded as the color returned once more.

"There's more. Let's look for the next clip" Nicholas said, practically running now to find out more.

"Sure, they want your skills, your expertise, but only on their terms. They don't care what else you have to offer. How different you could be...if only they noticed you." Weasel said quietly, punching a nearby wall with his fist.

"_Just how The Weasel managed to convince these hardened criminals that such a plan was even possible remains a mystery to this day. What IS known, is that no such plane was ever built. Instead, the group's plans for freedom soon descended into bitter argument and infighting"_ Ferguson continued.

"What?" Billy said in surprise.

"But…" Finn said, trailing off.

"Let's find out more" Nicholas said as they continued to walk through the prison.

"Is that why you lie to them? Why you promise things you can't deliver..." Weasel whispered as he continued to walk down the docks.

_"With the plan falling apart, anger and frustration would ultimately lead to a brutal altercation between the misguided Arlington and his former co-conspirators" _the guard said as the group made their way through the prison, looks of disbelief and realization on their faces.

"_No…this…"_ Nicholas thought sadly as the clip ended.

"We…wait…I…I think I remember…" Sal murmured to himself.

"There's more…" Finn said, pointing to the next set of headphones.

"Are you scared, Al? You should be…If they don't already suspect you then they will soon…be careful, Al...one day your promises may come back and bite you. Then what?"Weasel said bitterly as he neared the Gondola, walking onto it with a sigh.

_"Armed only with makeshift weapons, Finn O'Leary, Sal DeLuca, and Billy Handsome, lured the unsuspecting Arlington to the roof, where they intended to exact a bloody, and final, revenge" _the guard said as the mobsters looked at each other in surprise. Nicholas could only shake his head in sadness, already knowing where this was going.

"What will you do when the truth is revealed...when your whole house of cards comes tumbling down? Will you confess? Or will you run? Where will you run, Albert? There's nowhere to run...there's nowhere to hide" Weasel said as he sat down on the Gondola, watching the rain as it fell down from the heavens.

Nicholas finally walked onto the roof, activating the final recording.

_"And so it was here, beneath the dark and stormy winter skies, that the hapless Arlington met his grizzly end, bleeding to death on the cold concrete roof. For their participation in the murder, the three collaborators were sent to death by electric chair. Justice came swiftly, on the morning of January 19th, 1934, the execution order was carried out" _Ferguson finished, and the color returned to normal.

"_**Ahahahahaha!"**_ a demonic voice laughed.

Silence…

"So…that's it then. _That's_ why we're here!?" Billy growled angrily, finally breaking the silence after a few minutes.

"Billy, stop. Please" Nicholas said quietly.

"Weasel…he did this! We're stuck here because we killed him! It all adds up!" Billy continued angrily, stomping his foot down furiously.

"It would explain a lot. He knows too much about this place…" Finn said with a nod, a look of cold anger in his eyes.

"I knew a smelled a rat!" Sal snarled.

"Guys...don't…" Nicholas whispered as he leaned against the side of the building, wondering how he could convince the group to stick together now.

"They all look at you the same don't they Al? They don't see a man when they look at you Al? They see a weasel… a rat…You're a survivor Al…no shame in that…" Weasel whispered as he got to his feet. He could feel Illuzio's glee as he got up, fresh resolve in his eyes to finally end the cycle. He pulled his cap downwards and took a shuddering breath.

"Even a rat survives..." Weasel whispered coldly as he eyed the prison with hate as he began to walk down the docks once more.

Meanwhile:

"JASON!" Samantha screamed as the shadow tendril removed itself from his body and flung him onto the ground roughly. He slammed into the concrete, and remained still.

"Sa…Sam…" Jason gasped as blood dripped from his mouth.

"Jason…" Samantha whispered, falling to her knees as she ran towards him. She noted that his eyes were now back to what they were when she and her were friends, a dark green color, just like they were all those years ago.

"I'm back to normal Sam…oh god…what have I _done_…?" Jason whispered, shaking his head weakly.

Yena grinned manically and said "Aw, what's wrong Jason? Has Richtofen's control worn off? Extreme shock does that to you, as does me draining certain life forces and energies out of you. Luckily, nothing can escape the shadows" Yena laughed.

"You…Yena…why?" Jason gasped.

"Yes. Edward corrupted his mind to use him against you Samantha. This fight is only making her stronger, as the mixed feelings she is having stir up more of her hidden abilities. Sadly, Jason here isn't essential to the plan, so…" Yena said as he raised Crow and shot Jason in the chest, causing him to scream in agony as blood splashed onto the ground.

"NO! _**YENA!"**_ Samantha screamed as she shot a beam of a black energy at Yena, who was blasted down the street. Yena crashed onto the ground and didn't get back up.

"My…my powers…they're growing…" Samantha said in surprise as she glanced down at her hands.

"Sam…"

Samantha gasped and dropped to the ground, kneeling next to Jason.

"I'm here Jason…" Samantha whispered.

"This is it…I'm done…" Jason said softly as his eyes slowly closed.

"I'm so sorry…I never wanted to leave you behind Jason…I had no choice" Samantha whispered as tears rolled down her face.

"That's all right Sam…I was never mad at you…you're my friend, and will_ always_ be my friend…" Jason said, reaching up and grabbing Samantha's hand.

"Don't mourn me Sam…just do something for me…" Jason murmured as he smiled up at her.

"What is it?" Samantha asked softly.

"Drain the energies from me…all of them…I want to die human…a regular human…do it…so a part of me, will be in you…" Jason whispered.

Samantha placed her hands on Jason's chest and closed her eyes, drawing forth the energies from the Element 115 in his body. Samantha slowly drew them out, and a bluish energy flowed into her. She felt herself becoming stronger with every bit of energy she took from Jason. Jason let out a sigh of relief as Samantha drew out the last of the energy.

"That's…better…Sam…do me one last favor…" Jason said as Samantha knelt closer to Jason.

"What is it?" Samantha asked as Jason's breathing slowed.

"Find Richtofen…Learn the whole story…there's not just one side to this whole thing Sam…there's reasons involved…you have to _understand_ why he's doing this…just wanting to kill him for the sake of revenge…you'll fail…you won't be able to kill him with hatred and pain in your heart" Jason said softly.

"B-but-" Samantha began to say before Jason began to cough up blood violently.

"He has to be stopped…but not because of what he did to you and Dr. Maxis…no…what you have to remember…is that he's trying to destroy this world…it's an evil, cruel place…but there's still good in it…and we can't let Richtofen destroy that good…remind him…that there's always hope…for change…do that for me" Jason begged as his breathing became harsh and ragged.

Samantha nodded silently, wondering how on earth she'd talk to Richtofen again without killing him.

Jason smiled and said "You're a true friend Sam…thank you…for everything…"

Samantha nodded again, and Jason closed his green eyes, a tear rolling down them, and whispered "Time for the next round to begin…in the next life"

Jason's body shuddered, and with a sigh he went still. Samantha placed a hand over his heart and said "Rest in peace…I'll destroy them all for you…"

"I wouldn't bet on that Samantha…" a calm voice said from behind her.

"_You…"_ Samantha got to her feet, turning around to see Yena.

"You do know how many deaths he was responsible for, right? Thousands upon thousands. He may even have a bigger body count than I do. And that's saying something" Yena said coolly.

"SHUT UP!" Samantha screamed as she vanished and reappeared next to Yena, aiming a kick at his skull.

Yena had time to blink in surprise before Samantha's kick connected with the side of his skull. Yena went flying into the side of a building, only to sink into his own shadow and reappear behind Samantha with a grin.

"You've gotten stronger. Nowhere near mine, Sieger's, Illuzio's, and Richtofen's level, but you're getting there. Maybe there's hope for you after all" Yena said with a grin as he got flung a shadow tendril at Samantha.

Samantha grabbed the shadow and let out a yell, sending a burst of green energy surging through the shadow. Yena yelped as the energy rushed into his own shadow and surging into him, causing him to yell out in pain.

"**You need some help?"** Hyena growled.

"I don't need you. She's still far beneath me" Yena barked to his other self, who backed off.

"You know, I've got another acquaintance in this city I've got to meet. He's probably with your friends right now…maybe I should find them? It'd be a nice little reunion" Yena said with a grin.

"Leave them out of this Yena" Samantha growled.

"You're going to have to catch me first!" Yena laughed as he sank into his own shadow, which slithered down the street.

Samantha glanced back at Jason's body for a moment, picking up his fallen Winter's Howl and the Paralyzer, and sprinted off after Yena.

Meanwhile:

"Weasel!? Where are you!?" Sal yelled as he stormed through the prison.

"We've got to find him. It's all his fault!" Billy growled as ran after Sal

"Not so sure about that, but we do need to find him" Finn said as he chased after that Mobsters

"Did you guys even listen to that recording!? This has nothing to do with Weasel! None of this is his fault!" Nicholas yelled to the mobsters, who looked at him.

"He lied to you guys about the plan, and told you what you wanted to hear. Yes. But was it worth murdering him over? You guys did that, not him. If anything, he's the victim!" Nicholas said angrily to the mobsters.

Sal growled angrily, pulling out his WN and aiming it at Nicholas, who frowned at the Mobster.

Sal scowled and said "No one talks to me like-!"

BAM!

Sal fell to the ground, clutching his jaw as his WN clattered to the ground. Sal looked up in surprise and saw Finn glaring down at him, fist raised, with Billy's foot resting on his gun a few moments later.

"Sorry boss, but that kid's done nothing but help us out. He's our best chance of getting out of here" Billy said quietly as he picked up the WN.

"The thing is…Nicholas has a point. As much as I HATE to admit it, we did kill Weasel…He was our…uh, accomplice, and we betrayed him. We should find him, and find out what this is all about. This started with us, and it's going to end with us" Finn said with a sigh.

Sal scoffed and said "We'll find him…whether or not we listen to him is debatable"

"We should at least hear him out" Nicholas said to the others, who nodded with extreme reluctance.

"Why are you so eager to hear his side of the story?" Sal asked bitterly.

"I've always been like this. I'm a peacekeeper, and I want us to get over this crap and move on" Nicholas said with a tired sigh as he walked down the hallway of the Infirmary.

"Sounds like there's more to it" Sal said with a tone of accusation.

"There is" Nicholas said to them as they walked down the stairway to the cafeteria.

"Want to talk about it?" Finn asked.

Nicholas shrugged and said "My parents divorced a while ago, and I was torn between them for a while… I didn't want to have to choose between them, so for a while I kept the peace between them and spent time with both of them…they were my parents, and I loved them both… Eventually that all ended when I was 14"

"Why?" Sal asked rather softly.

"Because my mother showed her true colors. I haven't seen her since" Nicholas said simply, though a hint of anger was in his voice.

Finn sighed and said "I guess everyone's got their problems, don't they Nicholas?"

"Tell me about it. Just two weeks after burying my grandma, and the world freaking ends with Zombies attacking everywhere. Edward Richtofen, someone who I didn't even know was real two weeks ago, starts campaigning for the world's end…I lost one of my best friends, and now I'm stuck in Zombie Alcatraz with a bunch of Mobsters who don't know the first thing about trust and empathy" Nicholas said bitterly as they entered the cafeteria. Nicholas walked over to the Acid Gat and put in his Sweeper, allowing the machine to transform his gun. Sal, Finn, and Billy exchanged looks.

"I'm sorry for your loss" Finn said quietly, looking back at Nicholas.

"Don't be. She doesn't have to suffer anymore…And at least it happened before the apocalypse happened in my time" Nicholas said softly, picking up his Vitriolic Withering with a shrug.

"Sounds to me like this was your first major death" Billy said rather knowingly.

Nicholas turned around rather quickly and said "How would you know?"

"Because, you remind me of myself when my mom died. Same concept really" Billy said rather softly, a hint of genuine sadness in his voice.

"Huh, I always pegged you as a momma's boy" Finn joked, earning a punch in the nuts from Billy.

"Ah! What the f*ck was that for!?" Finn gasped as he fell to the ground. Billy walked over to Nicholas and looked him dead in the eye.

"Anyway, it's always the hardest, Nicholas...You'll slowly get used to it, and move on. It not easy…it _never _is. But you learn to move on. Remember her for the good times, alright? That makes the pain bearable" Billy said to Nicholas, who nodded silently.

"Come on guys, we should find Weasel soon" Finn said as he slowly got to his feet.

"He's right. Who knows what he's up to now that we know the truth" Sal muttered.

Weasel walked onto the roof, looking frantically for something. There was no way he could hide from the others for much longer. He needed to escape.

For good.

"What if…what if I rode the plane…but…in the Afterlife?" Weasel muttered, eyeing Icarus with a smile.

"_It's worth a try"_ Illuzio said softly in Weasel's mind, and that was all the encouragement Weasel needed.

Weasel sprinted over to the Fuse Box downstairs and pulled down on it just as Finn, Sal, Billy, and Nicholas rounded the corner.

"WEASEL!" Billy yelled.

"Weasel! Wait!" Nicholas yelled as he ran towards the man, but it was too late. Weasel collapsed onto the ground in a burst of electricity as he was sent to the Afterlife.

"Damn it. Well, he can't stay in Afterlife Mode forever" Nicholas said calmly.

"_He doesn't have to"_ a familiar voice said to them.

"What the hell? Who's talking to us now?" Sal asked Nicholas.

"Illuzio. He's the one behind all of this" Nicholas said, looking around.

"_It seems as though it's time for the climax of the show! BEHOLD!"_ Illuzio yelled to them.

All of a sudden Nicholas felt his body fail him and he and the other mobsters collapsed onto the ground senseless, as if they had been killed. Nicholas opened his eyes and saw himself in the Afterlife Mode, floating on top of Icarus as it slowly took off. Nicholas watched silently as they crashed into the bridge for a final time and fell to the ground. As Nicholas opened his eyes, he saw his, Finn's, Billy's, and Sal's bodies in the Electric Chairs at the other end of the bridge. He flew over to his body and revived himself, and as the electric chair let him up, he starred at the lone figure waiting for them on the other side of the bridge. He had an Acid Gat strapped to his back and hand a Porter's X2 Ray Gun gripped firmly in hand.

"Weasel…!" Billy growled, his grip on his Uncle Gal tightening.

"Guys…" Nicholas said sternly.

Brutus suddenly spawned at the other end of the bridge next to Weasel, but he ignored the mobster and charged down towards the others at the other end of the bridge. Zombies started spawning on the bridge, jumping over the railing and charging at them.

"They're everywhere!" Finn yelled as he aimed his Rocket Propelled Grievance and fired it towards a nearby cluster of Zombies, blowing them clear off of the bridge.

Nicholas ducked under a Zombie's swipe and bashed it over the head with the Vitriolic Withering before shooting it. Nicholas ran away as a dozen Zombies ran over to the other Zombie, and the whole group was engulfed in a series of acidic explosions. Nicholas switched to his Speakeasy and pulled down on the trigger, unleashing a flurry of Pack-A-Punched bullets on the undead jumping over the bridge. Eventually the Zombie thinned out, and the hunt began for Weasel.

"Alright, it's time for us to end this" Sal said, aiming his WN at Weasel, who pulled out his Porter's X2 Ray Gun.

"Guys. No!" Nicholas said to Sal, who fired a few shots towards Weasel as he advanced towards the other end of the bridge.

The Mobster took cover behind a crate and quickly took aim, firing a shot at Sal. Sal howled in pain and stumbled backwards as the beam slammed in his chest, causing him to fall to one knee as shot burned through his shirt, drawing blood. Billy growled and aimed his Uncle Gal at Weasel, who snarled at the Mobster and said "Come on Handsome! I'm not scared of you!"

"You should be!" Billy growled as he sprinted towards the other end of the bridge and hurled his Hell's Retriever at Weasel, who hurled his Hell's Redeemer at Billy. The two tomahawks clashed in midair, but Weasel's upgraded tomahawk prevailed and slammed into Billy's hip, causing him to take cover behind a crate as he fell to one knee. Billy's Hell's Retriever flew over the side of the bridge and out of sight as Weasel's Redeemer flew back into his hand.

Finn aimed his RPG at the other end of the bridge from next to the electric chairs, waiting for Weasel to move into sight. Nicholas grabbed his shoulder and said "Finn…come on, you can't do this"

"Yes, I can. It's the only thing I can do now!" Finn growled as he saw Weasel peek out from his cover. Billy and Sal had yet to recover from their wounds.

"No you don't…Finn, I can't stop you…but think…would Angela want you to do this? To kill a man who doesn't deserve it? Who's been through enough already?" Nicholas said softly.

Finn closed his eyes and looked away, even as Weasel moved into a perfect position. Finn sighed and dropped his RPG to the ground and clattered down the stairs. Nicholas picked it up as Finn ran a hand through his hair, breathing shakily.

"You're right…we've got to stop this" Finn said softly as he walked over Sal.

"Sal. Enough is enough. We've got to talk to him" Finn said to the mobster as Nicholas handed his back his RPG.

"Fine. But I won't like it" Sal growled as he clutched his chest in pain.

"GOTCHA!" Billy yelled.

"Get off!" Weasel yelled.

"Billy NO!" Nicholas yelled as he sprinted over to the two men, who were now in a fist-fight, weapons abandoned on the ground. Finn grabbed Billy from behind, pulling him to his feet, and slammed a Galvaknuckled fist into his back, causing him to go limp and fall to the ground next to Weasel. Nicholas extended a hand to Weasel, who looked at him in utter amazement before grabbing it.

"Wait…you're not…going to kill me?" Weasel said in surprise.

"The thought crossed my mind" Sal admitted coolly.

"Nicholas talked us out of it. You may have lied…but…you didn't deserve what we did to you" Finn said to Weasel.

"Fine. You can live. Consider us even" Billy said stonily.

Nicholas watched with a smile as Weasel apologized for what happened, and then watched with a wider smile as each of the mobsters apologized for murdering him in cold blood, albeit reluctantly and with pinning most of the blame on Weasel. Nicholas eventually walked to the group and looked over at Weasel, who was grinning widely now.

"Weasel, has Illuzio been talking to you all this time?" Nicholas asked curiously.

"He's been telling me all about this place. I remembered bits and pieces from other times we fought here every time the cycle continues. We figure out what happens from the audio logs, and we fly here. They fight me, I die, and it starts all over again" Weasel explained.

"That's it then. You guys always end up killing Weasel on the bridge, and the cycle always starts again because of it…I'm guessing if Weasel killed you guys, then the cycle would've been broken once and for all. Two different outcomes, based on whether or not Weasel lives or survives" Nicholas murmured.

"So…we didn't kill Weasel, and we're alive…what happens now?" Billy asked as he got to his feet.

Clap…Clap…Clap.

Nicholas turned around and saw a familiar figure standing in the middle of the bridge. Each of the mobsters turned towards the sound of the clapping, looking surprised at who it was. Illuzio stood there, smiling widely as he clapped slowly.

"Well done! Well done! Bravo!" Illuzio said with a grin.

"You?!" Weasel yelled angrily.

"I have to admit…when Nicholas started to battle alongside you all…I had my doubts…but it turns out, that even the worst of us can have a bit of good to them, as long as someone special shows them that that good is still in their hearts…" Illuzio said to the Mobsters.

"That may even apply to others as well…" Illuzio murmured to himself.

""So…since Weasel didn't die, does that mean that this is all over?" Finn asked Illuzio.

"It's over Illuzio. Just end it already, they've been through enough" Nicholas said angrily to the jester, who thought about it for a few moments.

Eventually Illuzio shrugged and said "OK. I'll end this"

Nicholas frowned and said "What? Seriously? Just like that?"

"Yes…every time they make it to the bridge, they overwhelm Weasel and murder him again. I restart the cycle again from that point. This time, you broke the cycle Nicholas" Illuzio said with a smile.

"It's true. I lost every time, and the cycle would continue" Weasel said with a smile.

"You managed to convince them to let him live. To understand. You caused three hardened criminals, who have each killed numerous people in their careers, to understand and even sympathize with you, and you changed the cycle's path. Weasel is safe and sound, and the cycle can't continue" Illuzio said.

"You four…you did well. You didn't redeem yourselves for what you've done, make no mistake about that, but you've proven that even the worst of us can have some good in them" Illuzio said to the mobsters.

"So…I guess this is it?" Billy said slowly.

Illuzio nodded and said "You all did it. You passed my test, and the show has reached the finale"

"Finale?" Weasel said, sounding confused.

"It's time for you to go, Nicholas" Illuzio said to the young man, who nodded.

"Yeah…It was good to meet you guys" Nicholas said to the mobsters with a grin as he ran a hand through his blond spiky hair.

"You too kid. Stay tough, got it?" Billy said with a smirk.

"It was nice meeting you kid. Remember what I told you. Keep your girl close" Finn said, clapping Nicholas on the shoulder. Nicholas nodded and looked over at Sal, who smiled at him with respect in his eyes.

"You've got spunk kid. Hope ya have a good life. Good luck against that Richtofen guy you talked about" Sal said to Nicholas, who nodded.

"Nicholas…"

Nicholas turned around and saw Weasel looking at him. The mobster smiled widely, the first expression of joy that Nicholas had seen from the mobster during his time on Alcatraz. Weasel sighed shakily and said "Thank you Nicholas…you ended the cycle. We can finally face our fate…you _did_ it…thank you"

"You guys take care now…OK?" Nicholas said with a smile as a bluish portal opened up behind him.

"Illuzio…what's going to happen to them?" Nicholas said softly as he turned around to face the jester, who walked over to him. The Mobsters watched the two intently. They had fought for so long, they had forgotten that they're journey wasn't over just yet.

Illuzio shook his head and said "They will face judgment from a force higher than even than Richtofen"

Nicholas bit his lip and said "Is this the only way?"

"They doomed themselves to this. You ended the cycle, but their road is not over. There is nothing further that you can do to help them…" Illuzio said quietly.

Nicholas sighed shakily and said "So…that's it then?"

"Perhaps you'll see them again" Illuzio said, smiling slightly.

"What do you mean?" Nicholas asked, confused.

"Like I said before, higher forces manipulate us, toy with us, and shape our fate. With a simple gesture, they can damn us…or make us rise to heights greater than the heavens. But the ones you fought with today…their fate was decided by others this time" Illuzio murmured.

"Who?" Nicholas asked.

Illuzio shrugged in response and said "Come on, you've got a long trip to your own time. Your friends need you"

Nicholas stepped up to the portal and turned around. The Mobsters were walking over to him now, wearing expressions of relief and surprisingly, sadness at the same time. They were happy that this was over, but they didn't want Nicholas to leave, especially since they didn't know what would happen next. He had ended their own personal hell, but would they need him for what was next?

"Alright guys…goodbye" Nicholas said as he stepped through the portal. Nicholas's body disintegrated into a series of particles and flew into the portal. Illuzio turned around to face the mobsters, who were chatting with each other now.

"Come on boys. We've got a date with the devil" Billy said with an evil grin.

"That kid…I wonder what sort of other stuff he and his friends will do. It's supposed to be hell in the future, I wonder if he'll be OK" Sal said thoughtfully.

"He can handle it" Billy laughed.

"He's got a good head on his shoulders. He'll be fine" Finn said with a grin.

"Maybe we'll see him again!" Weasel said, smiling at the thought.

"Maybe you will…but before this all ends…" Illuzio said, turning back towards the Mobsters.

"I am afraid I may have misled you a little" Illuzio said with a grin.

"What…what do you mean?" Weasel asked, rather nervously.

"When I brought you here, to this dimension, I performed a very difficult spell. I essentially transported you here and froze you in time the moment you were killed, trapping your soul to my whims and preserving your life at the moment before death. Weasel's soul was already in my possession before the rest of you others died and had your souls trapped… This magic could only be done because I cast the spell as you died…so essentially, you have not truly died…yet" Illuzio said softly.

"OK…so what does that mean?" Finn asked.

"It means…that my game isn't quite over" Illuzio said with a grin.

"No…NO!" Weasel screamed as he realized what this meant.

Illuzio's smile widened as he snapped his fingers. Sal, Finn, and Billy swore and pulled out their weapons as Zombies began to climb over the bridge in greater number than before.

"B-but we broke the cycle! IT SHOULD HAVE ENDED!" Weasel screamed at Illuzio.

"Like I said…higher forces determine the actions of this tale…the cycle has been broken, but the show isn't over just yet!" Illuzio said gleefully as the Mobsters turned to face him.

"I'll kill you!" Weasel snarled as he aimed his Acid Gat and fired it at Illuzio. The Jester vanished in a flash of green and reappeared next to Weasel, grabbing him by the arm and snapping it in half with a horrible cracking sound. Weasel shouted in agony before Illuzio drew back a fist with green sparks.

"Farewell!" Illuzio yelled as he punched Weasel in the stomach, sending him flying backwards slowly into the air.

"Weasel! NO!" Finn yelled as he watched Weasel's body vanished into a cloud of green sparks.

"So that's where he ended up…" Illuzio said in awe as he watched the sparks float up into the air before vanishing into nothingness. Illuzio turned to face the Mobsters, who were glaring at him with hate in their eyes.

"You evil son of a b!tch" Sal growled.

"You tricked us!" Billy barked.

"I knew it was too good to be true" Finn snarled.

"Once you die here, this will all end. No more games, no more fighting. Repent for your actions, and maybe I'll kill you like I did to Arlington. Refuse, and you can stand your ground here and now!" Illuzio laughed manically.

"The cycle can continue forever for all I care! I'm not sorry for what I did!" Billy roared at Illuzio.

"Nicholas was right" Finn muttered as the Zombie's drew closer.

"Damn it" Sal growled angrily as he reloaded his WN and took a step back.

"I'm just doing what it right. The evil should not walk away without some sort of punishment. Nicholas managed to break the cycle for you all, but in the end, you all deserve what you got…just like Richtofen will pay for what he did to me" Illuzio said coldly, the last part was a whisper to himself.

"I must go now…I've gathered enough strength here…time for my own last stand" Illuzio muttered as he looked up at the stormy sky above before facing down the mobsters he had tricked.

"Ciao!" Illuzio said as he snapped his fingers.

Sal growled and aimed his WN at the snarling horde, which began to attack them. Finn aimed his Rocket Propelled Grievance and destroyed a chunk of the horde with an almighty explosion, but more Zombies replaced the ones that he destroyed. He ran through the gap in the circle, running towards the Electric Chairs at the end of the bridge. As he ran up the stairs to the chairs, the chairs vanished in a wicked flash of green light.

"Damn it! NO! NOOOO!" Finn screamed as the Zombie's surrounded him.

Finn dropped his RPG and swung a fist at the closest Zombie, Nicholas's Galvaknuckle sizzling the dead flesh of the Zombie as it fell to the ground. Finn took a running start and jumped off of the stairs and over the heads of a few of the Zombies and sprinted back down to where Billy and Sal were standing back to back and fighting the horde.

"What now!?" Finn asked as he fired with his other gun.

"We keep on fighting!" Sal growled as he bashed his WN over the skull of a nearby Zombie.

The trio was eventually separated by the tide of the battle as they fought, and Finn and Billy could only watch in horror as Sal was overwhelmed by the undead.

"Sal! Hold on!" Billy yelled as he aimed his Uncle Gal at the horde and pulled the trigger. The click of the Pack-A-Punched Uzi sent a thrill of horror down his spine. He pulled out an Executioner and drew it slowly with a shuddering breath as Sal let out a howl of agony before suddenly being cut off.

This was it.

"This is all just some kind of game to you, isn't it? A big…twisted, f*cked up game" Finn said as the Zombies closed in around him. Finn looked at Nicholas's Galvaknuckle for a moment, smiled, and said "Come and get me"

Billy watched in horror as Finn was torn to pieces before his eyes, his last words were the name of his wife as he screamed into the night. As Finn's body crashed onto the ground, Billy swore and got ready for his final stand.

"I think I understand now Illuzio… I really do…Am I here because of the things I've done? The "bad" things? Am I stuck here until I repent? Because of the terrible things that I did?! Well, you're gonna have to wait a long time, because I don't regret a damn thing you freak!" Billy yelled angrily as he reloaded his pistol.

The Zombie's closed in as Billy fired his Executioner over and over again, the shots doing nothing against the growing hordes of the undead.

"Kill me! Kill me right here, right now!" Billy yelled fearlessly as Zombies rushed at him. He closed his eyes bitterly and took a deep breath as he felt a pair of cold dead hands grab him.

"I'M NOT AFRAID TO DIE!"

Meanwhile:

New York City:

Samantha chased after Yena, snapping her fingers as she rounded a corner. Fluffy reappeared in a burst of fire, barking at Samantha. Samantha leapt onto the Hellhound's back, and the duo shot after Yena, who was riding a wave of darkness down the street now.

"Come on Samantha! You can do better than that!" Yena cackled as his hair billowed wildly behind him.

"GET BACK HERE YENA!" Samantha yelled as they bounded past a line of men and women with weapons, all of them glared at her with glowing blue eyes

"_Oh no! We're heading towards where the survivors are fighting the Reclaimer's!" _Samantha realized with horror.

"Looks like we have an audience!" Yena cackled as he turned around and fired a shot at Samantha. Fluffy swiftly moved out of the way and shot a plume of fire at Yena, who dodged it easily.

"Leave them out of this!" Samantha yelled.

"I think I'd rather do this!" Yena yelled as his shadow flung him high into the air.

"What the hell? Who's that?" Jordan asked as he saw a figure's silhouette against the moon.

"Don't know…hey, is that Sam?" Vice asked Jordan as he slowly hobbled down the street next to him. Blood was racing down his leg from a bullet wound he had gotten from a Reclaimer's pistol.

"Seems like it. I wonder what she's doing chasing that guy" Jordan asked.

"Wait, he looks a lot like that Yena guy Judith was talking about" Serenity said as Yena soared back down to the earth.

"EVERYONE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Samantha screamed.

"What? Why?" Starch asked.

Yena slammed into ground, punching it with his right hand as hard as he could. The entire street shook with force as a small portal of darkness formed where Yena's fist was. A strange rush of air filled the air, blowing everyone backwards a few feet.

"Time for a snack!" Yena whispered with glee as his eyes flashed red for a moment.

Samantha could only watch on in horror as about seventy shadow tendrils burst forth from the portal of darkness and shot towards the battlefield. Reclaimers and survivors both were caught in the crossfire as Yena mercilessly slaughtered anything he could reach, draining their blood as he killed them by impaling them with the deadly tentacles.

"TAKE COVER!" Vice screamed as the sea of shadows raced towards them.

Emmanuel, Jared, and Clutch Odd took cover behind a dumpster and Emmanuel took aim with his rifle, shooting at Yena from afar. The shadows around him deflected the shots he fired effortlessly however, and the two hid in the alleyway. Jordan, Kris, Alec, and Red all took cover behind a chunk of concrete while Jameson, Serenity, and Starch managed to hide behind a broken down Hummer.

Zero turned around and sprinted for cover, but saw in horror that Vice had been shot in the leg and was hobbling weakly, and wouldn't be able to make it to cover in time. Zero then noticed the shadowy tendril shooting towards Vice.

"VICE! GET DOWN!" Zero shouted as he shoved Vice to the ground and swung his flaming machete at the shadow. The blade slammed into the shadow, causing the blade to go flying skyward and causing the tendril to go off course and tear through Zero's shoulder, going through and through his body.

"Zero!" Serenity yelled as the tentacle removed itself before moving on to another victim.

Zero crashed onto the ground, gasping in pain as blood seeped through his jacket uncontrollably. He laughed weakly and said "Damn it…didn't think I'd die like this"

"No! Come on! Stay with us!" Clutch yelled, sprinting towards him. He reached for a Quick Revive Syringe, only to realize he was out. Clutch realized this was borderline suicide at this point, but that didn't matter now.

"Does anyone else have Quick Revive?" Clutch asked everyone near him, who shook their heads.

"I think Jordan does. Hold on, I'll get him!" Jared said as he sprinted off towards the other direction and ran into a nearby alleyway.

"It's funny…thinking back…I wonder…what'll become of this world?" Zero murmured as Clutch applied pressure to the wound, trying to stop the bleeding.

"You know what else is funny? Serenity and Starch getting shipped together" Vice said with a grin.

"What the bloody hell did you just say?" Serenity asked blankly.

"Shipped?" Jameson asked.

"It's when two characters are pretty much viewed as a potential couple, for fanfics and shows and crap like that. You know, like Naruto and Hinata" Vice explained as Clutch managed to get the bleeding under control.

"Sweet. I love Pokémon" Clutch Odd replied, getting some annoyed looks from the others.

"Seriously? I get the spazzy British chick? Whatever…" Starch replied with a laugh.

Vice pulled out a small iPhone and showed Serenity the screen. Serenity's eyes moved as she read several lines of text before she looked at Starch, who stuck his tongue out at her. Serenity picked up a small piece of concrete and threw it at Starch's skull, who howled in pain as he clutched his head.

"I'm freaking English! How many times do I have to say that!?" Serenity said angrily, as she crossed her arms and pouted.

Jared and Jordan sprinted back over to the group and Jared quickly pulled out a Quick Revive syringe and jammed it through the bandages and into the wound, sealing up the damage that Yena had done. Zero's face eased up and he sighed before passing out.

"He killed all of them…" Jared muttered as he looked around the street.

The group looked around and realized with horror what Jared had meant. Yena had singlehandedly killed the remaining Reclaimers in one attack, and the survivors that remained were very few. Including those that Samantha had watched over, about twenty of them remained. Over five hundred bodies lay in the streets, shriveled up and dead.

"Now what?" Serenity asked softly as a freezing cold breeze rolled by, blowing her brown hair back.

"We wait for the end" Vice said softly as he looked down the other street, where Yena was now heading towards the other fight. Samantha was now searching frantically for Yena now, and let out a yell of rage that had slipped away.

Meanwhile:

Yena watched the other fight for a time, watching as Sieger struggled with the icy Zombie. He smirked as the others tried to shoot at the Zombie, only for their bullets to freeze in midair. Even the legendary Zombie Slayers who had fought alongside Richtofen all those years ago couldn't stand up to this might foe. Despite his bravado, he was nervous as well. He couldn't do any lasting damage to that monster either.

"Nothing can kill that thing…unless…wait, that's it!" Yena said with a grin as he slipped into his shadow and slithered towards the others.

"_**Just give in…dying from cold isn't bad…it's like going to sleep…" **_the Blizzard Zombie hissed as Sieger's gunshots froze in midair. Sieger growled angrily and said "There's just no stopping this thing!"

"Well, well, well, look who it is!" a familiar voice said with a laugh.

"I know that voice" Judith said softly as she gripped her rifle tightly.

Everyone's gun raised as Yena walked out of a nearby shadow of a lamppost, smiling widely.

"YOU!" Joe yelled, aiming his Wunderwaffe at the 935 scientist.

"Yeah, yeah, you all want to kill me. But I think you'd all understand that we have bigger problems than me at the moment…Sieger, as strong as you and I both are, we can't kill this thing on our own" Yena said as he walked towards the young man, who was dousing the Blizzard Zombie in black flames.

"Are you seriously suggesting we team up?" Sieger asked in amazement.

"As much as it makes me want to hurl, there's no other way to put this thing down. Think of it as a temporary alliance" Yena said as he drew his pistols and aimed them at the Blizzard Zombie.

"You can't be serious! He killed Liam!" Nick yelled angrily.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures...Don't you dare touch any of them, or so help me and blast you into so many pieces you'll never be able to reform" Sieger growled as Yena walked over to him.

"You too. With all my heart" Yena said with a grin.

"_**So…two enemies teaming up against my powers…so be it"**_ the Blizzard Zombie hissed.

Yena flung his arms downwards, sending a series of deadly shadows towards the Blizzard Zombie. The tendrils got within two feet of the Zombie before they began to turn white, and as they touched the Zombie, even the shadows themselves were frozen solid.

"Wow. Real effective" Sieger said dryly.

"Bite me" Yena replied as he pulled out his Scavenger and took aim before firing a shot. The bolt flew towards the Blizzard Zombie's skull, but as it flew closer it froze completely and just slammed into the Zombie's head.

"Did you seriously think that'd work?" Sieger asked mockingly.

"Grr…the only reason I'm doing this is because I can't kill this thing anymore than you can. This thing is literally indestructible. And even if somehow, someway, you managed to destroy it, it'd just reform from the frozen dust" Yena said angrily.

"Then you better get thinking Harvey. Otherwise we're done for" Sieger said as the Blizzard Zombie aimed its hand at them and fired a shot a beam of ice at them.

Meanwhile:

Nicholas stumbled through the portal and was immediately hit with a wave of bitterly cold air, which made him shiver uncontrollably since he was already wet from the rain. He zipped up his trench coat and cursed the eternal rainstorm of Alcatraz before looking around. The City had pretty much been transformed into an icy battlefield, where hundreds of Reclaimers and survivors lay dead. The very few that were left alive were patching up their wounds while others were watching an incredible battle taking place a few blocks away and out of his view.

Nicholas sprinted over the sound of fighting, panting heavily as he did so. He was worn out from his time on Alcatraz, and was ready to drop. Juliet glanced over in his direction and her eyes went wide as he came into view. She sprinted towards him and threw her arms around him.

"You're alive!" Juliet said as her embrace tightened.

"Good to see you too" Nicholas said with a smile, hugging the young woman tightly.

"Where were you? What happened with Illuzio?" Juliet said as she broke her embrace.

"Long story. I'll tell you later. What happened here?" Nicholas asked.

"Jason released a super-powerful ice Zombie that's been kicking out butts while the survivors fought the Reclaimers. Samantha found Jason and fought him for a while. That was when Uncle Dempsey, Takeo, and Nikolai showed up with Sieger and started to fight off the Blizzard Zombie"

"Awesome, it's so good to hear they're OK…Who's Sieger?" Nicholas asked.

"Black spikey hair, black flaming aura, white and gold pistols, awesome body and a face to die for-"

"Excuse me?" Nicholas said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh come on, he's hot. He wears sunglasses at night! That is the surefire sign of a badass right there" Juliet said with an embarrassed grin.

"Right…so where are they?" Nicholas asked.

"Last time I checked, he was fighting the Blizzard Zombie" Juliet replied.

"Blizzard Zombie? What's that like?" Nicholas said with a grin.

"Cold" Juliet replied.

"…cold? That's it?" Nicholas said with a bemused expression.

"What did to want? A haiku?" Juliet asked dryly.

"…Maybe"

"It's a Zombie, made entirely out of ice…it's really freaking cold" Juliet recited.

Nicholas smiled and said "If it wasn't so cold out, I'd be pretty hot and bothered by that Red vs. Blue reference you just made"

"And now Yena and Sieger are fighting that Blizzard Zombie" Juliet finished.

"What!? Why haven't you guys killed him? Especially after what happened to Liam!" Nicholas said sounding both surprised and angry.

"We had common enemy. Trust me; we're going to kill him afterwards" Juliet said to Nicholas. The two watched in surprise as Fluffy landed in front of them, with Samantha riding her.

"Nicholas! Good to see you again!" Samantha said with a tired grin.

"Hey Sam! You guys would not believe the day I've had" Nicholas said with a wan smile.

"Sam, you're covered in blood! What happened?" Juliet asked.

"Jason…was much stronger than I thought he'd be" Samantha said softly.

"So are hordes of the undead in a hellish iteration of Alcatraz Island" Nicholas muttered.

"Why, what happened to you Nicholas?" Samantha asked curiously.

"Let's just say Illuzio's got some issues with Richtofen, and he took it out on some people who maybe deserved it, but not really" Nicholas said.

"Say what?" Juliet replied, sounding confused.

"Zombie Alcatraz, never ending cycle, Illuzio sucks balls" Nicholas summarized.

"Ah. Gotcha" Juliet replied.

"I missed you guys" Nicholas said with a grin, and Juliet flung her arms around him again. Nicholas returned the hug, and for a moment the two stayed in their embrace. Nicholas then said "So what else happened?"

"Sieger's been holding off the Blizzard Zombie, but it can't be killed. It even killed the "unkillable" Reaper Zombie from earlier. Yena just showed up a second ago and started helping, and even if it's Yena, we're not turning away any help" Juliet said as she glanced over at the showdown going on down the street.

"Come on you two!" Samantha said, urging Fluffy forward and shooting down the street.

"Quick, grab my chest" Juliet said as she aimed her chainsaw after Samantha. Nicholas walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

"I said chest, and you grab my boobs. I guess that works" Juliet said with a grin as she pulled a lever on her chainsaw.

"Chainsaw Dash!" Juliet yelled, shooting forward with a yell while Nicholas clung on with his arms, his legs dangling in the air.

"Come on Yena, you're slowing down!" Sieger laughed as Yena fell to the ground, panting heavily as his entire arm froze completely. Yena shot his arm, destroying it, and his arm slowly regenerated.

"Damn it. This was my stupid idea. An ice Zombie!? What the hell was I thinking!?" Yena growled as he stumbled to his feet.

"_**DIE!"**_ the Blizzard Zombie hissed as it fired a beam of ice energy at Yena, who was blasted backwards with a yell. Sieger sprinted at the Zombie in a cloak of black fire and delivered a series of punches to its face, but that only seemed to enrage the Zombie.

"It looks like those flames protect Sieger as he fights the Blizzard Zombie" Andrew realized as he watched Sieger quickly move out of range.

"That's Hellfire" John replied, earning some odd looks from Kara and Chan.

"It varies on type, but this kind of Hellfire strips away all auras and shields, and serves as a protective shield against harmful energies. Stuff like that" John explained.

"Wow…that's…pretty awesome" Chan said with an admiring smile.

"How'd you know that?" Kara asked with a grin.

"John's smart as hell. No surprise that he'd know that" Joe admitted with a shrug.

Kara and Chan exchanged looks, and Iva rolled her eyes. Kara and Chan began to have a soft conversation with each other, and pointed at John as he looked away.

"John, looks like you've got admirers" Iva said with a laugh.

Kara and Chan shrugged and said "What?"

"What?" John replied blankly as he looked back at the two girls.

"One thing we've got in common. We all like smart guys" Iva said as Joe gave Iva a one-armed hug.

"Hey, what about me?" Nick said.

"Like I said, smart guys"

"Whatever. I've got the unstoppable power of Chuck Norris" Nick grumbled to himself.

"_Don't you just love Zombie Apocalypse relationships?" _C.N. said to Nick.

"John, work on getting laid some other time. Awesome fight going on" Joe said with a grin.

"Enough of this! We can't kill it…but…" Yena smiled evilly and flung his arms downwards.

"Get them out of here. This might kill anyone next to me, and I want to kill them myself" Yena said softly as he closed his eyes.

Sieger nodded and yelled "MOVE PEOPLE!"

"Hyena, help me with this" Yena growled, his voice tense with strain.

"**About time…"**Hyena growled.

Yena's body erupted in a fiery red aura that was practically blood-red. Yena looked over at Sieger and yelled "NOW!"

Sieger flung his hands at the Blizzard Zombie, shooting a plume of black flames at the frozen Zombie. The icy aura surrounding the Zombie flickered and died, and the Zombie roared in indignation. Yena ran at the Zombie yelled **"INTO THE DARKNESS!"**

Yena flung his hands out and slammed them into the ground, creating a massive shockwave that ran through the entire city. At first nothing happened…

"Wait…look…" Jess whispered as she pointed towards the Blizzard Zombie.

"_**What…what are you doing?"**_ the Blizzard Zombie hissed.

Small streaks of shadows streaked towards the Blizzard Zombie. Some would freeze instantly, while others managed to make it to the Zombie itself.

"_**Foolish Yena…I cannot be killed…you cannot defeat me…"**_ the Blizzard Zombie laughed ethereally.

"I don't have to kill you, in order to beat you" Yena laughed as a bead of sweat ran down his face.

Sieger swore and said "Yena…he's actually going to do it"

"What? What is he doing?" Samantha asked as she rode up to the group, Nicholas and Juliet close behind.

Sieger smiled and said "Well, well, well, the lady of the hour"

Samantha hopped off of Fluffy and said "Why is Yena helping you guys? And who are you?"

"I'm Sieger. It's an honor to finally meet you Samantha" Sieger said in a rather gentleman-like manner. Samantha seemed taken aback at the sudden display of respect and flushed pink in surprise.

"Um, likewise. Anyway, why is Yena helping you guys? He just killed Jason" Samantha said, turning towards the others.

"Good" Nick replied.

Samantha scowled and said "He was being manipulated against his will by Richtofen"

"Whelp…my bad" Nick relented.

"We can't kill it. Sieger can hold it off at best, something Yena can't even do. The second this thing's dealt with, Yena's next" Juliet explained again.

"I don't like it" Samantha said softly.

"Tell that to Judith" Andrew said darkly, looking back at Judith, who was currently aiming her Shadowy Veil Utilizer at Yena, keeping the scope trained on him with a look of utter rage on her face.

Samantha looked over and realized who was now here and said "Dempsey! Nikolai! Takeo! Kara! Chan!"

"Nicholas!" Judith yelled, noticing the blond haired teen and dropping her look of rage.

Joe, Jess, and Judith ran over to Nick and hugged him tightly as well. Kara and Chan both flung their arms around Samantha, grinning widely. Dempsey, Nikolai, and Take continued watching as Yena's shadows continued to streak at the Blizzard Zombie in greater numbers.

"Look…" John whispered in awe, point at where the shadows were trying to converge.

A small purple vortex with black streaks was slowly forming underneath the Blizzard Zombie. The icy Zombie's aura, or what remained of it, was freezing whatever shadows were trying to open the vortex, but too many shadows were coming at it now.

"He's taking him to another dimension" Sieger said softly as he watched the proceedings with interest.

"Where?" Nick asked quietly, as if afraid of the response.

"It's a dimension of…well, to say darkness would be an understatement. It's the shadow of the shadow of the universe. No one's ever seen it, because there's nothing but darkness there. Yena's opening a rift right to it" Sieger said quietly.

"What!? That's…that's impossible. I've never even heard of something like that" John said softly in disbelief.

"It was a theory proposed long ago by Dr. Richtofen. There are many worlds and universes, and different planes of being. Shadows are in all of them, and shadows…they should have a shadow themselves, their own plane of existence in which they came into being, in theory. It's complicated, but if anyone can prove the theory right…it's that man" Sieger said as he watched Yena intently.

"Yena…" Samantha murmured as a shiver ran down her spine. Fluffy whined in discomfort as the rush of air picked up from the force of the shadows rushing towards the Blizzard Zombie.

"_**NO! You can't do this!"**_ the Blizzard Zombie hissed as it flailed wildly. It tried to move its leg, but it was stuck in the vortex now, which had grown exponentially.

"**AHAHAHAHAHA! YOU SEE THIS EDWARD?! I'M COMING FOR YOU NEXT!" **Yena and Hyena cackled together as the shadows continued to streak towards the Zombie.

The Blizzard Zombie snarled and aimed a palm at Yena, charging up a beam of ice and firing it. Yena flung his arm out and a shadowy tentacle intercepted the attack head-on, freezing completely before shattering into a thousand pieces.

"_**No…NO!"**_ the Blizzard Zombie howled as it slowly sank into the darkness.

The others watched in awe as the incredibly strong Zombie was swallowed up by the shadows. As its head vanished from sight, the vortex suddenly closed and vanished. Yena fell to both knees with a groan and said "There…it's done"

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!BAM!

Yena howled in pain as shot after shot went through his chest, where his heart should have been. Judith swiftly reloaded and continued to shoot at Yena. Yena flicked his hand, causing a shadow tendril to knock the rifle from Judith's hand and crush it into bits and pieces.

Yena slowly got to his feet, panting heavily now as his wounds healed up. He smirked tiredly and said "And that, kids, is how you take down a Zombie"

"Harvey…why did you help us? Give me the real reason" Sieger asked, lowering his weapons.

Yena chuckled and said "I said before it was because I couldn't kill that thing without your help…but let's just say that I had a revelation of sorts…and I have a vested interest in keeping you kids alive"

"You…YOU KILLED LIAM!" Judith practically screamed at Yena, anger and pain raw in her voice.

"It was AFTER I blasted your little boyfriend to pieces. If it's any consolation, he put up a damn good fight. Better than the rest of you in fact. You kids…you're going to go fight Richtofen, and take him down" Yena admitted.

"What?" Nicholas said, sounding confused.

"That said…" Yena said with a growing smile.

"There is an exception to this…"

Yena's grin widened, almost giving him an insane look.

"The same can't be said about you…Sieger" Yena said, drawing Crow and Wolf slowly, both guns gleaming in the moonlight.

"You may have gotten the better of me last time, but this time we'll settle the score once and for all. It's about time we find out who the true masterpiece of Group 935 is!" Yena growled with a grin as he aimed his pistols at Sieger.

"Is that all Harvey?" Sieger asked with a laugh.

Sieger pulled out both of his golden white pistols, quick as a whip, and said "Well then, if you're so determined to kill me, hit me with your best shot"

"Oh, I intend to" Yena said with a laugh.

"Don't forget, we've got your back too, kid" Dempsey said as he aimed his Lamentation at Yena, and the others aimed their weapons at Yena as well.

"This is going to be soooo satisfying" Yena growled.

"You have no idea" Judith said coldly as she pulled out her Devastator.

Sieger pulled the trigger on both of his guns just as Yena fired his two weapons, and the bullets soared towards their opponents. And it was with this starting move that the final showdown in New York began.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>Alright, so this should be the last long chapter for a while, which is awesome for me. I'm proud of this chapter to say the least.<em>

_Hyena and Yena vs. Sieger and the Zombie Slayers!_

_WHO WILL WIN!?_

_Anyway, this is the part of the story where I explain the plot. Or, more plot I guess. The juicy backstory we all know you've been craving. Plus some wicked action. Stay tuned for more awesomeness, though this'll be the longest chapter I'll do for a while._

_Also, in case anyone was wondering, I had received an equal number of votes to either break the cycle or continue the cycle, so I chose my own special way of ending the Alcatraz Arc. _

_So, playdates coming your way, I'll keep my profile updated. I might have something posted if there's no playdates for that week or not. Like I said, I'll keep it pretty updated. School's starting back up, and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to play online._

**_POST EDIT 8/9/2013 : FINAL ZOMBIE MAP REVEALED! _**

**_So, I stumbled upon a teaser trailer showing the final Zombie map for Black Ops II, which features the Original Zombie Slayers! Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, and everyone's favorite German, Richtofen!_**

**_ This is a prequel to all of the Zombies maps from what is known now. More info should be known soon. Apparently the map itself is called "Origins", and the Final Map Pack is called "Apocalypse", which is set to be released on August 27th for Xbox users and a month later for PS3 users._**

**_ Just thought you all should know. _****_:D_**

_Please review and tell me what you thought! I worked super hard on this chapter, so be sure to leave a review! This was more than 20, 000 words! Let me know what you thought! :D_

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	35. The End of the Beginning

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_So you may be wondering, why was this chapter so late, when its way shorter than 34 was?_

_The answer is just that. I kind of burnt myself out with Chapter 34. I needed to take some time off from the story and have been focusing on some other stuff, mainly getting ready for the Fall Semester. I've maxed out my bank in Zombies, have explored Buried quite a bit, and renewed my love for Kingdom Hearts. Part of me wants to do a fanfic on that, but I couldn't do it justice._

_Anyway, back to the point._

_You may be wondering what my update frequency during the school year will be, and well…we'll see what happens. I think I can still meet my frequency of 2-3 weeks per chapter. But we'll have to see, since I'm working and going to school. I find I can get more done in short bursts than in long stretches, but really, it depends on whether or not my microscopic attention span gets sidetracked or not._

_This chapter was NOT proofread, I had to get it up now, as this as the only chance I'd get. It will be reviewed and corrected ASAP._

_As for my plans with Origins, well, I will cover it for sure. I already have a really interesting idea for it. As you'll see in about a minute, I'm covering all of the maps in Black Ops II (Save for Nuketown Zombies), and I'll go back and write a scene for Tranzit while I revise the earlier chapters, and will let you all know when I write that scene._

_Shoutout to those who reviewed my last chapter, which included katerinavalentine62601,Dustchu, Justplainawesome, Lord rage quit,RandomName3064 (creator of the Blizzard Zombie),Trapinchh, lanstetil51, a guest reviewer known as Guest, Jess, Killz718, Knightmare Frame Razgriz, tjelledge262,_ _FinnkissedBilly, BobbyD, Ageless Agera, and a new reviewer known as lolperson2. Thank you so much for the feedback everyone._

_Special shoutout to my 400__th__ reviewer,_ _Knightmare Frame Razgriz , as well as my 300__th__ reviewer, Serena and Abella, because apparently I'm a moron and forget to give them a shoutout like four chapters ago. Speaking of disappearing, I wondering where a lot of my old regular reviewers are. Out of the ones who started reviewing way back when, only Trapinchh and StaticBomb324 are left reviewing. _

_You guys make this story what it is. A year a half ago, I would've punched you if you told me that I'd have more reviews than one of my favorite stories on this site, but look now. You all did this. You've kept this story going with your support, and for those of your who've stuck by me, chapter after chapter and giving me a review and sending me feedback, and have given me your thoughts...I thank you. For those of you who've been reviewing chapter after chapter for a few months now, I thank you as well, and I hope you'll stay regular reviewers and perhaps look at other projects I'll do in the future. Even the new people who're just catching up, I thank you as well, and I hope to see your feedback of my work in the future chapters of this and other stories I do as well._

_But for now, let's stick to the present. This chapter represents the beginning of the end. _

_My last fifteen chapters. _

_The last stretch._

_Here it is._

_Enjoy._

_And thank you._

* * *

><p>Chapter 35: The End of the Beginning<p>

"_Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning"- Winston Churchill_

* * *

><p><span>Primal Plates:<span>

Marlton, Russman, Stuhlinger, and Misty stood atop a ledge, overlooking a massive chasm. At the bottom of a chasm was an enormous fiery hole that seemed to lead to the core of the Earth itself.

"Huh, we came all this way to look at a big hole in the earth?" Stuhlinger asked mockingly.

"That's more than just a hole in the ground…that's the Rift" Russman murmured as he turned around.

"Somehow…I don't think that wound's gonna heal easily" Misty whispered, her hand finding Marlton's and grasping it tightly. Marlton frowned, but allowed the contact.

"The structural integrity of the earth is barely maintained" Marlton said as he adjusted his glasses, gazing down at the Rift with a scowl.

"Come on, we should hurry. We're down to just pistols again" Russman says as they made their way to the area labeled "Processing". As they stepped onto the catwalks, they felt a strange energy course through them. Blue chalk outline's flickered into life on the walls while three areas suddenly boarded themselves up with wood. Russman admired the machines for a moment before saying "It's a mining operation of some kind. Who knows if they're still operational."

"Here we go…" Misty said with a grin as she got ready to kick more ass. Marlton nodded, Stuhlinger sighed, and Russman simply grunted.

(Round 1)

The Zombies slowly made their way to the barriers and began to tear at them. The group readied their M1911's and got ready for another long hard run.

"Each of you, take a barrier" Russman said to the young Zombie Slayers, who nodded and took their positions. As they began to shoot and knife the Zombies, a familiar voice spoke to them.

"_Attention my corporeal friends. You can hear me, yes. Our journey inches ever closer to its conclusion. This location represents a fine piece of a puzzle beyond the comprehension of your mortal minds. With your help, we can heal the earth. Energy from the Aether is at its strongest this close to the Rift. You must harness this energy in order to power the tower seen from this vantage point. In order to achieve our goal, we must venture beneath the surface. I will endeavor to monitor and advise your progress, but you must remain vigilant. Richtofen will stop at nothing to achieve his psychotic goals"_ Maxis said to the group as they got their bearings.

"OK, so how do we do that?" Misty said in an annoyed tone as Maxis stopped speaking, ignoring her words.

"I suppose all will be made clear soon enough" Marlton replied as he walked over to an M14 and bought it, aiming the rifle with a smirk.

Marlton fired a shot through his barrier, taking out the Zombie tearing at the wooden planks with ease. The Zombies would become so much stronger with time, so he savored the ease at which he could them now while he could.

Misty let out a growl as she sank her knife into the Zombie's flesh, her knife jerking upwards and killing the Zombie instantly. Russman fired six shots into three Zombies breaking through his barrier, gaining as many points as he could. Russman spotted a Double Points nearby and walked through it.

"_**Double Points!"**_ Richtofen called.

Meanwhile, Stuhlinger slashed at the two Zombies jumping up onto the metal catwalk. Stuhlinger noticed a nuke floating next to the Zombie he had just killed and walked through it, earning the group 400 points as the flash and explosion course through the air.

"_**KABOOM!"**_ Richtofen said gleefully.

"Alright guys! Round 2!" Misty barked as the Zombies ran at the barriers again. Misty had four run at her barrier at once, and she unloaded six shots into each of them before slashing them down.

(Round 2)

As the round ended, Misty caught a glimpse of blue light out of the corner of her eyes and looked upwards. She walked over to where Stuhlinger was, and curious, Russman and Marlton did too.

"Hey, what's that up there?" Misty asked, pointing to the chalk outline above them.

"Looks like a Light Machine Gun of some type, possibly an LSAT?" Marlton said as he looked up at the blue glowing chalk outline.

"You think we can get it?" Stuhlinger asked.

Misty answered by sprinted towards the edge and jumping towards the ledge, pulling herself up onto the rickety looking catwalk. She grabbed the LSAT and brandished it with a grin.

"Psh. Not impressed" Stuhlinger grumbled.

Misty laughed and was about to reply when the platform fell apart underneath her and she fell through the bottom of the floor, crashing into a long tunnel with a scream.

"…well, that happened" Stuhlinger said with a grin.

"That looked like it hurt" Russman muttered as he looked down at the hole below.

"Misty! Hold on!" Marlton said, jumping downwards into the hole after her.

"Crap! What do you think? Should we follow them?" Stu asked Russman, who nodded.

"Well…crud" Stuhlinger said as he jumped into the hole, followed by Russman.

The two men fell down the hole and crashed hard onto the ground, landing next to the Quick Revive machine. Misty was helping Marlton to his feet.

Russman slowly got up, grinning painfully, and said "Oh mama! Darn near splintered my bones on landing"

Russman stumbled to his feet, falling down on the ground. He let out a growl and put his hand down against the wall to brace himself as he got back to his feet, unknowingly brushing his hand against teddy bear, which made a strange noise as the man touched it.

"Come on! Down here!" Misty said as she jumped down a hole. Russman watched as the others followed her, but he turned to the nearby chalk and picked it up with a quizzical look. He glanced at the glowing question mark on the wall and back at the chalk.

"I wanted a weapon, and you gave me chalk. What, I supposed to draw a weapon myself?" Russman said as he walked over to the walk and began to carefully draw a weapon. An image of the Remington shotgun popped into Russman's mind, and he slowly began to draw it.

"Huh. Not bad" Russman said with a grin before he turned around and jumped down the hole. He landed on the top floor of a barn. He glanced behind him and saw an opening, and jumped down again, joining the others.

An abandoned western town lay before them, strangely out of place in the strange mining facility. Russman let out a low whistle and said "How'd a sweet little place like this come to get buried underground?"

"Hmmm...It seems that this place was a ghost town long before the tectonic shift" Marlton said as he walked over to the box and rolled on it. Marlton let out a growl of annoyance as he picked up a Five-Seven and said "I suppose this will do…for now"

Stuhlinger smirked and strolled over to the Box, and grinned as he picked out the Executioner.

"Hahahaha! Nice!" Stuhlinger said with a laugh as he put away his M1911.

"My turn!" Russman said as he rolled on the box, getting a Galil.

"Alright, now that we're armed, we should get the power on" Misty said to the others, who nodded in agreement. The Zombies began to come at them, and the group buckled down next to the box and quickly eliminated them, ending the round with Misty blowing a cowboy Zombie to pieces with her LSAT.

"Come on guys! Let's go up here" Misty said as she walked up a flight of stairs. Marlton followed her, and Russman slowly made his way up the stairs as well.

Stuhlinger was about to follow when he heard a very familiar voice speak to him.

"_Samuel? Samuel Stuhlinger?" _

"What? Oh no, not again!" Stuhlinger groaned.

"_Calm yourself Samuel. We're all friends here, are we not?" _Richtofen asked cheerfully.

"Uhhh, not really. Me and Russman are buddies but uh, I hate that girl with a passion!" Stuhlinger muttered.

_"We have no time for petty rivalries mein friend. I feel that Maxis may be manipulating your companions into following his orders! He's a very convincing liar. I know this firsthand. For now you must focus only on gaining control of the tower above ground. It is more important than you could possibly imagine!" _Richtofen said to Stuhlinger, who nodded.

"Sooo...no pressure then?"Samuel asked casually.

_"The components necessary to build an energy conduit to power the tower will only source from this location. When you find them, you must ensure they are not used to help Maxis!" _Richtofen said before his presence faded away, but not completely.

"Aww…he's scared!" Misty voice said loudly from the jail cell.

"Stupid b!tch" Stu muttered.

All of a sudden the pile of wood next to the question mark chalk outline exploded, and a large man dressed in overalls stumbled down to the ground before getting to his feet.

"The hell?" Stuhlinger muttered as he walked over to his comrades.

"He appears to have cleared an obstacle for us! His destructive power just may prove useful!" Marlton said cheerfully.

"Can't we just lock Marlton in the cage?" Russman asked as they made their way outside, shooting a few Zombies on their way out. Stuhlinger noticed a nearby cowboy Zombie making its way towards him, and casually turned around and shot in the skull, ending the round.

(Round 3)

"Let's explore a little" Russman said to the others.

"Looks like Juggernog is behind this debris. I'll find more booze to get this guy to clear it. You all get the power on" Misty ordered the others, who nodded.

"_You must do what I say Sam, it really is very important!"_ Richtofen said to Stuhlinger, who nodded as the group made their way to a Saloon.

The continued to fight their way through the horde, exploring as they did so and turning on the power. As they explored the Bank, Armory, Courthouse, Candy Shop, and the Saloon, gaining more points and better weapons as they fought.

Richtofen began to get very annoyed at Stuhlinger however.

"OK, we should find a way to get over to that house" Misty said to the three men, who nodded and began to follow her. Stuhlinger winced at the anger in Richtofen's tone as he shouted at him, and felt a stab of guilt in him as the German berated him.

_"You really are quite pathetic aren't you? Where would you be if it wasn't for me? Nowhere, that's where! I HATE you! I HATE YOU SO MUCH!"_ Richtofen screamed at Stuhlinger, who was shaking from fear.

"Stu, what's wrong?" Russman asked, and Marlton and Misty looked back, curious.

"Please…just let this be the right choice" Stuhlinger whispered as he closed his eyes, barely hearing himself speak as the German screamed at him.

"Great, we've lost Stupidger" Misty said uncaringly as she walked away. Marlton gave a rather sympathetic look to Stuhlinger before following Misty.

"Stu…you OK?" Russman asked softly.

"Russ…I just don't know anymore…" Stuhlinger said as he walked back towards the Saloon, his hands running through his hair.

"Poor guy…he's not the only one who's worried about what's to come" Russman murmured as he turned around and followed Misty and Marlton.

* * *

><p><span>Meanwhile:<span>

Present:

New York City:

* * *

><p>The shots soared towards Sieger and Yena, who both swiftly dodged the shots and ran at each other.<p>

"You guys stay back until I tell you!" Sieger ordered as he sprinted toward Yena, who was wearing a mad smile. The group complied, and began to watch the epic brawl unfold.

Both Sieger and Yena drew back their hands and balled their hands up into a fist before throwing an almighty punch at the other man. Both fists slammed into each other, creating a wave of pure force in the air. Both men were sent flying backwards, but righted themselves in midair. Sieger fired what was left in both of his clips at Yena, who threw up a wall of shadows to block the gunfire, but were torn to bits by the magical bullets, causing Yena to scream in agony as fifteen shots tore through him, leaving burning white holes.

"Good to see the monster scream" Iva spat as Sieger threw himself at Yena, tackling him to the ground.

"They never should have released you!" Sieger bellowed, slamming a burning fist into Yena's face. Yena roared in agony, releasing a massive shockwave of power that sent Sieger flying off of him.

Yena slowly rose to his feet as the gunshot wounds slowly began to heal. Yena tilted his hat and said "I was released by the very one who started all of this. The one who set the events of this tale in motion"

"Doctor Richtofen" Sieger spat.

"Wrong answer" Yena said softly.

A flash of confusion flickered across Sieger's face, but before he could say anything a shadow tendril slammed into Sieger's chest mercilessly and tore a massive hole in his chest, causing him to cry out.

"NO! Sieger!" Kara yelled, rushing forward.

Sieger exploded in a burst of flames, which trailed down the shadowy tentacle and burned it to nothingness, causing Yena to scowl.

"Where are you boy?" Yena purred, glancing around.

A black flaming comet slammed into Yena from out of nowhere, sending him rocketing into a building. Sieger flipped in midair as the fire dispersed around the comet, reloaded his pistols as he did so, and yelled out as he opened fire on Yena, who was lying motionless in a hole. The shots flew into the hole and slammed into Yena, who let out a road of pain that sent pure fear into each one of the Zombie Slayers.

"I have not yet begun to fight!" Yena snarled as he vanished into thin air, appearing in front of Sieger.

Yena whirled around and bashed Sieger in the face with his elbow, sending the young man flying backwards. Sieger smirked and vanished in a burst of black flames, reappearing behind Yena, who flung his hand out. Sieger grabbed his hand and swiftly turned it, snapping his wrist and breaking it. Yena snarled in pain before Sieger kicked him in the chest with a flaming boot.

"GET HIM!" Sieger bellowed to the others.

Yena crashed onto the ground with a growl, wincing at the pain of the Hellfire that had accompanied the kick. He glanced to his left and managed to sidestepped a shot from Judith's Devastator, narrowly avoiding the fiery blast. Yena popped his wrists back into place as Dempsey fired his Lamentation, and he flicked his wrist to create a shadow tendril to block the gunfire. Another shadow appeared behind Dempsey, only to be intercepted by Andrew, who slashed the tendril in half with a downward slash.

Yena grinned and lunged at Andrew, only for Dempsey to tackle Yena in midair, stabbing him in the throat with a jagged looking knife. As the two crashed onto the ground, Yena kicked Dempsey off of him and rolled to his feet, firing a shot at the Marine with Crow. Dempsey sidestepped and pulled out his Lamentation and opened fire, as did Marcus, Nick, and Jax. Yena grinned widely as the shots came at him and tore him to pieces, reducing him to a bullet-riddled corpse. As Yena crashed onto the ground, all of the blood that came out of him suddenly flowed back into his body, and his wounds healed on the spot. Yena began to laugh and as he sat up, Judith let out a yell and fired a Devastator blast into his face, causing him to howl in pain and vanish into his shadow.

"Where did he go!?" Judith demanded, looking around frantically.

"Aw, you are mad?" Yena's voice echoed through the street.

"SHUT UP!" Judith screamed at the voice, who laughed louder.

"I killed your boyfriend! I killed your boyfriend!" Yena sang.

"SHUT THE F*CK UP!" Judith screamed as Yena reappeared in front of her. Judith fired a continuous stream of fire at the 935 Scientist, who exploded in a burst of darkness with a laugh.

"That's too funny. Honestly, you guys crack me up" Yena's voice said with a chuckle.

"Come and out and fight you dishonorable worm!" Takeo yelled.

"If you insist"

Takeo swiftly jumped out of the way as a shadow tendril shot from behind him and impaled itself into the closest building. The Imperial Soldier swiftly drew a white Katana and pointed it at the writhing mass of tentacles that was in front of them.

"DESCEND INTO DARKNESS!" Yena roared as the tentacles shot towards them.

Everyone braced themselves, but was surprised when Sieger reappeared in front of them and said "Oh no you don't!"

Sieger flung out his arms and a massive burst of black flames shot out from his palms, shooting towards the mass of darkness and causing it to shrink and retreat. An audible growl of annoyance could be heard throughout the street.

"Hellfire. A mystical substance that can take on many forms and colors, as well as abilities. Thought to be lost in the great disaster that ended all magic…it finally resurfaces over a thousand years later…" Yena growled.

"In you. A brat who doesn't know his place and would be better off as a rotting corpse in the ground!" Yena barked.

Sieger smirked and said "My place is against you lot. I'm not letting you all get away with this!"

"We'll see about that, _Victor_" Yena spat.

Sieger yelled out as his own shadow sprang up and grabbed him, tackling him to the ground. Yena's face immerged from the dark doppelganger and roared loudly before a shotgun went off, sending Yena sprawling backwards and into the ground. The shotgun's owner discharged shot after shot into Yena, who sank into the ground.

"Shotgun to the face mother*cker!" Joe said with a grin as he reloaded his shotgun. Sieger got to his feet and said "Come on Yena! We haven't got all day!"

"You test my patience boy" Yena growled as he immerged from the darkness once more, only for gunfire to blast him to pieces, courtesy of every single person there.

"It seems as though we'll have to eliminate a few of you first, before me and Sieger can have our fight" Yena grinned sadistically as his body regenerated flawlessly.

Judith took aim and fired her Devastator, tearing right through Yena's face. Yena's body crumpled onto the ground and dissolved into darkness.

"Judith…keep doing what you're doing" Jax said as the black-haired girl angrily waited for the Devastator to cool down.

Judith was about to reply when she heard a noise behind her and spun around, only for a shadow tendril to wrap itself around her leg and fling her down the street.

"JUDITH!" Nicholas yelled as his friend flew out of sight.

"Damn!" Sieger growled as he took aim with his pistols at the shadow tendril, which shot at Sieger, only to be shot down by the golden pistol.

"YENA! COME OUT NOW!" Samantha snarled.

Jax suddenly let out a yell as a shadow tendril wrapped itself around his neck, cutting off his supply of oxygen. Surprisingly, Jax slowly began to pry the shadow off of his neck despite its strength, but Yena simply snatched the Zeus Cannon from Jax with another shadow tendril, aiming at him from above, and fired it multiple times at him, leaving him unconscious on the ground in a crater.

"JAX!" Andrew yelled out before facing Yena with a growl as he immerged from the ground.

Yena lunged at Andrew, who slashed at Yena with Gutripper, the blade flying just under Yena's head. The man grabbed Andrew's right hand and jerked it downwards, snapping the bone like a twig. Andrew howled in pain before Yena swiftly kicked him in the chest, sending him flying backwards and crashing onto the ground.

"Pathetic" Yena said before two echoing shots rang out and pierced his chest.

"AGH!" Yena howled as he fell backwards, vanishing into his own shadow again.

"Where did he go!?" Sieger growled as he took a few steps forward.

A massive explosion was his answer, and Sieger turned around a saw ten tentacles of darkness shoot past him and impale themselves in John, Nick, Iva, and Takeo. The three teens went down, but Takeo stood tall as the tentacle absorbed his blood. Sieger spun around and fired four shots, tearing through the tentacles with ease. He spun back around and shot Yena in the chest, causing him to vanish again.

"IVA!" Nikolai and Joe yelled.

"FATHER!" Chan yelled fearfully as she ran to her father's side while he fell to one knee, trying to stop the bleeding.

"John! Nick!" Nicholas yelled as his friends collapsed onto the ground.

"That's it!" Samantha snarled as she sprinted towards Sieger and Yena.

"Come on Nicholas. We should help" Juliet said as she revved her chainsaw.

"I'm coming too" Jess said as she pulled out her Sliquifier. Marcus nodded in agreement.

"Alright. Joe" Nicholas turned to his best friend and said "Watch over the others"

"Go kick some ass for me" Joe said with a nod as he walked over to Iva and Nikolai, trying to help her as best as he could.

"Let's hurry" Nicholas said as he pulled out his Speakeasy and sprinted towards the sound of fighting down the street. Yena shot Sieger in the chest, causing him to burst into black flames again and reappear a short distance away, before turning around and punching Samantha in the stomach, causing her to go flying off into a nearby truck. Jess yelled Samantha's name as she stirred and slowly got up while Sieger fended off more shadow tendrils.

"So what's the plan!?" Marcus asked.

"This!" Jess said as she jumped onto a car and kicked off of it.

Jess flipped into the air and sprayed the Sliquifier at Yena, who sank into his shadow before the acidic liquid could hit the ground. Yena reappeared behind Jess and lunged at her, but was suddenly tackled to the ground by Marcus, who had caught up to them.

"Leave her alone!" Marcus snarled as he unsheathed a long jagged knife and began to stab Yena in the face with it.

"Jess, take the shot!" Juliet yelled as Jess hovered nearby.

"I can't! It'll hurt Marcus!" Jess cried frantically as she held out the Sliquifier.

I've got this! CHAINSAW BLASTER!" Juliet yelled as she aimed her Chainsaw at Yena, who had just kicked Marcus off of him. Yena went flying down the street as the powerful blast slammed into him, and he got to his feet with a growl. Marcus rolled to his feet and pulled out a SLDG HAMR and opened fire on Yena, who threw himself at Marcus and pinned him to the ground, grinning widely as the young man thrashed and writhed, trying to get free.

"MARCUS!" Jess screamed as she aimed her RPG and fired it, praying for the best.

Thankfully the rocket hit Yena in the back, causing him to howl in agony as he went flying off of Marcus and into a building. He burst into a cloud of darkness on impact as Marcus scrambled to his feet.

"Thanks Jess" Marcus said thankfully.

"Are you OK?" Jess asked.

"Never bet-BAM!" Marcus began to say before a shot went through his chest, causing him to crumple to the ground. Everyone's head turned towards a shadow tendril holding Crow. Yena laughed as the tentacle dropped the pistol back into Yena's hand and sank into his shadow. Samantha let out a yell of rage and shot toward Yena, who shot Samantha over and over with Crow and Wolf. Sieger ran toward Yena, but was shot in the chest and fell to the ground with a yell.

"SAM!" Juliet and Nicholas screamed.

"MARCUS!" Jess screamed as Marcus tried to stay standing. Marcus let out a choking gasp before falling to his knees.

Juliet and Nicholas ran at Yena, with Nicholas unloading a stream of bullets from his Speakeasy and Juliet sprinted at Yena, chainsaw raised. Yena snarled as the bullets slammed into him. Yena snarled as Juliet slammed her chainsaw into his chest and revved it, slicing through Yena's body. Yena managed to raise a fist, despite the onslaught, and slammed it into Juliet's skull.

"Juliet!" Nicholas screamed in horror as she went crashing down onto the ground senseless, her hair soaked with blood.

"_He's done messing around…Yena's playing for keeps now_" Nicholas thought in horror as he ran towards Juliet, only for Yena to appear in front of him and grab him by the throat. Nicholas gasped in pain as Yena lifted him effortlessly into the air, cutting him off of all oxygen with his iron grip. Yena held him there as he suffocated and after a full minute, brought Nicholas close to him and whispered "Do you fear death, Nicholas?"

"Go to hell" Nicholas spat before his lungs started screaming for air.

"After you" Yena grinned.

"YENA!"

Yena let out a cry of pain as a shining sword pierced his chest. Yena stumbled forward, dropping Nicholas onto the ground, and spun around to see Sieger holding a golden glowing sword, made of the same material as his guns.

"Damn…more magical weapons" Yena spat as Sieger ran at Yena and slashed him in half, causing him to burst into a cloud of darkness. The darkness converged onto the ground as shadow and fled down the street.

Sieger glanced at the downed teens with worry, dispelling his sword with a burst of black fire, and ran over to Marcus first, jamming a Quick Revive syringe into the wound even a few moments after Marcus hit the ground, injecting him with the healing fluid.

Samantha slowly rose to her knees, a blackish aura enveloping her. Her gunshot wounds slowly sealed up as she opened her eyes, looking out at the carnage Yena had wrought.

"You…you've hurt my friends for the last time" Samantha whispered as she ran after Yena

"T-thank you" Jess stammered as Marcus closed his eyes and passed out.

"Watch over him. I've got to back up Samantha" Sieger said as he reloaded his pistols and sprinted off after Samantha, who had chased Yena down the street.

Samantha ducked as a shadow tendril shot towards her and she fired a shot with Mustang, blasting Yena several feet away. Sieger sprinted past her and jumped into the air, slamming his boot into Yena' face with a burst of fire. Sieger landed on the ground and looked over at Samantha with a smile.

"Together!" Sieger yelled, and Samantha nodded.

Then two sped towards Yena, who was weakened from the Hellfire kick, and Sieger and Samantha punched Yena in the stomach as hard as they could, sending the scientist hurtling down the street as a massive burst of energy was sent into his chest from the combined punch.

"Hey, not bad Sam. We make a good team" Sieger said with a grin. Samantha looked away from him, ignoring the compliment, and said "Don't think I trust you"

Sieger adjusted his shades, ever so slightly, and said "As you wish, my lady"

"Stop that!" Samantha snapped, flushing a bright shade pink.

"Bah, you're no fun" Sieger smirked.

"If you two are quite done…" a familiar voice growled in an annoyed way.

Yena was now on his feet, holding his shoulder. He was now looking as though he was wearing down. His eyes were now a dull red, flickering slightly.

"It seems as though I'm left with no alternative. You brats want a fight? I'll give you one" Yena said as he closed his eyes.

"Get ready!" Sieger said as he drew his golden pistols.

"Hyena! Time to go all out" Yena growled to his other half.

"**YES! FINALLY!"**

"Just don't get us killed. Eris wouldn't be happy about that" Yena snarled to his alter-ego, who growled in annoyance.

"**That girl…why does she matter to you so much?"** Hyena asked.

"I'm not sure…but it doesn't do well to walk the night alone. That much is clear" Yena said before he allowed Hyena complete control over his body.

"**Yes…YES! FINALLY!"** Hyena laughed as Yena's body became immersed in a crimson aura that radiated pure evil.

Sieger took aim and fired two shots, both of which tore through Hyena like it was nothing. Unfortunately, the wounds sealed up within seconds as the blood flowed back into Yena.

"**Sieger. Your death will be very…**_**very **_**satisfying" **Hyena growled as he flexed his fingers.

Nicholas slowly got to feet and glanced over at the unconscious Juliet. He stumbled to his feet in time to see Sieger and Samantha open fire on Hyena, who cackled as a series of tentacles shot at them. Sieger let loose a wave of flames that engulfed Hyena, causing his tentacles to retreat.

"J-Jess…I'm going to help Sieger and Sam. Please…watch over Juliet" Nicholas said softly, and Jess nodded.

"**You've met your match Sieger! My power is limitless, while you're still mortal!"** Hyena roared as he opened fire with Crow and Wolf, causing Sieger and Samantha to dodge.

Samantha jumped onto the side of a building and took aim with the Paralyzer she had gotten from Jason, shooting a beam of energy at Hyena, who vanished into thin air and reappeared behind Samantha, grabbing her by the skull. Samantha screamed as Hyena applied an insane amount of pressure on her head, causing Samantha to fall to her knees and fruitlessly try to pry his fingers free.

"Leave her alone!" Sieger yelled as he flew towards them, his body enveloped in a cloak of black flames as he shot through the air.

"**Checkmate"**

Sieger cried out as a sniper rifle bolt slammed into him, embedding in his chest and exploding violently. Sieger crashed onto the ground in a bloody heap, his flames finally dying away as Hyena cackled triumphantly, dropping Samantha onto the ground.

"**So…the masterpiece of Group 935…see where your ideals get you Sieger!? There is no right and wrong…there is no dark and there is no light…there is only power…and that power lies within me…"** growled as he advanced towards him. Sieger looked up and saw a tentacle holding a Scavenger, the weapon that had shot him out of the sky.

"Harvey…" Sieger choked as he slowly rose to one knee before Hyena shot him in the chest, sending him crashing onto the ground.

"**Pathetic…"** Hyena growled as he drew his hand back, pulsating with a crimson aura.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Hyena whirled around and was punched full in the face by Samantha, who was now radiating with a green aura laced with black. Hyena flipped in midair and took aim with Crow, firing several shots at the young woman, who vanished on the spot and reappeared next to him, drawing her first back and decking him in the face once more. Hyena howled in pain as he crashed onto the ground and sank into his own shadow.

"Sieger, you OK?" Kara asked as she and her father finally caught up, helping Sieger up.

"I'll…I'll be fine…just got to…heal…" Sieger gasped, pulling out a Quick Revive syringe and jamming it into the massive hole in his chest, sealing up the wound.

"We're the only ones left who can fight. Even with Quick Revive, the others are exhausted and can't fight anymore" Dempsey said to the others.

"That's…a…a little better" Sieger murmured as he got to his feet.

"You guys…stay…stay here" Sieger said softly as he stumbled forward.

"Sieger, what's wrong?" Kara asked worriedly.

"Damn it…I used too much of my powers…fighting Yena…I have to wait for them to recharge" Sieger said with a gasp as he fell to one knee.

"Come on guys! Let's go back Samantha up!" Dempsey said as he sprinted towards the fight.

"I'm right there with you dad!" Kara said as she ran after her father.

"NO!" Sieger yelled, causing the two to turn around.

"This started out as a fight between you all…but…only me and Sam can really fight Yena and Hyena. Go back and help the others. If all else fails, you can be our backup" Sieger said tiredly.

Dempsey and Kara exchanged looks, but Dempsey finally said "Got it. Come on kid"

"Right daddy" Kara said as they ran back towards the others.

"Sieger…" Nicholas said quietly as he walked over to the young man.

"Yeah?" Sieger replied.

"There's got to be a way to weaken him. Something, anything" Nicholas said quietly.

"There isn't…hitting him in his powered up form is the only way to do any lasting damage to him, but he's so powerful in it that it doesn't matter. Shadows are his sword and blood is his shield. He's practically invincible" Sieger whispered.

Nicholas sighed angrily and said "There's got to be a way to kill him. You said it yourself, nothing is unkillable"

A smile crossed Sieger's face, and he said "True…"

"RAAAAH!"

Nicholas turned around to see Samantha blast Hyena to pieces with a series of green bursts of energy that flew from her hands. Hyena laughed as she did so, and his eyes flashed red.

Nicholas gasped as he saw the rush of blood stream by him and flow into Hyena, who's wounds began to heal. As Nicholas felt a wave of hopelessness flow through him, he felt his hand rest on the tip of the Vitriolic Withering. Nicholas then realized something that made him smile.

"Shadows…and _blood_" Nicholas murmured with a grin.

Samantha ducked as a shot flew over her head, and took aim with her Mustang and shot at Hyena, who vanished into his shadow.

"COME OUT AND FIGHT!" Samantha bellowed.

"**If you insist"**

Samantha was suddenly thrown to the ground and hurled high into the air. Samantha righted herself in midair and looked up, seeing Hyena aiming his Crow and Wolf at her as he soared downwards at her.

"**Farewell!"** Hyena yelled as he opened fire on Samantha.

Samantha slung out her arms, and a wave of shimmering blue energy flashed into front of her. Hyena growled in anger as he saw a ghostly silhouette of Jason within the barrier, glaring at him.

"_A part of me, will always be with you"_ Jason whispered with Samantha's mind, and she grinned as the barrier faded.

"**So, you got a portion of Jason's abilities as well. Increased endurance and the ability to manipulate the energy in your body? And you still think you can kill me!" **Hyena roared as he flew towards Samantha, tackling her in midair and sending the two of them crashing onto the ground. Samantha cried out in pain as Hyena slammed her into the ground with enough force to send cracks racing down the street like an earthquake.

Samantha held out a palm and a burst of green energy slammed into Hyena, who went flying back into the street. Samantha stumbled out of the hole in the ground and fired at Hyena with Mustang, causing the 935 Scientist to howl in pain as the explosions engulfed him.

Samantha sprinted towards him and dove into the smoke, spearing Hyena and tackling him out of the smoke. Samantha balled up her fist, pumping as much energy as she could into it, before punching Hyena in the face.

Hyena roared in pain as Samantha's fist caused his face to explode in a shower of blood. She got to her feet as Hyena's body dissolved into darkness and began to materialize behind her. Samantha felt herself slowing down. She was powerful, but this fight was dragging on. She was wearing down like Sieger, while Hyena seemed fresh and ready for more.

"**Blood and shadows. It ALWAYS returns to blood and shadows, you stupid little girl"** Hyena growled as he pulled out his Scavenger.

Samantha got into a fighting stance and said "Not always"

Hyena scowled angrily and said **"Then you're fate is sealed"**

Hyena fired one of the bolts at Samantha, who jumped to the side as it slammed into the ground and let off a huge explosion. Samantha rolled out of her jumped and fired a shot with Mustang at Hyena, who let a shout as the shot hit him head on. Samantha pulled the trigger again, only to hear a click.

"Damn" Samantha said as she dropped the useless pistol on the ground. She couldn't waste her energy on a Max Ammo, especially when Yena and Hyena were pretty much invulnerable to gunfire anyway. She heard footsteps coming from behind her. Nicholas appeared next to her, panting slightly.

"Nicholas? You shouldn't be here" Samantha said.

"Jess is keeping an eye on Marcus and Juliet. I've got an idea. I think I know how to beat him. It's so simple" Nicholas said with a grin.

"What? How?" Samantha said in surprise.

Nicholas pulled out his Vitriolic Withering and said "All you've got to do is make him bleed. I'll take care of the rest"

Sieger reappeared next to them in a burst of flames, looking tired.

"Sieger, can you and Sam take Yena?" Nicholas asked.

"Debatable…I can barely create a flame" Sieger said tiredly.

"I just need you to make him bleed" Nicholas said with a grin.

"What good will that do? He'll just regenerate" Sieger asked.

"Just do it" Nicholas said.

Sieger nodded and looked at Samantha.

"Both of us are at our limits. We need to hit him together" Sieger said to Samantha, who nodded.

Hyena slowly walked out of the smoke, grinning widely. Sieger pulled out his pistols and opened fire on Hyena while Samantha fired a small ball of energy at Yena, who didn't even bother dodging and allowed the attacks to hit him head-on. As the blood splashed onto the ground, Nicholas took aim with his Vitriolic Withering and fired it at the blood. The pods exploded onto the ground, the acid mixing with the blood, and the mixture flowed into Hyena as one.

"**Fools…did you honestly think that weak attack could-"** Hyena suddenly cut himself off as his eyes flashed red.

"_That was fast"_ Nicholas thought in surprise.

"**What!? What…what's going on!?"** Hyena roared as his body began to shudder. He stumbled forward and crashed onto the ground weakly.

"**AGH! What is this…pain!? It hurts!"** Hyena roared.

"Shadows can't be killed. But blood…blood is what makes you human. And humans can be killed" Nicholas said as he walked forward, aiming his Vitriolic Withering at Hyena.

"**You…that weapon…you **_**poisoned**_** me?"** Hyena asked in wonder, and Nicholas nodded.

"Once that blood is in you, you can't get it out. It's spreading through your body, as is the poison" Nicholas said with a smirk. Yena was screaming in pain inside his mind as Hyena began to pant from the sheer pain coursing through them. Every part of him hurt, and every drop of blood in him was now killing him, thanks to the Vitriolic Withering's poison.

"**YOU THINK THIS IS THE END!?"** Hyena roared, getting to his feet and lunging at Nicholas, only for Samantha to punch him in the head, sending him crashing onto the ground.

"**No…NO! My body! It's…"** Hyena snarled in pain as his entire body screamed in agony. Hyena looked up and saw everyone he injured walking towards him. Jess was supporting Marcus, while Iva was being supported by both Nikolai and Joe, and everyone else he had attacked was alive and well.

"**No…NO!"** Hyena whispered as his body shuddered as the pain increased. He felt it in his black, black soul. He was dying. The very same blood that made him invincible was the very same blood that was killing him.

"Like I said before…nothing is unbeatable. Nothing is unstoppable. Nothing…is immortal" Sieger growled as he leveled his pistol at Hyena's heart and shot him. Hyena fell to one knee and smiled up at him.

"**Idiots…I…can't DIE!""**Hyena laughed manically as he rose to his feet once again his wounds sealing up like nothing, despite the horrible pain coursing through him.

Samantha suddenly lunged at Hyena, her hand radiating a black aura, and rammed her hand into Hyena's chest. The aura around him flickered and died completely, signaling Yena's control and Hyena's defeat. Yena let out a cry of pain as Samantha's hand gripped his insides with cruelly, specifically targeting his heart. Samantha's face contorted into a sadistic smile and she said "This is for Jason…Liam… and for everyone else you hurt…"

Yena smiled, even as the energy seeped into Samantha. He knew his defeat would make her stronger. She was getting closer to being able to stop Edward. Yena threw his head back and laughed even as the energy drained from his body, and was still laughing as finally Samantha let go of him and he fell to the ground.

"Heh…not bad kids…maybe you do have what it takes to stop Edward…" Yena murmured as he slowly sank into his own shadow, but not like he always did before. Yena let out a harsh breath as the blood seeped from his body, but did not return to him. Yena closed his eyes with a smile, oblivious to the glares of those he had tormented before.

"Farwell…" Yena whispered as his body disintegrated into the very darkness that he cherished so much.

Judith sighed and said "Liam…"

Jess put a hand on Judith's shoulder and said "It's OK…it's over"

"Not quite" Sieger said softly, walking over to them. Sieger jammed a syringe into his arm, injecting it with Quick Revive. He flexed his arm and said "We've got to find the node"

Samantha nodded and said in a soft voice "Why are you helping us?"

Sieger smiled at Samantha and said "Because, I have hope for humanity, unlike the Doctor. That's reason enough"

"Come on, we should meet up with the other survivors and regroup. Richtofen will enact his Grand Scheme in just a few days…we need a plan of action" Sieger said softly.

The others slowly followed Sieger back to the Survivors Camp, which was mostly undamaged in the struggle. The fight was long, and the fight was hard. But Yena was finally gone.

But…

Eris slowly stepped out from the shadows, watching the Zombie Slayers walked away. She slowly walked over to the spot where Yena had vanished, and said "My Master…"

The blond woman smiled, picking up Yena's hat off of the ground and putting it on. She tilted it slightly, to cover her face. She turned away and said softly"Blood and shadows…"

The woman suddenly vanished into her own shadow, leaving the dark and destroyed city with the thoughts of her slain master in mind.

* * *

><p><span>Meanwhile:<span>

Underground Town:

Courthouse:

* * *

><p>"Is everyone ready?" Misty asked softly.<p>

"We made the wish…we shot the targets…we did everything Maxis asked" Russman said.

"Please…" Stuhlinger whispered as he closed his eyes.

"Come on…Let's end this...once…and for all" Marlton said as walked up to a small box in the courthouse. The square box shuddered as the group approached and began to morph into a box with a circle button that said "Push" in the middle. Marlton took a shuddering breath before pressing the button.

The entire cavern shook violently and the cavern and town seemed to be bathed in a strange orangish lighting. Maxis's voice boomed from all around them.

_"The process has begun! Now I control the Aether's energy! I can, at last, reach Agartha!"_ Maxis yelled triumphantly.

_"Ah, you fools! Why did you listen to him!?"_ Richtofen yelled fearfully.

_"Regretfully, I must inform you that neither the Earth, nor its people will survive."_ Maxis said to the horrified survivors.

"What!? NO!" Misty yelled.

"AGH! Stu was right!" Russman said as the Zombies around them stopped moving in their tracks.

_"Ah, I tried so hard to warn you. DUMMKOPF!" _Richtofen said to the Stuhlinger.

_"Once the gateway is open, I will finally be reunited with my dearest Samantha!"_ Maxis said gleefully.

_"Hello? Are you forgetting something? Even if your wretched daughter is still alive, she has MY BODY!" _Richtofen yelled at Maxis.

_"If you are so eager to re-enter the physical world, Richtofen. I will grant you that wish!"_ Maxis yelled at Richtofen, who howled in pain. Stuhlinger fell to both knees as he felt Richtofen's presence vanish from his mind.

"No…" Stuhlinger whispered as Maxis began to laugh manically as the Zombie's eyes changed from blue to orange.

"Guys…" Misty said as she pulled out his Ultra and Violet.

"RUN!" Marlton screamed as they sprinted down the path back to the town, all of the Zombies converging on them. A Zombie stumbled into view with bright blue eyes, screaming loudly.

_**"What? Oh, nein! This is not how this was supposed to turn out!"**_ Richtofen howled before Misty blasted him to bits with her pistols. This ended the round, and the group took a minute to catch their breaths.

"Now what!? We're screwed!" Misty growled.

"We should've listened to Stu! Now look!" Russman growled.

"STOP!" Marlton shouted.

"This is not the time to argue. Mr. Stuhlinger was right…he was right all along. But the fact of the matter is, we made the wrong choice, and now we must live with our decisions. Now we can either succumb to the forces that have betrayed us…" Marlton said calmly.

"Or…" Marlton smiled twistedly as he shouldered his Shadowy Veil Utilizer.

"We can fight back" Marlton said with a grin as the round began. Russman and Stuhlinger back nodded, while Misty stood there staring at him.

"What?" Marlton said to Misty, who continued to stare at him.

Misty threw herself at Marlton, kissing him deeply on the lips. Marlon yelped in surprise, and because he was disgusted by it, but after a moment he wrapped his arms around Misty and returned the kiss.

"About time" Russman said as the Zombies began to spawn.

Marlton and Misty separated, panting slightly, and the group began to run past the Saloon, shooting Zombies along the way. Richtofen spawned once more as a blue-eyed Zombie, howling in pain at the sudden shift in power.

_**"Help me, Samuel! I was always a good friend to you, wasn't I?"**_ Richtofen begged as the orange-eyed Zombies surged past him.

"I'm so sorry! We should've listened!" Stuhlinger cried as they rounded the corner.

Illuzio watched intently as the group held their ground against the Zombies under Maxis's control, maneuvering across the town and fighting off the hordes. Stuhlinger had an expression of fear and regret as Richtofen howled _**"I told you! I told you he would do this!"**_

"Damn it!" Russman growled as he unloaded another round from his Ray Gun Mark II into the undead, downing a train of the Zombies as he walked past the Giant's cage.

"Russman! Behind you!" Misty cried as she jumped down the stairs, shooting at five Zombies closing in on her with her Ultra and Violet. Russman turned around to five Zombies swipe at him at once, which downed him. Russman fell to the ground with a yell as the Zombies ran over him, trying to get to the others.

"Russ! No!" Stuhlinger yelled, pulling out his Voice of Justice and blasting apart the Zombies that came at him. Stuhlinger ducked under a Zombie's swipe and punched it in the head with his Galvaknuckle before blowing its brains out.

"Come on Stupidger! This way!" Misty yelled as she sprinted down the dirt path. Stuhlinger looked back at Russman and said "I'm sorry buddy"

Marlton spun around and took aim with his Shadowy Veil Utilizer, falling to one knee and said "Stuhlinger, I'll give you cover! Just grab the old man!"

Misty glanced around and shot at the undead around them so Marlton could focus on covering Stuhlinger. Samuel gave the young man a nod and sprinted back towards the horde, which fell to Marlton's skilled aim. Stuhlinger dropped to his knees and jammed Quick Revive syringe into the wound.

"Much appreciated Stu" Russman said gratefully as Stuhlinger helped him to his feet. The duo sprinted back to the others, and they continued their frantic run from the undead.

Misty yelled out as a Zombie lashed out at her as they rounded the Courthouse, bursting through the doors. Misty stopped and proceeded to open on fire on the Zombies coming after them, putting a dent into the wave as they approached.

"That's right! How do you like me know you undead assholes!?" Misty jeered as the Zombies continued to swarm at her. She turned around and sprinted up the stairs, the Zombies hot on their tail.

Misty dashed forward, ducking her head, and watched with a grin as the Head Chopper decapitated the Zombies that walked by it, allowing the group a chance to regroup.

"What do we do? We can't keep fighting! They'll just keep coming" Stuhlinger said.

"Then we die" Russman said softly.

The three younger Zombie Slayers looked at him, and he sighed and said "I've lived a good, long life. It's a shame that things had to happen this way…it seems like evil wins after all…"

"Russ…" Stuhlinger muttered, looking down at the ground. Marlton and Misty did the same.

"But!"

The trio looked up at Russman again, but now he was smiling. He took aim with his Ray Gun Mark II and fired several short bursts, putting down several lines of Zombies.

"We might be able to find a way to fix this mess. We can't give up! Not after we've come so far!" Russman yelled as he reloaded the Ray Gun Mark II.

"I'm with you Russ. Maybe we can revert control of the Zombies back to Richtofen" Stuhlinger suggested.

"It is a possibility. The process may not yet be irreversible" Marlton agreed.

"OK, so we hold off these idiots until we come up with a way to fix this?" Misty asked, and the three men nodded.

"Works for me" Misty said cheerfully.

Illuzio couldn't help but smile as the group took aim and opened fire on the Zombies charging at them with renewed ferocity.

Mankind was terrible, yes. But there were many things that, as humans, made them special. The ability to adapt and to survive always amazed him. Illuzio looked down at Richtofen, who was struggling and actively fighting to get control back from Maxis as he stumbled around the town, and sighed.

"Oh Edward…even in this reality, you're damned to a hell you never could have dreamed of. Though this one is a more physical hell, it's a hell nevertheless" Illuzio said as he got to his feet.

Illuzio smiled at the group below, fighting off the Zombies and said "Farewell my friends. I'll see you again…in another life. I leave you a gift, to use as you will"

Illuzio snapped his fingers and a portal opened up before him. A portal that would lead him to his final journey. This was the beginning of the end for him.

Illuzio walked through the portal, casting a final spell on the Green Run Crew as they continued to slaughter the Zombies as he looked back. This spell was special, and he didn't even understand its properties entirely. The possibilities of it were endless...

He watched as a greenish light burst into the air of the area before fading slightly as it spread. As the Zombie Slayers continued to shoot and survive, he smiled. Because even though they had been betrayed, even though the end was nigh and the odds were against them.

The sure as hell weren't going to die without a fight.

This mindset filled each one of them, even as the green light filled the cave. Stuhlinger watched as a strange man walked through a shimmering portal and said "That guy again…I wonder who he is?"

"Come on Stu! This way!" Russman yelled as they sprinted towards the Witches house.

Stuhlinger followed the man into the house, slamming the doors shut behind them. Richtofen howled again in misery before saying _**"This is not the end Maxis! I will have my revenge! Even if I have to go back against everything I swore to do! You will not destroy this world!"**_

A green light flashed before Richtofen, who looked at it curiously as he turned around. The green light slowly condensed into a small ball of pure light. Richtofen slowly stumbled towards the light, eyeing it with wonder.

"_**This…this is magic…magic in its purest form…yes…this…this I can use…to fix everything!"**_ Richtofen murmured as he closed his Zombified hands around the orb of green light.

"B_**egin…anew!"**_ Richtofen whispered as the light sent a blinding wave of energy through the area, causing Richtofen to vanish on the spot, leaving the others to fend for themselves against Maxis and his undead minions.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>So, you all may be wondering, why did I end this so ambiguously.<em>

_Because the story isn't done just yet. The Green Run Crew's Saga hasn't ended, so who knows how it could play out? I took the route of mystery, which in the end works for me quite well._

_I hope you liked the chapter, and I'm sorry again for the lateness. School starts up tomorrow for me and I'm having to post this very late at night. I'll edit it and correct all mistakes later this week._

_Please leave a review and tell me what you thought!_

_Make sure to follow me on Twitter at FlygonNick to stay updated on the story, and to hear me ramble incoherently._

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	36. Call to Arms

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Sorry about the delay guys, it's been a rough first few weeks of school for me, and I haven't been able to write as much which drives me insane._

_Now that we've got that out of the way…_

_WHAT THE HELL!? WHAT THE F*CKING HELL MAN!?_

_The ending…the ending to Origins…what the hell!?_

_I refuse to accept that as the true ending. SERIOUSLY!? WHAT THE HELL!?_

_I have been able to work with what new info I've been given with every new map, but this…_

_Sigh…_

_If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't look it up. Just remain blissfully unaware of how badly Treyarch screwed up._

_Also, Origins in general is __incredibly confusing__, and is stretching things even for Zombies. Maxis having his brain cut out, Giant Robots, and Samantha being in the Aether and sent from the future to the past…just…just confusing. I might not cover Origins, simply because twisting it to my own ends may prove to be too challenging for me. It also might just be doing what I've done with his story as well._

_I'll keep you posted._

_The following chapter involves Time Travel, which as you know is a central part of the Zombies storyline. Just roll with it, because it's a tad complicated and doesn't follow physics or time rules, per say. _

_That's the fun thing about magic. It doesn't always follow the rules._

_Also, I've updated chapter 1 of Apocalypse, so now that I've actually started doing this, more chapters will be updated and corrected as well. Feel free re-read the earlier chapters, and if you're feeling awesome, review them and tell me whether the updates made the chapter better or not. For every update, I'll let you know which chapters have been updated/re-uploaded whenever I update a new chapter. I'll finish the revisions before I start my next project._

_Anyway, shoutout to the awesome people who reviewed last chapter, which includes Dustchu,_ _tjelledge262,_ _katerinavalentine62601, Lord rage quit, lolperson2, Princess Shahnaz (AKA Serena and Abella), Trapinchh, Bu11etB1iss115, Killz718, a new guest reviewer named silverrandoman, BobbyD, another new guest reviewer known as XxXYoyoyoXxX, Noskansho (You have no idea how happy I am to see another early reviewer pop up. Good to hear from you again!), and MetaKnight0011. Thanks for the support guys. Your feedback keeps this story going, which keeps me sane…more or less._

_Since this chapter was so late, I figured I'd do something I've been putting off for a while now. An AMA (Ask me Anything)._

_Here's how it works. Once you finish reading the chapter, you leave a review. In that review, just ask me a question. The limit will be two questions per reviewer. This can be about myself, the story, future works, ANYTHING. Come. At. Me. Bro._

_Alright, here's the chapter. _

_Enjoy._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 36: Call to Arms<span>

"_It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it"-_ Martin Luther King, Jr.

* * *

><p><span>Flashback:<span>

Location: Der Reise:

* * *

><p>"That's right you slimy flesh sores! DON'T F*CK WITH A MARINE!" Dempsey yelled as he bashed another Zombie in the head with his Galil and shot it in the head, blowing its skull apart with a savage grin.<p>

"Good shooting Dempsey! Now if you could only hit the other Zombies like that!" Richtofen laughed, gleefully blasting Zombies apart with his Thompson.

"DIE FOUL DEMONS!"

"Shut it Takeo!"

Nikolai and Takeo ran out of the building, machine guns firing into it like no tomorrow. The group heard a growl of annoyance from Samantha, the demon child who was trying to kill them all for reasons they didn't even know. They knew the Doctor had something to do with the Zombies…but what was his connection to Samantha?

Richtofen skillfully ducked under a Zombie swipe and slashed at it with his knife, killing it. He spun around and unloaded another clip of his Calamity and Jane into the rampaging undead, mowing them down effortlessly. Richtofen quickly reloaded and glanced around.

"Samantha! You vill have to try harder than that! AHAHAHAHA!" Richtofen cackled.

"Doc! Stop taunting her and get back to killing!" Dempsey yelled as he pulled out a Python and started blowing the heads off of Zombies, particularly the ones that had him surrounded.

"Ja Dempsey" Richtofen replied with a smirk as he pulled out a Wunderwaffe DG-2 and aimed it at the growing horde. 35 waves of Zombies, and they were beginning to tire. Richtofen pulled the trigger and began to laugh manically as the lightning bolt flew out from the Wonder Weapon and vaporized the horde attacking Dempsey.

Samantha's presence faded as the last Zombie fell, and the group let out a collective sigh of relief. The girl had exhausted herself attacking them, and was now recuperating. She'd be at it again in the morning, but for now they could rest without fear for their lives, and could explore the facility with ease now.

Nikolai popped open a bottle of his precious and never-ending supply of vodka and chugged it down. Dempsey gave him a look and said "Hey, you wanna share that?"

"No" Nikolai replied, mid-swig.

Dempsey walked over to the Russian and kicked him in the nuts before snatching a new bottle from him and chugging it down thirstily. Nikolai snarled at Dempsey and said "No one touches my vodka!"

Nikolai lunged at Dempsey and two soldiers began to roll on the ground, screaming obscenities in Russian and in English at each other. Takeo chuckled and said "It seems as though some things, do not change"

"That is true" Richtofen said quietly as the two soldiers sat down, breathing sighs of relief that they could take small break from the fighting.

"_**You did this Edward…"**_

"_**All your fault…"**_

"_**Kill them all…"**_

Richtofen scowled and said "I'm going for a walk"

"Of course" Takeo murmured as the Doctor got to his feet and walked off. He passed the Speed Cola machine and muttered "If only the voices could stop! I cannot think straight anymore!"

He then heard a scream. It was faint, but he picked up on it right away.

"Zhat voice…is that Sophia?" Richtofen murmured.

Edward quickly jumped through a hole in a nearby barrier and made his way to a small passageway, where the scream had come from. It was a large stretch of plan wall, seemingly plain and concealing nothing.

"Of course…I nearly forgot…I told them to hide…good work Illuzio" Richtofen murmured as he walked over to the patch of wall and placed his palm on it. A small dial immerged through the wall, showing a series of numbers.

"_Greetings. Please enter the security code"_ a voice asked him.

Richtofen tapped in the security code 1-1-5 and the wall shuddered and moved up, revealing a hidden passageway. Richtofen sealed the entranceway and made his way down to a small room with a locked and chained door.

Richtofen put his ear to the door and listened.

"Damn it…she's overrun the entire compound!" Richtofen heard Yena growl.

"She's killed everyone…except us. Good thing we found Sophia when we did. That was some good shooting there Sophia…how you managed to kill so many while hurt like that is insane…And Illuzio…good thing the Doctor trusts you so much. Who would've thought he had this bunker built underneath the facility?" Porter said with a sigh of relief.

"Yes, the Doctor was clever, making this bunker. I doubt the Zombies can find us here…we should be safe for a while" Illuzio said cheerfully.

"Aha! So you all did survive zhen!" Richtofen exclaimed from behind the door.

"Doctor Richtofen!"

The door quickly opened, revealing the relieved faces of Harvey Yena, Henry Porter, Illuzio, and Sophia. Yena ran up to Richtofen and said "Thank god you're alive! They've taken over the compound!"

"Really? I hadn't noticed" Richtofen said sarcastically.

"What's happened Edward?" Sophia asked softly.

Richtofen sighed and said "Henry and Harvey know, but we failed to take control of the M.P.D. Samantha unlocked its power and can control all of the Zombies…we threatened her with Maxis, but he ordered her to kill us…so we killed him and ran for it" Richtofen explained.

"So…Ludvig is gone then…" Sophia murmured.

"After he raped you and left you for dead, I'm surprised you care" Illuzio said in a curious tone.

"I'm not one for needless slaughter" was all Sophia said.

"It doesn't matter" Porter scowled.

"You all must leave. I will deal with Samantha myself. My super-solider subjects will protect me along the way" Richtofen said.

"So, you went along with the experiments?" Sophia asked in an odd tone.

"Yes. And they were a complete success" Richtofen said with a smile.

"incredible…Edward, you did it! With this, we could improve the human condition! We could do so much with this!" Sophia said happily, bouncing on her heels.

Richtofen frowned slightly and said "Well, we could do zhat eventually"

"What do you mean?" Sophia asked.

"I was planning on perfecting it first, Sophia. Element 115 is so unpredictable, as you all know. Once I gain control of the Zombies, and get Samantha and her meddling father out of the way…I will focus on perfecting the process. But we must focus on the matter at hand, my dear" Richtofen said as walked into the bunker, looking around.

"I do not know if Maxis is gone for good or not. His death was swift, but his soul could trouble us in the future" Richtofen said softly.

"You think he's in the M.P.D?" Yena asked.

"It is a theory. I will have to make my way back to the Griffin Station soon…Maxis will mostly likely try to get to Samantha, just to stop me. It will take time however, and he is weak…how to proceed?" Richtofen wondered aloud. The other members of Group 935 looked at their new leader with wonder, before Illuzio spoke up.

"We could extract his soul from the M.P.D. with a soul steal spell" Illuzio said softly.

"You can do that?" Yena asked.

"Magic my friend. It is indeed capable of doing the impossible" Illuzio said cheerfully as the others turned to him.

"Yes…that could work…OK, here is the plan" Richtofen said, facing the loyal ones who followed him.

"Illuzio, follow my movements carefully, even if I go through time itself, keep tabs on me. Your help will be essential if we are to stop Samantha. Help me and my experiments stay alive however you can. Do you understand?" Richtofen said seriously, and Illuzio nodded. Richtofen pointed to the remaining 935 members.

"Take them to the future, to a point where the undead are much fewer, and this has all ended. Leave the others in that time, and return to me. You will help me fix this mess" Richtofen said to the jester, who grinned happily and bowed to the Doctor.

"Of course. I will do whatever I must to aid in your quest, my friend" Illuzio murmured. Richtofen grasped Illuzio shoulders, and glint of admiration and respect in his eyes hidden under the madness. Richtofen cared for the jester and considered him to be an invaluable ally and friend.

"First Samantha, then Maxis…" Richtofen whispered with a wide grin.

"Then the world" Illuzio finished, and the two laughed as the others watched on. Clearly the two knew each other very well.

"Ah, mine friend. It saddens me that such misfortune had to befell you. You are a God among men you are" Richtofen said with a sigh, and Illuzio's merry face darkened considerably.

"Yes…fate seems to be cruel. I am the last of those blessed with the magical gift, I have lost everything that made my life worth living…I only feel happiness from helping you, my friend, complete your ambitions" Illuzio whispered.

Sophia felt a pang of sympathy for Illuzio, who seemed to have a very terrible past, and felt her respect for Richtofen rise. Apparently he was a caring person underneath the growing madness that had enveloped him. Maybe it was just the M.P.D.'s influence that had corrupted him…maybe, just maybe…

Who knows what sort of person he'd be if he hadn't gone mad when he touched the device…

"Yena, Porter, Sofia. You three are among the last surviving members of Group 935. Porter, Yena…I trust that you both stand by me?" Richtofen said looking back at them.

"Of course" Porter said with a nod.

Yena thought about it for moment and said "I'll stand by you until the end, Edward"

Richtofen turned to Sofia, who starred the doctor in the eyes. His electric blue gaze was piercing, and he sighed deeply before speaking.

"Sofia…will you stand by me?" Richtofen asked slowly.

Sofia considered the proposal. She had been Maxis's secretary, his assistant. When Maxis lashed out at her, and committed the unthinkable, she had lost all loyalty him in that moment. Sophia remembered that it was Richtofen who had saved her and seen to it she was healed.

"Yes, Edward. I will stand by you" Sophia said softly. Richtofen grinned at that and said "Ah! It is done! Group 935 will rise once again, even stronger than before!"

"But first, Samantha…" Porter reminded Richtofen.

"But first…Samantha…" Richtofen agreed.

"_**AHAHAHAHAHA!"**_

The scientists flinched at the sound of the evil voice. It wasn't Samantha…it was something else. Something darker…

Something stronger.

"What was that!?" Richtofen said, drawing his Wunderwaffe DG-2.

"I'll take a look" Yena said as he pulled out a Ray Gun, walking out of the room. The others looked at each other before Richtofen began to confide in him the rest of the plan.

Yena scowled and sealed the pathway, slowly making his way outside. He ducked out of sight as Tank came by, scowling and aiming through the barrier that led to the secret passageway.

"That laugh…this place gives me the creeps" Dempsey muttered as he walked back to the Mainframe.

"That was close…that laugh came from over here" Yena murmured.

"_**BAH! I'm back at Der Reise!"**_ a familiar voice growled in annoyance.

"Richtofen!?" Yena said curiously as he rounded a corner.

Yena turned the corner and his jaw dropped.

Before him was a Zombie, rotted and dead, with bright blue glowing eyes and wearing a cowboy getup. It held a hard orb of green light that gave off a powerful aura. The Zombie's face contorted into a terrifying grin and said _**"Harvey Yena…it has been too long mine friend!"**_

"Edward!? Is…is that you…?" Yena whispered.

"_**Ah…it seems in this dimension, you are alive…strange. I killed you in the other one! Ahahahaha!"**_ Richtofen said in Yena's mind with an odd laugh.

"What's going on!?" Yena growled as he leveled the Ray Gun at Richtofen's head.

The Zombie raised its hand and said _**"Harvey, I can explain. Come this way and we can discuss this like men"**_

"Why should I listen to you?" Yena asked cautiously, Ray Gun still raised.

"_**Because you would be dead before you got the chance to pull the trigger" **_

"…Fine. But this better be good" Yena growled as the Zombie with a man's soul grinned widely, showing a row of rotted teeth. Yena lowered the Wonder Weapon, and Richtofen began his tale.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

New York City:

Survivors Camp:

* * *

><p>Sieger sighed as he watched the remaining survivors scour the city, burning the dead and mourning the lost. Fluffy patrolled the street, taking out any undead that wandered towards the injured and tired survivors.<p>

Sieger got to his feet, wincing as his wounds sent a spike of pain in his chest, and slowly walked down the pile of debris. It had only been a few hours since Samantha had killed Yena, and he was exhuated from the two fights he had been in.

He walked through the camp, walking past survivors who glanced at him, but other than that they left him be. He slowly made his way to the edge of the camp and glanced down at the young woman siting down on the rock.

"Sieger" Samantha said softly.

"You OK?" Sieger asked.

Samantha sighed and said "I don't know"

Sieger sighed as well and said "So, how're you coping with Harvey's powers?"

Samantha wordlessly lifted her hand into the air, and a long shadowy tendril appeared from out of the ground. It reached towards Sieger and tried to take off his glasses, to which Sieger dispersed the shadow tendril with a burst of fire. Samantha shot Sieger a look and said "How do you know so much?"

Sieger offered her a wan smile and said "I grew up with Group 935, and I know quite a bit. I'll explain later…in the meantime, we need you to be at your best, because Harvey was right"

Samantha gave him a confused look and said "You knew Richtofen, before any of us did. If anyone of us has the right to kill him, and right his wrongs, it's you Samantha"

Samantha got to her feet and said "And how am I supposed to do that!?"

Sieger blinked in surprise at the girl's anger and said "Was it something I said?"

"No…in fact I want to thank you for helping us…you saved the others…you saved us from the Blizzard Zombie…from Yena…thank you" Samantha said quietly. Sieger nodded, and Samantha continued.

"But…what if I can't stop Richtofen? I couldn't stop him the first time, or the second time. I only managed to kill Porter and Yena because I had help"

"We all need a little help sometimes" Sieger said with a grin.

Samantha smiled to herself and said "Maybe…"

"See? Smile" Sieger said with a grin.

"So…who are you?" Samantha asked.

"Who am I?" Sieger repeated, and Samantha nodded.

"I'd tell you, but it's really not that important. Just know that I'm someone who can be trusted. Truthfully, I know how this all happened and why it's happening…it's not a pretty story" Sieger said as he adjusted his sunglasses. Samantha once again wondered why he wore those glasses, considering it was still night outside.

Sieger looked up at the moon and sighed again. He starred upward at the moon for a few moments before saying "Sometimes…I wonder what life would be like…if Element 115 never existed…"

"Maybe I would have never existed…maybe I would have grown up a normal guy. Gone to school, get a job. Get a girlfriend. You know, normal stuff?"

Samantha scoffed and said "Element 115 IS my life. There's no delusions from this girl…it took everything away from me…hell, I'm just using someone else's body now…"

"Are you?" Sieger said, sounding surprised.

Samantha explained background story the comatose girl who's body she now possessed, and her brother. Sieger nodded as Samantha finished her tale and said "I bet the transition was very difficult"

"It was at first…but I'm getting used to it" Samantha said.

"What's the hardest part of having a body again?" Sieger asked curiously.

"The idea that no matter what, I'm using someone else's body" Samantha growled softly. Sieger could sense the anger in her voice and looked at her in concern.

"Something wrong?" Sieger asked as Samantha got to her feet and stormed away. Sieger ran after her and grabbed her by the arm. Samantha whirled around and smacked the young man in the face, sending him sprawling onto the ground. Sieger hissed in pain and sat up wearing a scowl.

"I was only trying to help!" Sieger barked at the girl, who looked ashamed.

"I know…it's just…" Samantha sighed and said "You wouldn't understand…"

Sieger got to his feet and said in a tired tone "Try me. There's very little I don't understand Samantha"

"Even if we manage to kill Richtofen…even of things return to normal…I'll never have a normal life. I'll never have anyone else who I can talk to about my…abilities. No one to relate to…I'm alone. My father…his mind is almost gone, and I can't risk talking to him because it'll weaken him further…"

Samantha looked away, and realized something else.

"I'll never find anyone else who understands…who…who'll love me…for who and what I am…" Samantha confessed in a whisper.

It had been something she could never stop dwelling on, ever since she got a body. Hell, she'd been thinking about it long before that.

The idea that she was using someone else's physical body was certainly better than being a ghost, but it still meant that she was not in her own body…if she were to ever pursue any romantic interests, which were thoughts she had entertained over the past few days, then they would only see her for the borrowed body she had, and not for the person that lay within the body.

"What do you mean?" Sieger asked in a soft voice.

"If I were to get together with someone…they would be loving the person inside of another's body. It…it's weird. It's wrong…it's…" Samantha struggled for words and managed to say "They would be attracted to the body of someone else, and not me…it's too weird…"

Samantha sighed, wearing a miserable look on her face and said "I'm such a freak…"

"No you're not"

Samantha slowly looked over at Sieger, who was smiling at her. Samantha felt something in her when he did that. Something stirring in her…it felt…odd…

"Being special…does not make you a freak. If all of mankind were freaks, then this world would be a better place, I think" Sieger said in a soothing manner.

"I'm still just using someone else's body. I could never find someone who loves me for who I am" Samantha said bitterly.

"I wouldn't say that…have you looked in a mirror lately?" Sieger asked.

Samantha shook her head and said "No, I haven't. With everything that's been going on, I don't really have time to make sure my borrowed hair is straight"

"Maybe you should. You might be surprised by what you find" Sieger said as he got to his feet and walked away.

Samantha huffed angrily and got to her feet, stomping off into the No Man's Land. She stormed past Judith, who was playing around with Yena's Scavenger. The Devastator had been destroyed during the fight with Yena, and she had taken to using the sniper rifle Wonder Weapon now.

Samantha noticed some of the survivors following her, worried no doubt about her attitude, so she ducked into an alleyway and into a nearby clothing store to lose them.

"What did he mean…?" Samantha murmured as she walked into the main part of the store. It was fairly empty, with everything being used by the survivors for one reason or another. Samantha searched the store until she found a large full-length mirror. There were some cracks and bloodstains on it, for whatever reason, but it would do for what Samantha wanted.

She walked up to it and looked at her reflection for a few moments. She then took a step backwards and gasped in surprise, because what she saw looking back at her was not the face of the girl who's body she was now using.

It seemed as though over the course of the past few days, her appearance had been slowly changing. It seemed as though her body had changed to fit Samantha in more ways than she had expected. Her nose was slightly larger, and she had dark shimmering eyes instead of bright green ones. Other, more subtle changes had taken place as well, such as her hair becoming somewhat shorter and more smooth and silky, and a small scar appeared on her neck that wasn't there a few days ago, but was faded like it had been received years ago.

"I look like…myself. Like if I had my old body, and…grew into an adult" Samantha said in wonder.

Samantha continued to inspect her appearance, grinning widely. Once she was content with how her appearance looked, Samantha starred at herself in the mirror for a few moments in wonder.

"I look…pretty" Samantha realized with surprise. She had never dreamed she'd have a body again fifty years ago, let alone one that had become a semblance of her old body...no…this _was _her body. This body represented who she was, and what she had become. Samantha let out a small sigh of relief as a sense of closure washed over her.

Samantha smiled to herself as she walked back onto the street, only to yelp in surprise at Sieger, who was leaning against a nearby wall, looking at her.

"Were you following me!?" Samantha demanded from Sieger, who shrugged.

"Merely curious as to what your reaction would be. I take it your happy with your body?" Sieger asked.

"Y-yes" Samantha admitted.

"It's adapted to your soul…or at least that's what my theory is. Element 115 is a very interesting thing, isn't it?" Sieger said softly, snapping his fingers and creating a black flame before snuffing it out with a wave of his hand.

"Yeah…so, what now?" Samantha asked as she began to walk back to the Camp. Sieger fell in step next to her, and the two walked together. Sieger shrugged and said "Destroy the node. I know where it is, and it's not all that far. After that, we need to find a way to get to California, and stop Richtofen"

"And find a way to kill him while we're at it" Samantha added.

"Yep. We don't have much time left, so let's get to it" Sieger said to Samantha, who nodded in agreement, and with that the duo made their way back to the survivor's camp.

Meanwhile:

"And that's why I'm never, _ever _allowed back into SeaWorld" Nick finished.

"Why did you jump in again?" Alex asked curiously.

"…to this day, I still don't have an answer" Nick admitted.

"HEY!"

The group turned to see Sieger and Samantha walking through the rubble. Samantha was looking distinctly cheerful, while Sieger seemed satisfied about something.

"We're going to take down the last node. Who wants to come with?" Sieger asked.

Nick, Kara, Jess, Iva, Joe, Nicholas, and Juliet. The others elected to stay behind and keep watch with the remaining survivors, who were currently being treated for injuries sustained during the massive fight. While Nick, Iva, and Juliet weren't a hundred percent, they were determined to help out. Sieger led the group through the No Man's Land and down several streets, walking down the abandoned streets with a frown on his face.

"To think…one man did all of this…" Sieger said softly as he pulled out both of his pistols.

"Hey, what's the deal with those pistols?" Juliet asked Sieger.

Sieger grinned and said "They're enchanted pistols, imbued with some of the strongest destruction and light spells imaginable. They're enchanted to slay evil and destroy darkness, or at least that's what Illuzio told me..."

"Illuzio made those?" Samantha asked curiously.

"Yeah. I call them Fatum and Lux. Lux has a more gold-like look to it, while Fatum has more silver in its design rather than gold" Sieger said as he showed the others his two pistols.

"What about the sword?" Nicholas asked.

"The sword was something Illuzio brought with him from his own time period. It was made by some legendary smith in his time…he called it Glorious" Sieger said as he summoned the sword with a flash of fire. It had the look of one of the Dwarven Swords from Skyrim, except that black flames raced down it, along with white runes ran down it.

"Cool" Iva said with a grin.

"We're here" Sieger said suddenly, dispelling the sword and redrawing his pistols.

The group had arrived at an abandoned two story building, that looked rather un-unique or sinister. The other's looked at it in confusion, while Samantha shivered.

"So much power…" Samantha murmured.

"There's a rather large amount of Element 115 in there. The node here is the one that has the widest range of the nodes. It's why the city got decimated in the manner it did" Sieger said.

"Hey Sam, you need a weapon?" Joe asked the woman, who shrugged. Joe pulled out an Ultra, which she took with a nod.

"I should go in first" Sieger said to the others, who shrugged and allowed him to go ahead. Sieger walked up to the glass doors, smiling slightly.

"Illuzio's illusion spells are incredible…you'd think it was just some abandoned building…" Sieger ran his finger down the slit between the two doors. The slit glowed bright white before the doors opened. Sieger took one step into the building before two figures jumped down from above.

"REAAAAH!" the two Screecher Zombies screamed as they lunged at Sieger. Sieger ducked under a slash and kicked the Zombie in the neck, blasting it away with a burst of hellfire. Samantha ran up to the other Zombie quick as a slash and punched it in the face, sending it flying across the room, dead with a broken neck.

"Nice job" Sieger said as Samantha turned to look at him. Samantha turned away, and Nicholas could have sworn he saw her blushing.

Nicholas glanced over at Juliet, who winked at him in response. Nicholas turned away, thinking privately that Samantha may be suffering from a certain human emotion that he was familiar with, specifically when he looked at Juliet.

Sieger looked around the room carefully, as if searching for something. After a moment he said "The Doctor doesn't like to have Zombies guard his stuff. He considers everyone else complete idiots that have no chance of finding his labs. So-"

"It'll be easy as pie to get in there and smash up the node!" Jess said cheerfully.

"In a nutshell, yeah. Pretty much" Sieger admitted as he walked over to a stretch of wall. He pulled back his fist and punched the wall. A small hallway appeared in a flash of light behind the wall that he punched.

"This way" Sieger said as he took a few steps down the hallway.

The hallway was pure white, and seemed to go on for ages. Sieger scowled and said "Damn it…its booby trapped"

"Hehe. You said booby" Nick said snickered, earning a kick from Jess in the shin.

"Shut it numbnuts" Nicholas muttered under his breath.

"Hehe...numbnuts" Jess giggled.

As if on cue, eight automated turrets immerged form the wall and opened fire on the group. Samantha jumped in front of Sieger and thre her hands out, a ball of blue lightning energy flowing in front of her and blocking the gunfire.

"Thanks" Sieger said gratefully. Samantha nodded in response while Sieger aimed his pistls at the turrets.

"Drop the barrier enough for me to jump over and shoot out the turrets" Sieger instructed.

"OK"

Sieger jumped over the top of the barrier and blasted apart the turrets with very little effort. As the bits of metal fell onto the ground, Sieger landed in a crouch.

"Come on, this-" Sieger began to say before more turrets came out of the wall and opened fire. Sieger swore and shot out two more of them.

"Just move!" Sieger said in an annoyed tone, and the others followed him, amused at him getting annoyed.

Sieger continued to blast his way through the armed turrets, shooting through them with a careful yet speedy aim. The others watched on in awe as he walked down the hallway, shooting like crazy. He released the two empty clips from Lux and Fatum, reloaded, and continued to shoot out the turrets.

"He's awesome!" Jess said cheerfully as she led the way, skipping ahead past the destroyed parts.

Jess skipped into the next room, let out a yelp and sprinted back towards the others.

"ERMAHGAWD! ZOMBIE!" Jess yelled.

"What the hell did she say?" Nick asked.

A figure dropped in from the ceiling again. This time it was a Blade Zombie, dressed in a tattered suit and a steel helmet. It snarled at the group, who raised their weapons as one.

As the Zombie took a step forward, Jess, Iva, and Lara opened fire with their guns, blasting the Zombie repeatedly until it fell to one knee.

"Did we get it?" Jess asked.

"Nope. It's faking. See?" Sieger said as he took a few steps towards the Zombie, which lunged at him and slashed at him. Sieger exploded in a burst of fire and reappeared above the Zombie shooting it twice with Fatum in the neck. Samantha opened fire with Ultra as Nicholas took aim with the Vitriolic Withering and shot at the Blade Zombie, which snarled as the pods latched onto its swords. The pods exploded, showering it with acid, but somehow the Zombie remained standing. It continued to stalk Sieger, slashed and stabbing at him as he swiftly dodged its attacks.

Sieger ducked as the Blade Zombie stabbed at him and punched it in the skull, sending it stumbling backwards as flames trailed from his fist. Juliet sprinted by him and jumped into the air, chainsaw raised high. She brought it down and began to tear through the powerful Zombie with a wide smile. She ended the maneuver with a wink as she posed in front of her chainsaw as the Blade Zombie's corpse crashed onto the ground.

"Well, I'm aroused" Nicholas said as Juliet sauntered over to him.

"I didn't know girls killing stuff got you hot and bothered Nicholas" Joe snickered.

"I like it when Juliet kills stuff" Nicholas said as Juliet laughed and gave him a kiss on the cheek, causing him to flush pink.

"Come on. It should be through here" Sieger said as he walked into the next room, one of his pistols gripped firmly in hand. Jess followed him into the next room, along with Nick.

Samantha smiled at Sieger's retreating figure and said "He's quite capable, isn't he?"

"You have no idea" Kara said with a grin as she walked into the next room, where the node was.

It was a large chamber with a large chunk of the 115 meteorite, only this time there were strange blue chunks of glowing rock in it, along with intricate symbols. Samantha gasped in surprise and Nicholas caught her say to herself "It's just the one…all those years ago…"

"What did you say?" Sieger asked Sam, who shook her head.

"How do we destroy it?" Nicholas asked, shouldering his Vitriolic Withering.

"Simple. Samantha, grab that metal tube over there" Sieger said, pointing to a red glowing tube that was locked in place onto the wall.

Samantha pulled it free from the wall, and held it out to Sieger, who shook his head. Sieger walked over to another nearby metal tube and pulled it free from the wall. He attached the tube to his chest, and nodded at Samantha to do the same.

Sieger walked over to a nearby terminal, the tube still locked in place, and said "I can shift the power of the meteorite to instead go into you and me, rather than into the northeastern U.S. This will amplify our abilities, as well as destroy the node itself"

"Guys, you may want to step back" Sieger warned the others, who obeyed.

"You ready?" Sieger asked Samantha, who nodded.

Sieger pulled down on a lever at the terminal and the entire node flashed blue, then red, before finally settling on green. Samantha and Sieger screamed in agony as energy poured into them. The others nervously watched as the raw power of the meteorite was transferred into the two 115 Conduits. Eventually the meteorite stopped glowing as frequently, only managed a dim glow every minute or so.

Sieger and Samantha both collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily. Sieger stumbled to his feet, still panting, and began to type on a nearby keyboard. After he finished he fell to his knees and crashed onto the ground.

"Sam, you OK?" Nicholas asked, helping her up.

"I'm OK…I'm OK" Sam murmured.

John and Kara helped Sieger up, and he leaned heavily against them. After a moment he managed to stand on his own, still breathing heavily.

"That was…intense" Sieger muttered as he steadied himself.

"Not really…it was just a lot of energy" Samantha said as she flexed her hands.

"You're more suited for absorbing the energies of Element 115 than I am Samantha" Sieger replied as he slowly walked over to the others.

"Now that that's done with, we need to find a way to California. We've got only a few days left" Joe said.

"We can't fit everyone in the RV. We need something a bit bigger" Iva replied.

"I've got an idea…I think. I'll get back to you on that" Joe said with a devious smile. Iva grinned in response, knowing that he was going to get all high-tech.

"Next order of business is to rally the remainder of the United States to join us in California to fight Richtofen. Richtofen gains millions of new minions every day. We'll need all the help we can get" Sieger said to the others.

"Any ideas?" Nicholas asked the others, who shrugged. Nick grinned however and said "I do"

"Does it involve Chuck Norris?" Joe asked.

"No. Why would you ask that?" Nick asked, sounding confused.

"…Sometimes, I understand why Liam wanted to strangle you" Nicholas asked. Iva and Kara were both currently keeping Joe from strangling Nick with the Fists of Thor. Iva managed to placate Joe by whispering something into is ear, and he managed to restrain himself form harming Nick.

"Listen. Richtofen did that speech in front of the entire world. Everyone knows who he is, and what his message is. What if we did the same thing, except with Sam instead, with our _own message_?" Nick suggested.

"That's…" Sieger trailed off, grinning faintly.

"That's a great idea!" Juliet said cheerfully, high-fiving Nick.

"Yeah. Any help we can get would be awesome. How would we do it though?" Nicholas asked Nick.

"Are you kidding? Let's go to the ABC News Headquarters. There's more than enough there to get our message out" Nick said with a grin as he walked out of the room.

Sieger chuckled under his breath and said "Isn't he the comic relief guy?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean he can't come up with some damn good ideas" Nicholas said following Nick out.

"Did Sieger just break the fourth wall?" Jess asked Joe, who nodded.

"Come on guys, we've got some airtime to take advantage off" Joe said with a grin.

* * *

><p>ABC News HQ:<p>

One Hour Later:

* * *

><p>"Wow…cool…" Joe said as they walked into the studio. The place was relatively easy to get inside off, since everyone had left the building in a panic. All of the equipment was still running perfectly.<p>

"I took a tour of the place last year. My dad knows some of the big wigs here, so we got to come into the studio. It was pretty cool" Nick admitted.

Nick, Nicholas, Juliet, Jess, Sieger, Samantha, Vice, Starch, and Serenity made their way through the studio. Some of the other survivors were making sure all of the generators were going strong. Joe and Iva were down with some of the other survivors, using the Wunderwaffe to overcharge the generators.

"Yeah. Come here, I'll get it set up" Vice said as he walked over to a nearby camera.

"Think we can boost the signal?" Starch asked Serenity. The English girl nodded and dashed over to a nearby panel and began to mess with it. Starch shook his head, but didn't bother to say anything.

"So, who's taking center stage?" Nicholas asked the group.

"I will. This began with me…I guess it's only fitting that I do this" Samantha offered.

Sieger nodded and said "Come on guys…let's give the world a show"

* * *

><p><span>Meanwhile:<span>

Red made his way through the rubble, aiming through his Shadowy Veil Utilizer with a soft growl. The Zombies had torn this city to pieces. He made his way to the top of a pile of rubble and sat down, sighing deeply.

The city was completely destroyed at this point. According to the radio broadcasts that he had been listening to, a good third of the population of the entire United States had been decimated. The Zombie population was growing by the millions, despite any and all efforts to contain them. The Armed forces could hold them off at best, but the Reclaimers were giving the National Guard problems.

Red adjusted his mask, closing his red eyes for a moment, before opening them at the sound of a familiar voice.

"Attention, people of the world!"

Red's head snapped up and his eyes darted to the nearby screen in Times Square. He starred at the black eyed girl on the screen in surprise, and was even more surprised when he saw she was smiling.

"My name…is Samantha. Samantha Maxis…some of you may know me, from a video game…some of you may know what I've been through…but all of you…"

"Know of Edward Richtofen" Samantha said, her smile fading away.

"Some of you probably didn't believe it when he spoke to you all, just a few days ago. But look at what he's done to the United States…in just a little over a week, he has destroyed an entire country, and he will not stop there" Samantha said in a soft voice.

Red watched on, seeing the pain in her eyes. What the girl must have been through…

Samantha sighed and said "He will continue his rampage, until the end of the week. When the clock strikes midnight on the seventh day, he will carry out his plan. He will kill everyone who does not pledge themselves to him..."

Clutch Odd, Jared, Jordan and Emmanuel joined Red, watching the screen. Little did the group know that this message was being broadcasted to not just the entire United States…but the world.

"Whenever someone, anyone, raises their hands into the air and pledges themselves to Richtofen's cause, they only make him stronger. You're giving up your soul to a madman!" Samantha said fiercely.

"Some of you have given up hope…some of you have given up, and have pledged your loyalty to Richtofen…to his Kingdom…this Kingdom comes at the cost of millions upon millions of the innocent. Do they deserve to suffer, just because the world is the way it is…?"

"This world has its share of good and evil. The good seem to suffer, while the evil get their way. The evil get away with terrible, awful things…while the good die young…it's a sad fact of life. But there's always hope for change…"

"Richtofen…Uncle Edward…I'm coming for you. Very…very, soon" Samantha said softly as a powerful black and green aura flickered into life behind her.

"When I find you, I will end this madness…" Samantha said softly.

Samantha then raised her voice and said "People of the United States. I am not an American, I was born and raised in Nazi Germany many, many years ago…I have no true loyalty to this country, and have stayed here because the people I have met here are honest and true…your people have been good to the sad, tortured little girl I was just a few days ago. I've seen the good and bad of this country, and it's not too late to save it!"

Samantha gesture for the camera to turn, and Vice panned the camera so that the others could be seen too.

"We are fighting Richtofen and his forces, and are on our way to California, where we plan on ending this madness once and for all" Samantha said as the camera zoomed back in on her.

"This is a call to arms. We can't do this alone…those of your who still have hope…who still believe in the good of mankind…join us. Come to California and join in the fight for humanity" Samantha said as she closed her fist in front of the camera.

"The goal of Group 935, back when it was a force of good…was to improve the human condition…to help humanity become something better…I believe in this goal, but there's got to be a better way than this…Edward, I don't know why you're doing this. It…it can't be just because you're evil. There's more to it than that…"

Samantha closed her eyes and said "Your proclamation a few days ago was heard by every person in the world. So many have pledged their souls to you, just for the sake of survival. Not because of their belief in your so-called Utopia…"

"People of the world! Don't believe his lies! Don't give in to his words! As long as humanity keeps fighting, the forces of evil won't be able to win! There's still good left in this world…" Samantha said passionately as she looked out at her friends.

She had known them for just a short time, but she trusted them beyond a shadow of a doubt. She was doing this for not just the world, but to protect her friends…the ones that showed her that there really was some good left in this world after all.

"Good that's worth fighting for. We'll begin the attack at the end of the week. Please…don't give up hope. Don't give in…don't let Richtofen win…"

"Richtofen…you're words…they fall on deaf ears…not all of us are so quick to give in…not all of us are going to go down without a fight…we're coming for you Edward…and we will bring an army with us to match yours…people of the United States. You have a history of fighting for what is right! Fighting against tyrants who wish to harm the innocent!"

"Strike back against Richtofen! Begin your march towards California, where Richtofen hides and waits! Join us! And together, we will crush him…we can't do this alone…help us…help us save what's left of humanity" Samantha said softly.

Samantha brushed her hair out of her face and said "Uncle Edward…I'll see you in a few days…"

"And I hope you're ready to end this…once and for all" Samantha ended with a whisper.

Vice cut the feed and said "And we're clear!"

"Very nicely done" Sieger said approvingly. Samantha looked away, ignoring the heat rushing to her face at the compliment.

"It wasn't much. Richtofen was much more eloquent" Samantha admitted as she walked over to the others.

"No! That was awesome!" Jess said cheerfully.

"It was" Serenity admitted cheerfully.

"Fairly badass, I have to say" Starch confessed.

"Now that that's over with. We have some other business to attend to before we rest for the night" Sieger said as he walked out of the room.

Samantha watched the young man walk out of the room and said "He seems to be hiding something…I don't know what though"

"Looks like you're hiding something to Sam" Starch said with a wide grin.

"Huh? I…I don't know what you're talking about" Samantha said, looking away with her arms crossed.

"Samanthasgotacrush!" Nick coughed.

Samantha spun around and decked Nick in the head, sending him crashing into a monitor with a scream. Samantha's face was a bright pink color, and she looked flustered. Juliet pried Nick from the monitor, but instead of dazed, he looked triumphant.

"Haha! Told you so" Nick said with a grin to Starch, who grumbled and paid him five dollars.

"I do NOT have a crush. I just met the guy for crying out loud" Samantha scowled as she watched the exchange of money.

"So? I met Juliet a few days ago, and look at us!" Nicholas said cheerfully.

Samantha shook her head and saved herself from further embarrassment by walking out of the room. Serenity and Jess squealed at the same time and said "AWWWW!"

"So…Samantha and the new guy?" Starch said to Vice.

"About time. The fans have been asking for it for 20 damn chapters. About time that lazy excuse for an author got around to it" Vice said.

Nicholas pulled out a golden spoon and advanced towards the two survivors, holding it like a knife, before Juliet put him in a full nelson and threw him to the ground.

"In just got my ass kicked by a Zombie-slaying cheerleader…I'm not sure whether to feel humiliated, or turned on" Nicholas remarked.

"Both. Now get up" Juliet said with a grin, offering Nicholas a hand up, which he took with a wide smile.

"Come on guys. We should get some sleep. It's been a long day…" Nicholas said as he walked out of the studio. The others followed him out, with Nick hitting the lights on the way out.

* * *

><p><span>Meanwhile:<span>

Der Reise:

"So…" Yena murmured as Richtofen finished his tale.

"_**So?"**_ Richtofen said.

"I'll help you" Yena said softly.

"_**Perfect. Maxis cannot regain power once more, so we must cut him off beforehand"**_

"Illuzio can stop him" Yena said with a grin.

"_**Illuzio? Who is that?"**_ Richtofen asked.

"You mentioned it was a green ball of magic that sent you here?" Yena said to the Zombified man, who nodded.

"_**This is it"**_ Richtofen said, holding out a palm.

Yena grinned widely as a shimmering green orb appeared in Richtofen's dead hand. Yena let out a contained breath and said "Yes…this…is Illuzio…this is his signature"

"_**Signature?"**_ Richtofen asked.

"I know quite a bit about magic and its properties, as well as inter-dimensional travel, which is why I'm not more surprised at your story. Basically, every person who can use magic has a special kind of force in their magic. Their code, or their signature. This can manifest in many forms in their magic, but for Illuzio, it's the green color in his spells"

"_**Do you know what spell this is?"**_ Richtofen asked Yena, who shook his head.

"No…It could be anything. It was probably not meant for you, but hey, if you're going to change the future from that, then I say their loss is your gain" Yena laughed.

Richtofen grinned evilly and said _**"So, this Illuzio is the source of this blessing! I must meet him! His powers could be very, very useful"**_

"The other Richtofen explained to me how he found Illuzio in the first place…THAT'S IT!" Yena said with a mad laugh.

"What? What is it?" Richtofen asked softly.

"You…you come from an alternate universe. This has all played out in some degree, so you know how this arc will end…but what if things got switched up a bit in this one?" Yena said with a grin.

"_**Explain"**_

"There are several things that don't match up with this timeline compared to yours. The central theme to this is Illuzio. He's not there at all in your timeline, yet you find his magic?" Yena said softly, his mind racing. Like Richtofen, Porter, and Dr. Maxis, Yena had a mind ahead of his time.

"Illuzio must have come to your timeline himself, and then returned here…Sometime much further down the road…he must have sent that ball of magic to help those survivors, but it came to you. You then came to this timeline, and then you met me. It's so simple" Yena said with a laugh.

"_**What!? Tell me!"**_ Richtofen barked.

"You are the force that sets the present and future of this timeline in motion. You're the changing force that alters this timeline, and sets it apart from yours. You create this future, because of Illuzio. Illuzio is the trigger, and you are the bullet" Yena whispered with an excited gleam in his eyes.

"_**So, to create this new future, I must rewrite the past of the very present I am in now? I have to create this present by altering the past?"**_ Richtofen said softly.

"That's my theory… Illuzio says all magic was wiped out in a Great Disaster of some sort that killed his wife and all magic users except himself" Yena said.

"_**I see…"**_

"Do you?" Yena replied, and Richtofen nodded.

"_**Before I go…I have a gift for you"**_ Richtofen said, tapping the ball of green light with his hand. Yena starred in surprise as a small black rod-like device suddenly materialized in front of him, floating in the air.

"Is that…the Vril Generator?" Yena asked, sounding surprised.

"_**Yes and no. It is designed to switch back souls to their original bodies, but leave one with all of the powers while the other is left weakened. I want you to give this to…Illuzio, and tell him to hide this on the Moon, at the Griffin Station. The Vril Generator, the Golden Rod, is what will cause us to swap souls, so, we must use magic to alter the story" **_Richtofen said with a dark smile.

"So, you want them to use _this_ rod after using the Golden Rod. How are we going to get them to do that?" Yena asked the Zombified Richtofen, who chuckled.

"_**This Illuzio, he has magic, yes? With magic, you can do anything! Have him plant a memory of this device as an failsafe, to be used in case I succeed…in both Maxis's mind, and Samantha's!"**_ Richtofen said softly, an evil smile playing at his lips.

"A false failsafe…I see…but, are you sure you want to do that?" Yena asked.

"_**What do you mean?"**_ Richtofen asked.

"Such a switch…such a change between souls, going back and forth…who knows what it would do to you? This magic in the Anti-Vril Generator, you said it'll give you your body back, plus any powers you have afterward…but what if it changes more than that?" Yena asked the Zombified man, who looked away.

"_**I am prepared to do what I must, to stop Maxis and his schemes. This magic is strong, but it will not last forever. I will return to my own dimension soon, and I must change what I can so this will not end with the world's ruin"**_ Richtofen murmured, the sting of losing his power to the damned man flashing in his mind. The people he thought he could trust, could rely on, betraying him and damning the world to disaster.

"I'll do what I can as well. I'll work with the others, without telling them anything of course, and have them help as well" Yena said.

"_**Harvey…why are you helping me?"**_ Richtofen asked Yena, who smiled.

"Let's just say I remember the man who you were before the M.P.D., and I'll help you because in the end, this will change this rotten world for the better. I'm an evil person, but that doesn't mean that this world would be better off with Maxis is charge, now would it?" Yena said with a laugh.

"_**I see…I must be off. You know what you must do…this will be the last I see of you, my friend"**_ Richtofen said softly as he turned away, holding out the ball of magic in front of him.

"Goodbye Edward…and good luck" Yena said to the man, who nodded and vanished in a flash of green light.

Yena turned around, grinning widely.

"This…is going to be very…_very _interesting" Yena purred as his eyes flickered red for a moment as he walked back to the others, his mind racing with the information he had learned.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>HAHA!<em>

_It all comes together._

_I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, as always, drop your PS3 username in the review section below if you'd be up for playing Zombies with me, mics are preferred but not required._

_Please show your support by reviewing this chapter, it takes just a moment and means the world to me._

_Follow the trail of carnage on Twitter, follow me at FlygonNick!_

_Be sure to take part in my AMA. You have to review this chapter specifically, and you can ask up to two questions. All questions and responses will be posted on my profile when the next chapter gets updated. _

_Thanks as always everyone! _

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	37. Let the Sky Fall

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Alright, I'll start this off by giving you guys my opinion on Origins._

_The soundtrack is incredible, the Easter Egg Songs are fantastic, the weapon selection is the best so far, the scenery and detail, as well as some of the buildables and such, are well done, and overall it's a very interesting map._

_And the other hand, it's HARD AS HELL._

_I have never gotten my ass handed to me on a Zombie map that many times that badly, most of which were caused by the Panzar Soldat, which always spawns by me for whatever reason. Seriously, this map makes my first attempts at Die Rise seem flawless._

_Anyway, I'm probably going to cover Origins, though I'm not sure how. I could do a full length chapter for it, or just mention it in a short blurb like I have the others. I kind of want to do a long chapter with the four Original Characters battling it out in France, since that'd be pretty badass, but because of my schedule, that probably won't happen. I'll keep you posted._

_I also just got GTA V, and Pokémon X and Y comes out this Saturday. So I'll be torn between getting the chapters out and playing games….so…yeah. I still plan to keep chugging along, simply because these next few chapters are ones I've been looking forward too, especially 40._

_I may extend my Multiplayer experience on BOII to GTA. So leave your PS3 username in the review section if you want to add me._

_Anyway, shoutout to those who reviewed last chapter, which included Justplainawesome,_ _Justsomeperson7734, katerinavalentine62601,_ _Princess Shahnaz, Dustchu, a Guest reviewer,_ _Trapinchh, Bu11etB1iss115, hellfire lord, tjelledge262, Alec Damon, Killz718,_ _MetaKnight0011, and a new reviewer known as Dogsled shepherd. Thanks for the support guys, I've had a few rough days over the past few weeks, and I can't tell you how many times my day was made by a review from one of you. Seriously, thank you so much._

_Also, as this story gets ready for the final couple of chapters, I will start giving out more info for my next epic story, "Second Chances". Be on the lookout for new info on that project to come._

_Also, due to lack of participation, I'm extending the AMA (Ask Me Anything) to this chapter and the next chapter as well. People who already asked questions can ask two more, all answers will be posted on my profile page. Essentially, you can ask me two questions about anything you want and I'll reply to them truthfully._

_I also have a poll up. What's your favorite Zombie Map? Vote NOW!_

_Shoutout to JC785, who wrote a few bits of this chapter, mainly the bits that concerned him and Iva. This was sort of why this chapter took longer than it should've. Plus, school's been brutal lately. _

_So thanks again Joe. You rock man. :D_

_**NOTE:**__ Jonathan was Illuzio's name before he changed it to Illuzio. Just so you guys know, because the last time I mentioned this was chapter 9._

_Enjoy._

* * *

><p>Chapter 37: Let the Sky Fall<p>

"_The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes"_- Simone Weil

* * *

><p>Northern Europe:<p>

Time: 1218 A.D.

* * *

><p>Richtofen chuckled as Jonathan began to juggle the flaming rocks with quick hand gestures, making the rocks levitate. The Jester's abilities were indeed incredible, and though he longed to use them for his own purposes, he could not be swayed to leave his time.<p>

"Ah, Jonathan. It is an incredible time you live in. Magic is plentiful and fantasy has become reality…it is like something from the books I read when I was a child!" Richtofen cackled madly.

Jonathan laughed as well and said "It is indeed a wonderful time we live in my friend. I shudder to think of a world without magic. What a terrible and boring thing"

"I agree. It is a shame that you cannot come back with me" Richtofen muttered.

"I know that, but I cannot take my fiancé with me to the future. I have a life here…you will find a way to realize your ideals my friend. I know it" Jonathan said as he made the rocks vanish.

Richtofen crossed his arms, glancing down at the Mauser C96 attached to his waist. His hand slowly reached towards the pistol, urged on by the voices in his head.

"_Do it…"_

"_If you kill her, he'll have no reason to stay here…"_

"_End her…"_

"_With her gone, you can take Illuzio to the present…"_

Richtofen drew his hand, rather forcibly, away from his pistol and forced a smile at the young man in front of him.

"Your confidence is appreciated mine friend" Richtofen replied, and the young man grinned widely at him.

"Jonathan! Edward!"

Both men turned to a beautiful young woman with flowing white hair. She had bright blue eyes and had a sort of calming aura around her.

"Elizabeth!" Jonathan said cheerfully.

"You two had better come inside. It looks like a storm is brewing" the young woman said as she pointed to the darkening sky.

Richtofen looked up and said "That is an odd storm…"

The sky was indeed dark like it was getting ready to rain, but the way the storm clouds were swirling around them was strange to Richtofen. He had a feeling that these clouds may not be exactly the forewarning of a physical storm, but a great darkness heading their way.

"_Agh, I am thinking too much"_ Richtofen chided himself mentally before walking inside of the small cottage.

A massive surge of green energy flashed into existence a short distance away from the cottage, and a Zombified cowboy with blue eyes appeared in a ball of green magic.

"_**So…this is where he came from…" **_Richtofen murmured as he tapped his ball of magic.

"_**Illuzio said that there was a great cataclysm that ended all magic. He told me that when he went to investigate it, he found his fiancé dead…you need to find out what that Great Disaster is, and quickly"**_

"**But what could it have been?"** Richtofen murmured as he walked towards the cottage. He overheard the trio laughing from inside, and he recalled briefly that once upon a time, he was not like how he was now. He was sane, he was happy, and was content in his research with Dr. Maxis.

"_**You short-sighted fool...I didn't want to destroy you…now you've become worse than I…"**_ Richtofen whispered to himself as he walked away from the cottage. The ball of magic had sent him to his particular moment in time for a reason. Why? He knew not. He just knew that there was something here he had to do.

Richtofen waited for roughly an hour before he got fed up with waiting.

"_**Enough is enough! Magic…" **_Richtofen addressed the semi-sentient ball of magic grasped in his palms.

"_**I do not know why you came to me, or why this magic is allowing me to do what I am…but I MUST have that man's power! Tear apart his life and bind his to mine! ALLOW ME TO CHANGE THE WORLD WITH YOUR POWER!" **_Richtofen howled, holding the ball of light to the sky.

Richtofen smiled in surprise when a column of green light shot from the ball of magic and into the sky with an incredible pulsating light. Richtofen heard the commotion of people in the town, and quickly ducked under a nearby pile of rocks.

Jonathan and Richtofen burst out of the house. Illuzio's arms with glowing, ready to use magic. Richtofen cautiously aimed his Mauser C96 at his surroundings.

"That power…is felt…very familiar" Illuzio muttered.

"Hmm…there are strange forces at work here mine friend" the human Richtofen said softly.

"Maybe it was nothing…" Illuzio said quietly.

"_**They are distracted…maybe…this requires another approach…"**_ Richtofen said with an evil smile as he crept towards Jonathan's cottage. Richtofen found that the back door was unlocked, and he stumbled into the kitchen, where Jonathan's beloved fiancé was waiting for him to return. As Elizabeth turned around in surprise, Richtofen latched his powerful Zombified hands around her throat.

"_**You're fiancé will become my greatest weapon. He will help me change the future! Isn't that great?! AHAHAHAHAHA!"**_ Richtofen laughed as he strangled the woman, who gasped and choked helplessly as she struggled against his grip. After a few moments, Richtofen increased the pressure and broke her neck, snapping it like a twig. He let go of the woman, causing her to crash down onto the ground helplessly. She stirred feebly on the ground before Richtofen shook his head.

"_**You vill not survive this…you shall die…farewell"**_ Richtofen said softly before stomping on the woman's neck, killing her instantly.

The Zombified Richtofen stumbled out of the house and closed the door as softly as he could before taking cover once more outside of the house. As he waited, he glanced once more at the sky above, and noticed that red, blue, and green lights were flashing in the sky.

All of a sudden, an object broke through the sky and soared towards the ground. The object was surrounded in a massive wraith of blue flames, and was rocketing towards them at an insane speed. It was a massive meteorite, the size of which easily dwarfed anything Richtofen, either of them, had seen before in their lives. The rock now fell towards the town with an aura of fire around it at a speed that could easily kill all of them. The screams of the terrified townsfolk's filled the air as the flaming meteor streaked down from the sky.

"Fire in the sky…how poetic" Richtofen muttered dryly as he glanced at Jonathan, who was staring at the falling flaming rock with horror.

"EVERYONE! TOGETHER!" Jonathan yelled as he flung his hands at the meteor and shot a beam of green magic at it. Others raised their hands to the sky and raised their hands, shooting beams of other colored magic at the falling rock. Other magicians and spellcasters from the village combined their magic in an attempt to stoop the falling rock, but the rock seemed to be too thick or too strong to just get rid of in that manner, so it continued to plummet.

"With that velocity, the meteor will kill all of us! Jonathan, we need to leave!" Richtofen yelled worriedly as the meteor drew closer.

Jonathan scowled, but acknowledged this point with sigh and said "Back to the cottage. Quickly! We can jump forward to your time with Elizabeth!"

Both men sprinted back to the cottage, where Illuzio let out a scream of horror upon discovering something truly terrible.

"ELIZABETH!" Jonathan screamed hoarsely as he saw his fiancé's body, her body broken on the cottage floor.

"What on earth!? Who…who did this!?" Richtofen demanded as Jonathan threw himself to the ground with tears running down his face. Richtofen knelt next to his friend and murmured a word of condolence to him as they beheld the dead bride to be.

"We don't have much time my friend…I am so, so sorry" Richtofen said softly.

"No…DAMN IT!" Jonathan howled as he clutched his beloved closely.

"Jonathan, I know this is hard for you, but the meteor will kill us all if you don't get us out of here!" Richtofen said softly yet urgently as the sound of rushing air filled the area. They had only moments left, the meteor was falling very quickly.

The Zombified Richtofen grinned widely and he held his hand to the sky. This was the Great Disaster that Yena spoke of. As it was now, this meteor would kill a great number of people from the impact. But with some tweaking…it could work to his advantage.

"_**I see now…I am the instrument of destruction…I will be the one to destroy all magic…"**_ Richtofen realized as he raised the ball of magic to the sky.

"_**Destroy all of those with the magical gift, so that your master will be forever alone, His power will be mine, and mine alone, to manipulate. Make it so!"**_ Richtofen murmured as the ball of light shot a beam of green light to the sky, slamming into the meteor that fell towards them.

"I…I can't leave her!" Jonathan sobbed, trying to bring his wife to life his magic, to no avail.

"Perhaps we can reanimate her using element 115?" Richtofen suggested.

"NO! I will NEVER let you do that to her" Jonathan snarled furiously and he embraced his wife's body, sobbing uncontrollably.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Richtofen went flying across the room and the incredible impact of the meteor slammed into the ground. If the two had looked outside, they would've seen a surging wave of blue energy enveloping the countryside, that would extend to the entire planet. Every person who was blessed with the ability to use magic would be vaporized on the spot while those who were normal were unharmed.

"Quick! You must come with me!" Richtofen shouted as the surge of energy rushed through the country, destroying magicians effortlessly and causing screams of the dying to fill the air. Jonathan rested Elizabeth's body on the floor and gently shut her eyes.

Jonathan had a horribly pained look on his face as he starred at his wife before saying "My love…my sweet…I am so, so sorry…maybe someday, we will be reunited…but until then…farewell…"

Jonathan waved his hand and a pulsating blue portal appeared in a flash of green light on the other side of the room. Richtofen ran through it while Jonathan lingered. He glanced back at the body of his dead beloved before firing a spark of energy at her. Her body began to disintegrate and turned to sparkling ash, which floated into the air and into nothingness.

"Farewell" Jonathan whispered before turning his back on his old life and stepping into his new one.

"_**WHAT IS GOING ON!?"**_ Richtofen roared as the energy from the meteorite slammed into him, causing him to experience immense pain. He felt fear course through him as the unknown energy surged through him…

And did nothing to him at all…

…The pain had been nothing more than just the surge of energy, nothing more. And…

"_**What…is this? It feels…very, familiar…"**_ Richtofen said with a frown.

The Zombified Richtofen stumbled towards the massive crater in the ground and slowly made his way down to the large lump of rock that had fallen from the sky. Richtofen eyed the rock with suspicion, and then a growing amazement.

"_**This…is…no…it couldn't be…could it?"**_ Richtofen murmured as he walked around the rock. It may not have been the exact some type of rock, but the signatures were unmistakable.

"_**Element 115…such a large deposit such as this…it is even bigger than the one in that wretched swamp…hmm…"**_ Richtofen said as he examined the rock.

It had a series of intricate marks all around it, with large chunks of it glowing a bright blue color. It was similar, yet different to the one at the Rising Sun Factory, and Richtofen wondered why that was.

"_**So…the impact from this magical meteorite was the cause of the destruction of the magic in the world…I was the one who altered the past…now everything is as it should be…I can feel it…**_Richtofen said softly, starring at the rock for a few moments.

The meteorite began to flash green, and then white, and then a wide assortment of colors. Richtofen could only watch in amazement as the rock vanished on the spot into thin air, leaving behind a trail of nothingness.

"_**It seems as though there was a slight delay in the time it would take to make that rock vanish due to those spells…a little too late for Illuzio...I wonder where that rock has gone?"**_ Richtofen wondered aloud to himself.

"_**Strange…very strange…"**_ Richtofen murmured as he held out his ball of magic in front of him.

"_**Not much energy left…take me away…"**_ Richtofen said to the ball, and he vanished once more in a burst of light.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

New York City:

* * *

><p>Nicholas fell down from the second story window and landed onto a hot dog cart, crashing into it and howling in agony as he fell to the ground.<p>

"WHY DID I LISTEN TO YOU!?" Nicholas yelled to Nick, who was snickering.

_"You would think after four times of falling for that trick, he'd stop fall off of the ledge_" C.N. remarked.

"I told him that if you look off from here just right, you can see a sign advertising FlygonN's next story" Nick said.

_"Can you?"_ C.N. asked.

"Yeah, totally. See?" Nick raised C.N. into the air.

"_Huh. Not bad. Looks pretty good. Better than this piece of crap story anyway"_ C.N. said.

"I'll kill you both in your sleep!" Nicholas yelled as he tried to get to his feet, failing miserably.

_"Why would he want to know what the next story is anyway? Doesn't he write it?"_ C.N. asked.

"He wants to destroy it. Not see it…unfortunately, he doesn't exactly have the best balance" Nick laughed as Nicholas finally managed to get to his feet.

"Screw it! It's not worth it…it shows a Riolu and a Jolteon, not much of a spoiler…" Nicholas panted as he hobbled away.

"Aww…I wanted to see him fall again" Nick pouted.

_"Maybe we can try it with Jess?"_ C.N. suggested.

"Good idea" Nick said with a grin.

Meanwhile, Andrew, Vice, and Judith were making their way through the No Man's Land, looking for anything of use. Andrew saw a Zombie stumbling towards them and said "Judith, wanna try out the Scavenger?"

"You bet" Judith said as she took aim with the sniper rifle Wonder Weapon and fired it. The bolt flew across the stream and slammed into the Zombie's skull. The Zombie growled in annoyance and took a step towards them before being engulfed in a massive explosion.

"That's awesome" Judith said with a grin.

"Gotta admit. Pretty cool" Vice said cheerfully.

Judith moved the bolt and hefted the rifle over her shoulder, along with her newly acquired Dead Specimen Reactor.

"Dual-wielding sniper rifles?" Vice questioned.

"Get on my level" Judith joked as she took aim with both of them, aiming at two Zombie stumbling around from afar.

"No way in hell you're going to-" Andrew began to say before Judith firing both guns at once. The Scavenger's shot embedded in the skull of the Zombie to the left, while the DSR's shot blew the head off of the Zombie on the right. The resulting explosion from the Scavenger vaporized both of their bodies. Judith lowered both of her rifles and grinned at the two young men behind her.

"Well…that was awesome" Vice said with a wide grin as he watched the ash fall to the ground.

"Someone's got to keep you guys alive" Judith said with a small smile as she put the Scavenger back on her back.

"We should keep looking for supplies. I think I saw a shop down this alley" Andrew said, jerking a finger towards an alley down the block, pulling out his Skullcrusher. The trio made their way down the street, while Samantha watched them from a nearby fire escape.

"We need to get going" Samantha muttered to Sieger, who shrugged. He seemed to be a constant companion for her over the past few hours, much to her hidden pleasure. While he seemed to not share the same attraction for her that she had for him (as far as she could tell anyway), he seemed to respect her quite a bit, which she was delighted by.

"We've got to get ready for the trip to California. If we're taking all of the survivors with us, we'll have to have supplies for two days, since it's Thursday night…plus we have to find a way to get there in one piece" Sieger replied.

"Hmm…"

"Exactly"

"So…what happened?" Samantha asked Sieger.

"Like I said, I'll explain everything later. I don't even know the full story, I only know what happened after you guys escaped from the Moon. How this began is a mystery to me" Sieger admitted softly.

Samantha sighed and said "I know how this began…sort of"

"Sort of?"

"It's…really complicated" Samantha muttered.

"I bet…it seems our lives are nothing but complicated" Sieger laughed. Samantha chuckled as well, and the two returned to their silent vigil over the survivors.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

An Hour Later:

* * *

><p>Nicholas, Juliet, Jess, Starch, Iva, and Joe carefully counted out the old lab that the 115 node had been in before going inside of the building.<p>

"What are we looking for?" Starch asked quietly as he aimed his ACR, (formerly the Adaptive Combat Rifle, now the Accelerated Combustion Rifle, due to the flamethrower on the underside of it instead of a shotgun) around the entryway.

"There might be something we missed here. It doesn't hurt to take a second look" Juliet said as she strode into the room, scanning it.

"OK. Joe, me and Nicholas will go into the main lab. You guys keep looking in here, there might be something more to this place" Juliet said as she walked towards the main lab.

"Whatever" Starch shrugged as Iva and Jess began to look around. Starch kicked over a paint can and said "Bah"

"Bah?" Iva asked.

"Bah?" Jess asked as well.

"Yeah. Bah. Sheep's go bah, and FlygonN likes to use that in his stories for whatever reason" Starch replied.

"Starch! What the hell did you just say?" Nicholas called from the other room.

"Nothing!" Starch sang in an innocent tone, grinning evilly to himself.

Nicholas sat down in a nearby leather revolving chair and spun around, crossing one of his legs and assuming the position of a brooding mastermind with his arms.

"This chair is fantastic" Nicholas muttered.

"OK Chair Master, help me look around" Juliet said with a grin as she walked around the room. Joe walked over to some of the devices on the wall and began to examine them. He began to fiddle with some of the wiring.

"Just wondering how it works. Despite everything, Richtofen's a genius" Joe remarked, and the others agreed silently and allowed him to go on.

Samantha walked over to a desk with several blueprints on them. One of them was a large cylindrical container labeled "Shadow Manipulation Chamber". Samantha picked up a small journal and said "What's this?"

Samantha flipped it open, and found to her delight it was in German and easy for her to read. She recognized the handwriting in the journal in an instant, and she flipped it open to a bookmarked page and began to read.

"_Entry Number 5,971…today we will begin with the first true test of the Super Soldier Program. The tests I performed on those fools, all those years ago, are nothing quite on the same scale as my expectations with this. Harvey has agreed to be the first subject, with Porter, Illuzio, and Sophia coming after him. I have already increased my power beyond my wildest hopes, and I wish to do the same with those I consider my allies, or, dare I even think it, my friends. _

"_Perhaps I may have lost sight of what really mattered back when my mind was altered. I was so obsessed with power and destroying Maxis, I forgot why I joined the Project in the first place. To improve the human condition. With Illuzio's magic and my own powers, and with no one to stop me…success is all but assured. The human race will look to me as their savior, and will change this world for the better. I have as much time as I need, and I will make sure that the world will forever remember my name" _

Samantha glanced around and slipped the small book into her jacket pocket and zipped it, making sure that it was secure. She turned around and looked over at Nicholas, who was tapping a metal briefcase.

"There's something in here. It's a top secret weapon or something, I know it" Nicholas muttered as he continued to try combinations on the lock.

Finally the teen got fed up and pried open the lock with the Golden Spork. What he found in the briefcase was a single gun, and it made Nicholas grin widely. The design had improved and it seemed to have several differences compared to its predecessor, but he knew what he had found.

"The Ray Gun Mark II" Nicholas breathed as he took aim and fired into the ceiling experimentally. The three green bursts tore through the ceiling effortlessly and Nicholas laughed at his success.

"That's too cool" Joe remarked as he began to stuff some of the parts of the machine into his backpack he had with him. He began to pull out capsules left over from the Bolder Quarry Lab and began to take more parts of the machines, even taking some of the depowered meteorite left behind in the Node.

"Why are you doing that?" Nicholas asked as Joe finished storing everything.

"We can use some of these parts, I know it" Joe said as he slung and backpack over his shoulders with a grunt.

The group continued to scour the lab for the better part of an hour, finding nothing else of note. The lab was more of less abandoned, save for the journal and the Ray Gun Mark II, nothing else really stuck out.

However as the trio left the room, Nicholas's eye was caught by a small picture on the wall. He glanced at it for a moment before saying "What the hell?"

It was Edward Richtofen, standing next to Sophia. Both were holding hands and smiling widely. Standing next to them was a little girl, no more than seven. She was wearing a happy smile on her face and had long black hair. Nicholas frowned for a moment and said "Who is that?"

Nicholas walked over to the picture and removed it from the wall, starring at it intently. The picture was in black and white, but she certainly seemed to have some of Richtofen's characteristics. She had the same eye color as Richtofen and had Sophia's black hair…

"He…he had a daughter?" Nicholas murmured.

"NICHOLAS! Come on man, we're leaving! Something's happening at the camp!" Joe yelled, sounding panicked.

Nicholas turned to leave, but glanced back at the picture of Richtofen, Sophia, and the little girl. Without knowing why, Nicholas put the photo carefully into his backpack. Nicholas turned around, thinking that there may yet be a lot of the puzzle that they just didn't know yet…

* * *

><p><span>New York City:<span>

Times Square:

* * *

><p>The "something" Joe had mentioned became very obvious when the teens stepped outside.<p>

Each one of the search parties, whether they be for food or supplies, was swarmed by a massive horde of Zombies that had forced them back the way they came. No matter how many they shot, more would come. Nicholas and the others had run outside and were nearly overrun if it weren't for Samantha and Nicholas's Vitriolic Withering. Joe ran ahead while the others held off the Zombies for him.

"COME ON YOU FREAK-SACKS! BRING IT!" Dempsey yelled as he slammed his Lamentation into the skull of a Screecher Zombie before spinning around and unloading an entire clip into another swarm of Zombies, blasting their heads off with an expert aim. Kara, also holding a Lamentation, was doing her father proud, killing almost as many Zombies as he was with an aim created by years and years of practice and being the daughter of a marine legend.

"Nice job Kiddo, you're doing great!" Dempsey said as he clapped his daughter on the shoulder as he walked past her and to the next wave of Zombies.

"Well duh, I am your daughter" Kara said with a smirk as he shouldered her gun and followed her dad into the fray of Zombies.

Chan and Takeo stood back to back, slashing at hacking at the undead with their Katanas. Takeo was merciless with his blade, slashing and hacking at anything that came towards him and his beloved daughter. Chan had a wide grin on her face, even as she ran a Zombie through with her katana, yanked the blade out a beheaded a Zombie before spinning around and stabbing a Zombie through the stomach all in one move. Takeo pulled out a Cobra and shot the Zombie Chan had stabbed in the skull, killing it.

Nikolai, Joe, and Iva were standing in a line, unloading onto the undead hordes. Joe added one or two shots from his Wunderwaffe DG-7 whenever he could, but for the most part he kept on shooting the hordes with his Rettified-870 Mechanical Cranium Sequencer, not letting up.

"You fight well for an American. Maybe you will are not so pathetic after all!" Nikolai said jokingly as he grabbed a Zombie by the skull with one hand and slammed his knife into its skull before throwing it to the side like it was a toy.

Joe put away his shotgun and punched both of his fists together, letting out a small wave of electricity as the Fists of Thor slammed into each other.

"Pathetic? We'll see about that!" Joe yelled with a savage grin as he jumped into the horde, fists and electricity flying as he punched Zombie after Zombie to death.

"Hmm…I see why you like him" Nikolai said to Iva, who blushed pink as she reloaded her Afterburner.

"Hey, don't blame me. You liked mom for the same reason! Intellect and her wicked left hook!" Iva shot back. Nikolai shrugged, took a swig of his vodka flask, and said "This is conversation for another time. Back to shooting!"

"Yes Papa" Iva said, shaking her head with a grin, as she opened fire once more.

Vice ducked under the Zombie's swipe and swung Arbiter's Staff, decapitating the Zombie with a yell. Typer pulled out his shotgun and blasted a hole through a Zombies stomach before bashing its skull in with the other end of the gun.

"Shotgun to the face? I approve" Vice said with a grin as he caved in s Zombie's face with his staff.

Clutch Odd weaved in and out of the horde of a Zombies, bashing anything undead with his Tonfa, which was now Pack-A-Punched and decorated with intricate runes and deadly spikes and left a small wave of red energy in its wake whenever he swung it. He pulled out his B34R and began to shoot at the Zombies as he smashed them with his Tonfa, making quick work of anything that strayed into his deadly wake.

Starch and Red joined him and the trio ran down the street, firing nonstop into the horde. Serenity joined them firing her AK-47 with a yell of fury, while Nick ran by them, slashing and hacking at the hordes with C.N. and mowing down anything that came near him.

"Where did they come from!?" Samantha yelled as Sieger ran over to Samantha, blasting Zombies all the while. Samantha grabbed an RPK that was lying on the ground next to a dead Survivor and began to open fire on the hordes with Sieger.

"I guess Richtofen had some stranglers lurking around. Come on!" Sieger yelled as charged back into the fray.

Jax went to town with the Zeus Cannon, blasting anything that came towards the encampment into nothingness and making sure the injured survivors were safe. John, still injured, watched his back, aiming his Lamentation and carefully shooting the Zombies from afar.

Despite their impressive firepower, the Zombies were slowly pushing the group back. Sieger growled in annoyance and said "There shouldn't be this many! We destroyed the node!"

Nicholas glanced over at Juliet, who had torn off her empty Hades and hurled it into the horde, swearing at them as she activated Aegis, the Zombie shield.

"Juliet!" Nicholas yelled, hurling his Vitriolic Withering at her. Juliet caught it and fired it, shooting the crowd of Zombies with the acidic pods and causing a small chunk of the horde to stop attacking the move towards the Zombies that were covered in acidic pods. The Zombies exploded in a shower of acid, taking out fifteen or so Zombies at once. Juliet flipped the back of the gun open, reloaded and repeated the process. Nicholas pulled out the Mark II Ray Gun and took aim, firing controlled burst after burst at the heads of the Zombies and putting a dent into the undead hordes.

Judith, Jared, Emmanuel, and Jordan were lined up at the far edge of the camp, shooting into the Zombie horde and blasting the heads off of several Zombies at a time. Judith smirked as she shot the head off of a Screecher that was about to slash at Marcus, who spun around and blasted apart the two Zombies behind him with his Calamity and Jane. Jess had a mad grin on her face as she blasted apart anything near her with her MP115 Kollider, yelling something about ending their lives with her unparalleled fury and cupcakes. But mainly she was yelling stuff about cupcakes.

"THAT'S RIGHT! DON'T LET UP!" Samantha yelled as she flung her hands to the ground. After a moment, several shadow tendrils shot up out of the ground and shot towards the Zombies, impaling several of them and killing them instantly.

Alex and Kris joined Andrew, who was currently launching grenades from his Skullcrusher with a scowl on his face.

"Richtofen's one persistent SOB" Andrew muttered as Kris and Alec added their gunfire to his.

Zero jumped over a large chunk of rubble and beheaded a Zombie with his flaming machete, spinning around and delivering a two-handed slash and cleaved a Screecher Zombie in half.

"You'd think shutting the node off would make things calm down" Zero said dryly as he slashed and hacked his way through the horde.

He let out a yelp as a Screecher Zombie tackled him to the ground, opening up his wound with a snarl. Jameson flung himself at the Screecher Zombie, slamming his KABAR into its skull with a snarl. The Zombie screeched in pain, falling backwards, where Jameson kicked the knife deeper into its skull and killed it. He yanked out his KABAR and helped Zero to his feet after injecting the wound with a bit of Quick Revive.

"T-thanks" Zero muttered as he pulled out an Ultra and Violet and opened fire on the undead hordes, Jameson nodded and dived back into the Zombie's ranks, slashing and slicing like a madman.

Sieger let loose a burst of flames, incinerating a long line of Zombies with the flames. The hordes simply just continued to pour in from the alleyways.

"How many of these things does he have!?" Tyler yelled as he continued to slash and hack at the Zombies with his Katanas.

"Just keep it up!" Samantha yelled as she tossed her empty Ultra to the ground and proceeded to use her fists and feet. Sieger switched to Fatum and Lux and opened fire on the horde, putting a noticeable dent in the horde. Sieger then let out a yell as a Minion Zombie tackled him from behind to the ground. Sieger swiftly kicked the Zombie in the head as he struggled with it, killing it with a burst of black fire. Sieger got to his feet, only for five of the Minions to swarm him. More of the speedy Zombies bounded into the camp and took down several of the remaining survivors.

"Sieger!" Samantha yelled, flinging an arm at and impaling three of them with shadowy tendrils, giving Sieger a chance to kill the other two. Sieger grunted in thanks, sporting bloody slash marks on his body, and began shooting the Minions with pinpoint accuracy, even hitting some in midair.

"Disgusting, evil little things" Sieger muttered as the last Minion fell.

Samantha was about to make a comment but felt suddenly weak and stumbled to the ground, her vision dizzy.

"Samantha!" Sieger yelled, letting out a wave of fire that fended off the Zombie and allowed him to pull the girl to her feet. Samantha blushed as Sieger grabbed her hand and quickly pulled her hand away, turning the other direction as she did so.

"I feel…weak" Samantha muttered, her blush fading a bit.

"You should practice with your new powers more. Just using them like that is bound to tire you out" Sieger said as he began to shoot at Zombies with Fatum. Samantha recovered after a moment and the two began to shoot at the Zombies once more.

"Hey…do you guys hear that?" Nick asked a he slashed at a Zombie with C.N. before looking up into the air.

Sieger paused for a moment before he heard it too. A faint buzzing sound off in the distance. Samantha stopped what she was doing and looked up.

"I hear it…is that a plane?" Samantha asked Sieger, who shrugged.

A strange noise suddenly became louder, followed by a voice on a loud intercom scream "TAKE COVER!"

Both Zombies and Survivors looked up see a large jet soaring through the sky, shooting a volley of missiles towards them. The survivors screamed while the Zombies carelessly surged forward.

"Samantha, your barrier! Use it!" Sieger said quickly to Samantha, who nodded and sprinted towards the approaching missiles. She flung her arms out and a massive blue wall of energy appeared in front of her, separating her and the others from the oncoming horde of Zombies.

The missiles then impacted the ground, creating an explosion that tore away at the rotten flesh masses, and causing a shockwave in the surrounding area. The survivors managed to make it behind Sam's barrier before the missile hit.

"Who in the hell is piloting that thing?!" Nicholas shouted over the roar of the jet.

"That's a military class F-16." Joe replied looking at the jet as it came around for another run. When the jet passed overhead, the cockpit opened up and 3 figures ejected from it. The jet then started to wobble at it surged towards the ground at breakneck speed. Parachutes opened up for the 3 jet pilots and they began their descent towards the ground. Along the way, they started shooting at the remaining zombies right below them.

"Wait, is that…" Juliet started saying, looking at 2 of the figures in general. One of them had an Elvis style going for him, with the zebra jacket and the pompadour hairstyle.

"You freakbags keep away from my lady!" the man barked as he blew apart the Zombies bellow with an Scorpion EVO. The woman next to him coming down had a red and white polka dot bandana around her neck, and orange leather jacket, and jeans on.

"Oh dear, you know I can handle these douchebags all by myself." The lady said. The first two finally touched down, and took off their parachutes. Taking care of the zombies around them, they finally turned towards the group, revealing them to be none other than…

"MOM! DAD!" Juliet shouted as she ran over to her parents. Juliet's mom and dad saw her and opened up their arms for her. She jumped in and started laughing and crying at the same time. "I missed you so much!"

"Aww, we missed you too baby-cakes." Juliet's dad responded as he blew the head off of a charred Zombie that hadn't been killed by the airstrike.

Before the heartfelt moment could continue, everyone noticed the third figure that was still coming down. He had a police issued SPAS-12 and M16 on his person, utility belt with Taser, Glock .35 Auto pistol. He had on a green uniform with Bradburn County Sheriff's Office of his arm.

"Wait, that's a cop from Bradburn" Andrew said, sounding surprised.

"Wait, a cop…" Joe started, but couldn't finish as the cop touched the ground and started taking out the remaining Zombies around him. He used his SPAS-12 to take out the close range ones, then pulled out his Glock and started taking out the ones that were a little further away. One got too close to him, but he pulled out his Taser and zapped it before it could get him.

"Damn, he's really good. I wonder who he is?" Nicholas said out loud. Everyone else watched in amazement, but Joe was the only one watching with his jaw dropped. He then dropped the Wunderwaffe without realizing it.

Once the cop finished off the zombies around him, he turned around to face the others. Needless to say, he was shocked with what was in front of him. A group of teenagers with all kinds of weapons looking battle worn from hours of fighting. But that wasn't the thing he was most shocked about. He was most shocked at seeing one individual in the group, the tallest one out of them.

"...Joe?" the man said quietly.

"DAD!" Joe ran over to his dad and tackled him to the ground, crying and laughing just like Juliet was a moment ago.

The group was looking back and forth between the two families before Sam said something.

"Ok, I'm a bit lost. How is it the Joe's father found Juliet's parents and took an F-16 all the way to New York, where they just blew up about a thousand zombies at once?" Samantha said, scratching her head with a confused smile.

"Well when you put it like that, it just sounds like something out of a bad fanfiction, I mean a really…." Before Nick could finish, Nicholas took his Speakeasy and started shooting at Nick's feet, making him dance around. With each bullet shot, Nicholas started speaking.

"Stop...breaking...the….fourth...wall...you….midge t….numbnuts!"

"Hehe, midget numbnuts" Jess giggled.

"Hang on, that wasn't numbnuts." Judith questioned.

"Hehe, numbnuts."

"I give up." Judith said pinching the bridge of her nose

"So, you gonna introduce us to your friends sweetie?" Juliet's mom asked.

"Sure. This is Nick, Andrew, Judith, Jess, Marcus, the one with his father is Joe, Sieger, Samantha…"

"Ah, Samantha, it's good to meet you again after so long." Juliet's dad said as he held out to Sam.

"Likewise sir." Sam replied shaking his hand.

Juliet then continued. "Then there's Jax, Iva, Chan, Kara, and…" Juliet paused for a moment before she walked over to Nicholas and held his hand. "This is Nicholas….he's my boyfriend daddy."

When the dreaded B-word was said, all the color for Nicholas's face vanished and he turned white as Juliet's dad was looking into his very soul. He then began a slow walk over until he was standing right in front of Nicholas, glaring at him with the intensity of a man who was ready to stab someone viciously.

"Uhhh...h-hello sir, it's nice to me...meet you. Juliet is a really good fighter…" Nicholas began awkwardly.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!" Juliet's dad shouted furiously. Nicholas then yelped in terror before his eyes rolled in the back of his head and he fainted.

"Daddy!" Juliet shouted as she caught Nicholas before he hit the ground.

"At least he didn't run away like the others. Although the one guy couldn't, considering he was just a head." Juliet's dad said with a grin.

"So now what?" Nick asked.

"We need a plan" Kara said, glancing at John.

"We need to get out of here. We're sitting ducks, and Richtofen knows that Sieger is helping us" John said, glancing over at the young man in question, who adjusted his sunglasses.

"Richtofen knows where my loyalties lie. We've got luck on our side though, since he didn't expect Yena to turn on him and didn't think we could take out the Blizzard Zombie" Sieger replied.

"You kids should fill us in. It seems like a lot's happened lately, and there's more behind this than just undead freaks walking around" Joe's dad said, stilling hugging his son with one arm.

"A touching reunion, is it not?" Takeo said quietly as he, Nikolai, and Dempsey watched from far.

"Yeah, good to see the kid's dad's alive in any case. Juliet's parents are here too, so that's a relief…I guess they forgot about us in the excitement" Dempsey said with a shrug. After the initial shock of seeing the Original Zombie Slayers were alive and well, as well as real, the real task turned to burning the dead and recovering from the battle with the Reclaimers and Yena's assault.

"We cannot stay behind to lead them into battle anyway, isn't that right Dempsey?" Takeo said shrewdly.

"You're damn right. They can handle the small fry. We'll need backup if we're going to make it to California in one piece" the marine said quietly.

"I agree, but how can we get more reinforcements? Your nation is in shambles" Nikolai asked seriously.

Dempsey closed his eyes and said "I've got an idea, but it'll take a bit of doing"

"What do you have in mind, American?" Nikolai asked slowly.

"We'd have to leave the girls behind. Just for a few days. We need a plane of some kind too" Dempsey said as he pulled out a small radio. He pulled out a small battery with a Group 935 logo on it and placed it into the back part of the radio.

"What are you doing?" Takeo asked.

"Calling for some backup" Dempsey said with a grin as he took a few steps away and began speaking to someone.

"Hey, it's Dempsey"

"_Thought you died years ago Tank. How you holding up now that the Nazi is back?"_ the old man on the other end chuckled.

"Yeah, it's bad over here. Spread the word…Operation Sea of Fire is to go into full effect" Dempsey growled into the radio.

"_That bad eh?"_ a raspy voice replied.

"You have no idea. We'll be there in a few hours. Just spread the word, OK?" Dempsey muttered.

"_You've got it. We'll get everyone we can. We can even have a transport come pick you guys up"_

"Just get one that can get three guys, that'll be enough" Dempsey replied.

"_Got it. Stay safe Dempsey"_ the old man said on the other end of the radio.

"You too old timer. Dempsey out" the marine said with a grin as he ended the radio transmission.

"Our ride will be here in a few hours. Suit up guys" Dempsey said with a grin.

Nicholas finally woke up about five minutes later and found himself lying on the ground in the Camp. Juliet glanced down at him and helped him up, wearing a grin as always.

"So…that happened?" Nicholas said dryly.

"You fainted because my dad's a bit protective. He was surprised you didn't run away"

"The thought crossed my mind…so, what happened after I had a panic attack and passed out?" Nicholas asked with an annoyed tone.

"We caught them up to speed. Joe's dad and my parents are going to take control of the remaining survivors and we're all heading to California" Juliet said quietly.

"So…you introduced me as your boyfriend earlier…" Nicholas said slowly to Juliet, who grinned at him.

"Well, it's not every day someone holds off a small horde of Zombies while on ammo, just so you can get a cute outfit" Juliet said as though that was the supreme central trait of Nicholas's character.

"I'm not complaining. After this is over, you thinking of hanging with us in Florida?" Nicholas asked.

"I hear it's lovely this time of year" Juliet said with a grin.

"It doesn't get cold until like, January" Nicholas said dryly.

"I think you're exaggerating a little bit" Juliet said.

"I went to Wet N' Wild the day AFTER Christmas last year!"

"Wow…that's awesome!"

"Gotta love that optimism" Nicholas said with a sigh, to which Juliet replied with a tight hug.

Joe's father looked out across the crowd of survivors, smiling to himself as they got settled once again and began to nurse their wounds and get ready to go to sleep. Others got ready for their shift of keeping watch.

"What's shakin'?" Juliet's father asked as he walked over to Joe's father.

"Just surprised is all…this all looks like it came out of one of my son's games, and we're stuck in the middle of it. We could all die, just to stop one madman" Joe's father said with a sigh.

"It's crazy" Joe's father finished.

"We're all crazy" Juliet's father said with a smile.

"Your point?" Joe's father said.

"Life's a surprise man. You've gotta roll with it, just go with the flow, you hear me? If you can't adapt and survive, then you won't live to see the sunrise. Our family has made a life off of fighting these things, even for the government for a while…you've got to see the bigger picture"

"What would that be?"

"That those kids of ours represent something…hope. Innocence…all that stuff. They're a good bunch og kids, and they've got their hearts in the right place…that Richtofen fella…he must have went through something bad…really bad, and realized how terrible this world really is. This world is pretty darn messed up, and maybe it's just me…but there's a lot of people this world would be better off not having" Juliet's father said.

"That's a horrible thing to say" Joe's father growled.

"Maybe…but the convicts, corrupt politicians, and just plain bad people in this world…we'd be better off without em'. That's just me talking though" Juliet's father said as he began to walk away.

Joe's father sat down and sighed, putting his head in his hands.

"Maybe…maybe not. But the bottom line is that Richtofen can't get away with this…we've got to save what's left of humanity to save" Joe's father muttered as he looked up into the night sky once more.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

City Outskirts:

* * *

><p>Nicholas had told Joe and Iva to try and find supplies a bit further away from the camp. He never specified how far they had to go, so they went all the way out to the edge of the city where they ended up at a rail yard. The pair had been talking about random stuff while shifting around the area, looking for anything that could be of use.<p>

"But wouldn't the compressor overload when connected to the transceiver?" Iva asked.

"Nah, that's when the modulator is connect with the compressor. That way, this thing doesn't cause a literal lightning storm." Joe replied, holding up the Wunderwaffe.

"A lightning storm?"

"Yeah. Think of a heavy story with hail, except replace the hail with long streaks of lightning coming down to the ground."

"...Well we certainly wouldn't have an energy problem anymore."

"Yeah, free energy for everyone!" Joe and Iva laughed together while moving closer to each other. Joe noticed this, and a small blush came over his face as they were nearly touching arms.

"So how do you feel about your dad being here?" Iva asked, breaking the momentary silence.

Joe smiled at this. "I feel great. We all had to leave our family behind when we escaped, so at least a small reminder of home has returned."

"It seems like it. Does he know about us yet?"

"No, but when we left, he was starting to drink some vodka with Nikolai."

"Uh oh."

"What?"

"When my dad starts drinking, he blurts out random things sometimes."

"...I guess we had better prepare for the teasing when we get back."

"Yeah."

The pair then walked up to a big metal door with train tracks leading into it. The door had a gigantic lock on front of it, with a keypad to the right of the door.

"Any ideas?" Iva asked.

"Just one." Joe then walked up to the keypad, pointed the Wunderwaffe at it…

Meanwhile in Reality:

"What would that even do? Shooting the Wunderwaffe?" Nicholas asked while looking at what Joe was typing.

"It'll overload the circuits and get the door to open." Joe replied, continuing to type.

"Do you realize how unrealistic that sounds?" Nicholas asked.

"Do you realize how much I don't care?" Joe replied as he grinned

Nicholas then backhanded Joe, causing him to fall out of the chair and onto the floor with a yelp. He then took Joe's former place and started typing.

"Now to make it believable…" Nicholas muttered.

Meanwhile At the Plot:

"Maybe I should try?" Iva suggested, yanking the Wunderwaffe DG-7 out of Joe's hands.

"Oh OK. But only because I really want to see what you do" Joe said with a sheepish grin. Iva cracked her knuckles and held out her hands in front of the door.

"What…what the hell are you-?" Joe began to ask.

"Open Sesame!" Iva cried out in front of the door.

Suddenly, the giant padlock fell off and clucked on the ground, and the giant door started slowly opening.

"Wow, I can't believe that actually worked." Joe stated.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" A thunderous voice in the sky shouted.

"What was that?!" Iva shouted, holding her ears.

"I don't know, but it kind of sounded like me…let's move on." Joe said.

"Yes, lets."

Joe and Iva walked into the new room, which was dark with do lights on. Iva walked over to the nearby wall and flipped the switch, lighting up the room.

"Let there be light. I have the POWEEERRRRRR!" Iva said and laughed. Joe didn't reply, as he was standing in front of the metal contraption, grinning with mischievous intentions.

"Oh this is gonna be fun." Joe said as he hopped up into the front of the train and began to examine it. It was a modern passenger train with a white and blue paintjob. It had only three cars to it, but despite its small size, could easily feet a number of people comfortably. It looked to be in fairly good condition, and was probably even operational.

"This looks like it could work, actually" Joe said with a wide grin as he pulled out his laptop. Iva looked over his shoulder and grinned.

"So, this thing does actually have an active track that it can go on…and that track does go through California" Iva said with a laugh.

"So we just got to get this thing going...I'm sure we can get it running so we can get to California in two days" Joe said as he cracked his knuckles, discharging a small burst of electricity into the air.

"Actually, we should aim for a day. It's Thursday night, and Richtofen's executing his plan Saturday night, er, Sunday morning at midnight? Whatever...We should have some time to plan and get ready to fight him" Iva said.

"Hmmm…"

"Any ideas?" Iva asked.

"A few. I took some parts from Richtofen's Node Lab thing before the Zombies attacked, and I've got some meteorite bits" Joe said as he opened the door and stepped into the dining car. Joe was surprised at how nice the inside of the train was, with several tables set up and upon further inspection, several freezers and fridges for storing food. Apparently this was a very high end passenger train.

"This is the passenger car. We can sleep here" Iva said, pointing to the comfortable looking seats in the room.

"I'm more interested in the front of the train" Joe said with a smirk as he walked up to the very front of the train.

Joe opened the door and looked at the main console before looking at the Russian girl standing next to him.

"Iva?"

"Yeah?"

"You want to help me get this thing going?" Joe asked

"Spend a few hours getting a ride west while working with someone as smart as me? Damn straight" Iva said, wrapping an arm around Joe's shoulder with a wide grin, causing him to blush.

"We've got our work cut out for us. This won't be easy" Joe said to Iva, who scoffed.

"Please. This will be a piece of cake" Iva said with a laugh as the two began their work.

* * *

><p>Two Hours Later:<p>

* * *

><p>Joe's father and Juliet's parents took control of the camp, organizing the remaining supplies and effectively coming in and replacing Captain Thomas as the leader of the survivors. No one opposed this, even Sieger thought it was appropriate to have the parents be in charge. Most of the survivors were sleeping off the pain and blood loss, as well as resting up for the next day's events. As the sun began to rise and streaks of orange, blue, and pink streaked across the sky beautifully, Joe and Iva ran into the camp holding hands and panting heavily.<p>

"Guys!" Joe yelled as he jumped over the Danger Line with Iva, holding her as they ran towards them.

"What happened Joe?" Joe's father asked worriedly.

"We found a way to California!" Joe said excitedly.

"What? How?" Sieger asked as he walked over with Samantha close behind.

"We found a train. It's in really good condition, and we've hardwired it to get us to California by Friday night" Joe said in a grin.

"Joe? You did that? H-how?" Joe's dad asked, sounding surprised.

"Chuck Norris unlocked a special part of his brain and now he's a technology wizard" Nick explained.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard" Joe's dad replied.

"It's true though" Joe said, shrugging.

"Alright then, we'll wake everyone up and start moving the supplies to the train" Juliet's mom said cheerfully. Juliet's father wandered off to go wake the sleeping survivors up while Joe's dad turned to him with a solemn smile.

"Here's the plan. You guys go on the train, get to California. We'll find a way to get everyone else to California as well and meet up with you" Joe's dad said.

"What? You want us to leave without you guys?" Joe said, sounding surprised and reluctant to part with his dad so soon after seeing him again.

"As much as I hate to say it Joe, Richtofen's targeting you all, not the survivors. If we travelled together, he'd try to take us all out at once, whereas he'll probably send a smaller threat after you if your numbers were lower" Joe's dad said quietly, putting a hand on his son's shoulder.

"I don't want to leave you again Dad" Joe muttered, and his dad enveloped him in a tight hug that Joe returned.

"I'll see you again. It'll just be a day or two" Joe's dad said comfortingly.

"Any volunteers?" Nick asked the others, turning attention away from Joe and back to the current issue.

"I'll stay behind" Jax offered.

Kara and Chan offered to stay behind with Jax, but that was it. The rest would take the train to California while the others made their own way there. Both groups would meet at in California, wherever the M.P.D was. According to Sieger it was a massive tower in Los Angeles, so they would find each other in the city and regroup there.

To their surprise, Dempsey Nikolai and Takeo would have no part in the plan.

"B-but why?" Kara asked, sounding confused and upset.

"We're not staying here. We're leaving" Dempsey said simply.

"WHAT!?"

"We must gather reinforcements. The remaining survivors are battered and weak, we will return before the final battle. That we promise" Takeo said calmly.

"Are you leaving the country?" Joe asked.

"Something like that" Dempsey said with a small grin.

"I can't believe you're leaving us to fend for ourselves" Jess said quietly. Takeo looked at her for a moment before saying "Sometimes, you cannot fight a war by yourselves, Jessica-san. Despite our strength, we need more. We must find help"

"Besides, Sieger's a pretty damn good ally to have anyway. With him and Sam, you guys will be just fine" Tank said with a grin, clapping Sieger on the back. The young man glanced at Dempsey in surprise and said "You'd trust me with that?"

"Yeah. You're a good kid, even if-" Dempsey began to say before Takeo said "You have much honor, Sieger-san. We know you can protect the young ones"

"He's not much older than me" Nicholas said with a raised eyebrow.

"Maybe, but I have fire powers" Sieger said as he held out a fist full of black flames.

"Touché"

An hour later, the group was boarding the train. Joe and Iva would serve as the drivers while the others would protect it from any sort of threats that Richtofen sent after them. A good chunk of the supplies gathered, mainly food and the Perk-A-Cola Machines, was put on the train and stored in the Dining Car

"ALL ABOARD!" Joe yelled as he lazily stood in the doorway to the train.

John shot in the nuts with the Winter's Fury and walked past him as Joe fell down onto the ground, howling in pain. Jess skipped past him, Andrew snickered as he clambered up the steps, followed by the rest.

"Bye guys! We'll see you in LA!" Starch called.

"Bye! Be safe!" Serenity yelled, waving a scarf at them.

Joe looked out at his dad as the train moved past, locking eyes with him. His dad smiled warmly at his son and gave him a small nod, and Joe broke into a wide grin.

"At least he's safe" Joe said with a sigh of relief.

Joe yelped as a hand clasped his shoulder, and he found Nicholas standing next to him.

"You'll see him soon man. For now, we've got to stay alive and make it to California…something tells me Richtofen already knows our plan, and there's not a chance in hell he won't have something set up to stop us from getting there" Nicholas said with a sigh.

"Then we do what we always do" Joe said, pulling out his Wunderwaffe DG-7 with a grin.

Nicholas pulled out his Porter's Mark II Ray Gun and said "Blast the hell out of whatever he sends at us and keep on going"

"Damn straight" Joe replied.

"Yep. Now get back up front. As much as I like Iva, I'd rather someone sober drive us to LA" Nicholas said dryly as he and Joe walked back up through the train.

The train soon left the city, and for a while it travelled the countryside. Eventually it came into the sights of a young blond woman with crimson eyes.

"Train huh? That's too slow for my liking, I prefer shadow walking more!" Eris said with a smirk as she began to sink into her shadow.

"I wonder what Richtofen will send at them next…I guess we'll have to wait and see!" the young woman said with a laugh as she vanished into her own darkness.

* * *

><p>Location: Unknown<p>

Time Period: Unknown

* * *

><p>Richtofen crashed onto the ground in the middle of a grassy field. He starred up at the sparkling, twinkling sky, and let out a sigh of relief. They were back in his own time, though apparently they had just reappeared in a field somewhere. It was probably better that way.<p>

"That was too close…Jonathan?" Richtofen said as he looked behind him, seeing the jester collapse onto the ground and the portal behind them vanished.

"I've lost everything…everything…" the jester murmured as tears rushed down his face.

"Maybe…but you have gained something as well" Richtofen said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Come with me my friend. I will not leave your side. We are in this together now" Richtofen said seriously. Jonathan embraced Richtofen, who blinked in surprise at the contact.

"My friend…my old life…has been all but eradicated…I lost my love…my people…my home…EVERYTHING! I have no purpose!" Jonathan howled miserably as he broke the embrace.

"You will be reborn then! I will give your purpose Jonathan! I have no need for a friend who wallows in his own misery! Make something of your pain, use it!" Richtofen snarled, grabbing the young man by the shoulder and starring into his eyes fiercely.

"I've left everything behind Edward…everything in my life is gone now…I will go with you now…I will help you, however I can…" Jonathan whispered as tears continued to run down his face. Richtofen let go of him, and the two men sat down in the grass. Silence filled the air, and the two men just sat there for a while. Jonathan managed to gain his composure after grieving silently for a while, but Richtofen was patient. This required a delicate touch after all.

"I will be reborn again…my new life, is helping you however I can…" Jonathan whispered.

"I thank you my friend…we will change this world…together" Richtofen said softly.

"If I'm being reborn again, and leaving everything of my old life behind…then I need a new name" Jonathan said softly.

"Do you?"

"Yes. Otherwise I cannot leave my old life behind, and accept my new one…it's a magician thing" the jester said softly as he wiped his eyes.

"How about…Illuzio?" Richtofen suggested with a small smile.

Jonathan smiled sadly and said "Illusions? Yes, I am a magician, and illusions are my specialty…yes…Illuzio is perfect"

"Richtofen and Illuzio…together, this world will be ours" Richtofen said softly.

"Together…we will change everything…" Illuzio said softly as he looked into the sky, and began his new life.

* * *

><p>End of Chapter:<p>

* * *

><p><em>So long New York! Time to go to L.A.! Where the final few chapters of the story will take place, and where the backstory of Richtofen and Group 935 will be explained!<em>

_Stay turned for more awesomeness._

_Thanks of the support as always, please leave a review in the section below. It takes literally seconds and means so much to me._

_Follow the trail of carnage by following me on Twitter, follow me at FlygonNick_

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	38. Of Secrets and Plots

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Alright guys, here I am, uploading on time for a change and on the verge of passing out from exhaustion in the middle of the afternoon. I'm running on three hours of sleep, and I can't go back to sleep because my dog threw up on my bed, and I am now forced to clean my blankets and bed sheets._

_Stupid washing machine, making things complicated._

_Oh right, my regular AN nonsense._

_We're getting close to the last ten chapters of Apocalypse, which as I've said before, is a story that consists of 50 chapters, including an Epilogue since I'm a tad OCD like that. This is where I'll come at you hard with good stuff, so if you've enjoyed my work so far, get ready for the chapters leading up the finale._

_Also, motivation for updating my previous chapters comes and goes, purely because I am quite lazy. I'll get going on chapter 2 and so on eventually, but I will finish reviewing and editing everything before I start on my next story._

_Shoutout to those who review last chapter, which includes Knightmare Frame Razgriz, Dustchu, Trapinchh, lolperson2, tjelledge262, BobbyD (thank you for reviewing all of the chapters, you rock) a guest review known as monkeyface, a Guest reviewer, another guest, Dogsled Shepard, Killz718, Lord rage quit, MetaKnight0011, and xNewWorld, as well as a new reviewer known as eel3234. You guys are amazing, please keep reading and reviewing and sending me feedback. _

_Enjoy!_

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 38: Of Secrets and Plots<span>

"_To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself"-_ Henry Ward Beecher

* * *

><p>Flashback<p>

Area 51: No Man's Land

* * *

><p>Samantha glanced back as Nikolai, Takeo, and Dempsey rushed out into the wilderness, fleeing from the lone complex in the charred landscape. Or what was left of it anyway. She turned her head forward, before the few charred and flaming Zombies that had survived the missiles stumbled after them.<p>

The Teleporter inside of the small warehouse whirred and a massive surge of electricity surged throughout the area as a man slowly appeared in the device. After a moment, he had an indistinct form. Then he became solid until he took the form of a man with bright electric blue eyes.

Edward Richtofen flexed his fingers experimentally and said "So…it begins again"

Illuzio appeared beside him in a flash of light, frowning.

"Are you OK Edward?" Illuzio asked.

"I…I am fine. Better than fine…I am…confused, Illuzio. My…mind is so clear. It is as though I never touched that damned pyramid…" Richtofen muttered.

"You regained your sanity? The voices are gone!?" Illuzio said, a smile breaking out on his face.

"Yes…apparently so…Samantha's powers are mine" Richtofen said as he flexed his hand, green electricity discharging from it.

"We should meet up with the others. I took them to this time period in the hopes that my theory on time travel was correct, which it was. They're in a small safe house I made a few states away" Illuzio said with a grin.

"Let us go then, my friend. We shall begin again, and be greater than ever before!" Richtofen said with a triumphant grin. The two men vanished in a flash of light and reappeared outside of a small destroyed house in the middle of a ravaged city. The house looked to be in better condition than some of the other ones in the area. Richtofen glanced at Illuzio, who nodded, and then proceeded towards the house. Richtofen opened the door, and was immediately shoved against the wall and had a pistol jammed into his face.

"What the-!?" Yena had time to say before Richtofen kicked him away, sending him flying across the room and slamming into the wall with a snarl. Sophia and Porter looked over at Richtofen in surprise and said "Edward?"

"And Illuzio!" the jester yelled cheerfully, stepping into the room.

Richtofen ignored him and said "All proceeded as planned. I have full control over Element 115, the M.P.D., and the energies within it"

"So, what happened after you guys left Der Reise?" Porter asked.

Richtofen said that it would be a long story, and so the remaining members of Group 935 pulled up chairs and sat down, and listened to Richtofen's incredible tale. They were amazed that they could have possibly survived for so long under such impossible odds, but with Illuzio's assistance, they made it back to the Griffin Station in one piece.

Illuzio then explained how Samantha had used an Anti-Vril Generator, the one Maxis had created, to try and force Richtofen back into his body, but it backfired and allowed Richtofen to both keep his powers and regain his body. It also negated the effects the M.P.D. had on his sanity, and got rid of his schizophrenia and psychosis.

"The subjects and Samantha escaped. They are probably running to wherever the leaders of this country reside, the White House, correct?" Richtofen asked.

"White House is where the President lives. I don't think he'd be holed up there though" Yena admitted.

"Ah well. It doesn't matter I suppose" Richtofen said with a shrug.

"So, what now?" Yena growled as he slowly got to his feet.

Richtofen thought for a moment and said "I believe we should recuperate from our recent battles. We no longer have to worry about the undead threats, as I control them now. I have already ordered my undead minions to retreat into the earth and sleep"

"So, we just sit here and relax?" Porter asked.

"For now, yes. We must tread carefully from here on in. We must fade into obscurity, and into the very shadows of legend. Or rather, into the shadows of anonymity…BAH! We must vanish from society, and become known only to ourselves!" Richtofen growled angrily, annoyed at fumbling his words like that.

"English is hard" Yena snickered.

"Shut up Harvey, or do you wish to get kicked into the wall again" Richtofen asked with a grin. Sophia stifled a laugh while Illuzio and Porter chuckled at that. Yena simply shrugged and said "Whatever. If you need me, I'll be sleeping" Harvey Yena walked into a room to his left and closed the creaky door behind him.

Richtofen shook his head and walked over to a desk, pulling out a large sheet of paper from a nearby bookcase. He snatched a pen from the desk and began to draw a large diagram followed by a series of numbers.

"All of you should get some rest. The planet is recovering from Maxis's failed attempt to stop me. While the missiles did much less damage to the planet than they should have-"

"That was my doing" Illuzio chimed in.

"I figured. Excellent work as always, Illuzio" Richtofen said before continuing.

"The world will rebuild itself, over time. We must fade into obscurity, so we will not be disturbed. We have time, and we will use it to perfect Element 115 experimentation. However, I am tired from the double exchange I underwent, and I'm sure you all are weary as well"

"I could use some shut eye as well" Porter admitted. Sophia nodded in agreement.

"I'm running on fumes here, and I've exhausted my energy stores for now" Illuzio added.

"Then we rest and recuperate, and begin in the morning" Richtofen said, dismissing them. Each of them slept in a different room, while Richtofen continued to jot down on the paper a long and advanced formula.

"I am close…so close!" Richtofen growled in annoyance.

He had discovered, throughout his journey to the Moon, that Element 115 can be used to unlock great powers in ordinary humans if their will was strong, and if they survived the process. This particular ability required a great deal of calculations and planning, and he was determined to bestow this gift to one of his few remaining followers.

Richtofen closed his eyes, feeling the exhaustion setting in. Despite the massive increase in power and his newfound abilities, the transition had drained him of his energy, and he was very tired.

Richtofen began to muse as he drowsed.

Maxis was a fool, he realized...well, not realized. He knew he was a fool…

A true, true fool.

Maxis had tried again and again to foil his plans, yet in the end Richtofen not only gained control of the M.P.D, but he also had a body on top of that.

All the while Maxis was trapped in a small black gem that was lying on the floor in an abandoned space station.

"I should probably go back for the gem at some point…but for now, I'll let Maxis stew in his own misery. I may have freed Samantha's soul from the M.P.D., but she can't return to her own body now. It would be so easy for her to find a host, but that is unlikely" Richtofen murmured as he continued to tiredly write more of the long formula on the paper on the table.

"_Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo are with her…they must be wondering where I am…what I am doing…the fools will be waiting for quite some time, as I don't plan on making an appearance for quite a while"_ Richtofen thought with a small laugh.

His thoughts turned to Samantha…

In all honesty, he really didn't hate Samantha all that much. She was just a scared little girl really. He remembered back when she had fondly called him Uncle Edward. He used to be a role model for her before Richtofen lost his mind and began to experiment on her, turning her into a perfect conduit for the energies of Element 115. When he discovered the M.P.D., he had touched it. He felt insanity and anger pour into him, as well as a myriad of voices clamoring for death and destruction. His growing resentment of Maxis turned to hate and anger, and while he now could think back and say that he had overreacted a bit, he had no regrets over how he had eliminated Maxis.

A fitting end for a fool.

He had grown to fear and resent Samantha for hunting down mercilessly after the past few weeks. Now he felt a little bad for her. How could he not? He had killed her idiot father, and of course she responded like any human would have done. The fact of the matter was that she had claimed the power that he had fought so hard to acquire, and then turned it against him. It was like a slap in the face, that Maxis, for a time, had outsmarted and bested him.

He won in the end though. So where did that leave Samantha…?

Richtofen continued to ponder until he drifted off to sleep, allowing slumber to engulf him and carry his mind to more peaceful things.

A few hours later, Sophia opened her eyes and glanced around the small room she had claimed for herself. She sat up and stretched, letting out a small yawn before getting up from her bed and slipping on her lab coat and buttoning it up.

Sophia poked her head into the room, seeing the sleeping 115 Conduit snoring softly on his chair. Richtofen seemed…peaceful. Something that she hadn't seen him be in quite some time. Sophia slowly crept into the room and walked over to what he had been working on.

"_A formula to control the shadows…to manipulate blood and darkness using Element 115…interesting…"_ Sophia thought with a smile. The Doctor seemed to be even more of a genius than Maxis was, if he could even think of being able to control darkness itself. Sophia had always admired intellect above everything in else in people, so she was downright impressed by Richtofen's successful takeover of the M.P.D. he found that even though he was insane for most of this ordeal, he was still immensely intelligent and cunning.

Sophia looked down at the table and saw an incredibly long and difficult equation written on a small blueprint. Sophia slowly turned the paper towards her and starred at it.

"So this is the formula…I see…" Sophia whispered as she grabbed Richtofen's pen from his slack hand and began to scribble something down on the paper.

"Shadows and blood…of course…" Sophia murmured as she finally stopped her efforts, smiling at the result.

"What are you doing Sophia?"

Sophia let out a squeak and dropped the pen, looking up to see a curious Richtofen looking at her. There was no anger, no hint of insanity in his electric blue eyes. It was like he had been turned back into the thoughtful and determined young man he had been before touching the M.P.D.

"I saw that you were working on this formula…I think I figured it out for you…I'm sorry, Maxis never let me assist him in his experiments, and I was…well, I couldn't help myself Edward" Sophia said with a small smile, blushing slightly at being found out like this.

Richtofen nodded and looked down at the paper, turning it towards himself. Richtofen's eyes widened and he said in a surprised tone "You…you…"

"Yes?"

"You did it…You finished the equation for shadow manipulation...With this…it looks like I can…Sophia…" Richtofen looked up at her with a small, but sincere smile.

"Well done Sophia. I see that you're much more than a pretty face after all" Richtofen said in a soft tone as he picked up the paper and rolled it up, sticking it in his pocket. Sophia blushed at the small praise and Richtofen said "You have promise, my friend. Now, go back to sleep. I must think of how we proceed from here…there is so much to do…and we must be careful with how we proceed" Richtofen said softly.

"Of course…good night Edward" Sophia said quietly.

"Good night Sophia" Richtofen said as he examined the detailed paper intensely,

Sophia slipped away and left Richtofen to his musings. Sophia glanced back at Edward with a smile before slipping into her room and settling down in her bed.

"Perhaps teaming up with Edward…won't be so bad after all" Sophia thought as she slowly fell asleep.

Richtofen remained awake though, his thoughts racing with the possibilities.

"With the Shadow Manipulation formula complete, it is only a matter of time before it can be perfected. Each of my followers will become stronger than they could have dreamed…I myself will gain powers beyond imagination, thanks to Illuzio's magic and my newfound powers…"

"I wonder how this all began…there's something strange about all of this…something I cannot place…maybe in time, I will find my answers…until then…" Richtofen trailed off.

Richtofen looked up through the hole in the roof at the moon and said "There is much work to do…but…I think I have all the time in the world now. Samantha has gone into hiding, those fools cannot stop me now, and Maxis…well, Maxis is worse than dead"

"I have all the time in the world to perfect the process…to make us stronger, and to make this world better. To improve the human condition…I think that would be a better use of my abilities than conquering this world. I am not alone in this endeavor…not anymore"

Richtofen glanced over at the sleeping form of Sophia for a moment, visible through a crack in her door, and allowed a small smile to cross his features.

"Perhaps it is time for me to retire as well…" Richtofen said softly to himself as he walked back over to his chair and slipped off his combat boots and placed his feet on the table. He leaned his chair against the wall and propped himself up against the wall, tilting his hat downwards to cover his eyes. He slowly fell asleep, unaware that another was watching him.

"So the old corpse succeeded" Yena murmured as he stepped out of the shadows.

"It seems as though Richtofen will change the direction of the project. For the betterment of society eh?...well, we'll see how long that lasts" Yena murmured as he slunk back into his room, pondering what he had just overheard Richtofen say.

* * *

><p><span>Meanwhile:<span>

Present:

Train:

* * *

><p>Nicholas yawned and stretched his arms before he felt a pair of lips brush up against his cheek.<p>

"Good morning" Juliet chirped as Nicholas yawned.

"Hey you. How'd you sleep?" Nicholas mumble.

"Better than the past few days. I'm not sure about you, but it's nice not to sleep in fear that Zombies will attack you" Juliet admitted.

"I haven't slept, technically, in days. I was trapped in Zombie Alcatraz for a few hours while like, three days or so passed in your time"

"So, what happened?" Juliet asked.

"It's a long story" Nicholas said.

Juliet wrapped the blanket they had been sharing around them and snuggled close to Nicholas, smiling widely.

"I've got time" Juliet said quietly.

And so Nicholas began his tale.

He told the backgrounds of the four mobsters. Sal DeLuca, Finn O Leary, Albert Arlington, and Billy Handsome. He told of their personalities, their quirks, their criminal records. He recounted how they had been arrested and imprisoned in Alcatraz for their crimes.

And then…he told of their escape attempt.

"Weasel…I don't know what he was thinking, but he made some crazy lie up that he could escape the island in a makeshift plane of his own design…he told the others about it and enlisted their help, but…the plan fell apart"

"And then what?"

"And then things got bloody" Nicholas muttered.

"Sal, Finn, and Billy led Weasel to the roof and beat him to death with a bunch of makeshift weapons….they killed him, just because he wanted to be noticed…to be accepted, you know?"

Juliet nodded sadly, and Nicholas said "Finn, Sal, and Billy were put to death by the electric chair…and that's where things get interesting"

Juliet listened in awe of how Illuzio had been searching for scapegoats for his rage and frustration at Richtofen, and had found it in the form of four mobsters who were obviously doomed to death for their atrocities anyway. So he had stolen their souls just before they died, and transported them to an alternate reality of Alcatraz Prison, where Zombies roamed and attacked in a very twisted version of a Zombie Map.

"It's like a Mob of the Dead or something" Juliet said jokingly. Nicholas gave her a half-smile and said "Well, they tried to escape, but in the struggle against the Zombies they got killed. They then got sent to the Afterlife"

"Afterlife?"

"Not that kind…think of it as another alternate dimension, or something to that effect, where you float around as a ghost with electrical powers, and you can see things that you can't see when you're alive. They returned to their bodies, and from there they would fight for their lives, trying to build the plane that Weasel had told the so much about"

"I thought the plane never existed though. And wouldn't they have known that beforehand?" Juliet asked.

"Illuzio wipes their memories every time they all die, and they just start all over again from round one" Nicholas said.

"But, sometimes, they would survive long enough to make it to the plane, and then fly into the skies to freedom. But every time they did, a storm would blow them off course and make them crash onto the Golden Gate Bridge. They were constantly taunted with the promise of freedom, only to have it yanked away over and over again.

"Eventually they would find a recording of a guard they killed during their first time fighting the Zombies. Stanley Ferguson. He basically explains how Weasel lied to them about the plane, and that the Mobsters killed them. His message would then explain that the hell that they're in, isn't real. At that point, they would somehow end up on the Golden Gate Bridge and Sal, Finn, and Billy would kill Weasel. At that point, the cycle would continue all over again"

"How horrible" Juliet murmured, and Nicholas brought her closer to him.

Nicholas told of his conversation with Illuzio, and how he had met up with the Mobsters. He told of their treatment of him. Of how Sal was the boss in charge, Billy was the bloodthirsty killer, of how Finn was the wisecracking yet sympathetic one…and how Weasel was just a victim being tortured again and again.

"Weasel was the only one who knew what was going on. Illuzio had created this massive illusion that Samantha was in control of the map, all the while pulling the strings himself. He would help Weasel occasionally, but never enough to help him survive any longer than the final fight on the bridge" Nicholas explained.

"When I arrived, that changed. While I fought with them…I sensed something in them change…I don't know what, but maybe they were reminded of something when they fought with me. I even saw a softer side to Billy…" Nicholas muttered.

Nicholas explained in detail of their battles against the undead, of their trips to the Golden Gate Bridge. Of acquiring the Golden Spork and fighting Brutus, and finally…

Discovering the truth.

"Weasel fled to the bridge when we uncovered the recordings…he was scared…who wouldn't be?" Nicholas said quietly.

"What happened next?" Juliet asked, in almost a whisper.

"I managed to calm the others down. I explained things from Weasel's perspective…after that, I talked to them about the state of the world right now, with Richtofen destroying everything…having to deal with this so soon after my grandma's death…I guess they felt bad for me…I don't know…anyway, we found Weasel, just as he went into the Afterlife" Nicholas continued.

He told the Zombie fighting cheerleader how they were then teleported to Icarus, Weasel's plane, and flew to the Golden Gate Bridge for one final showdown. While the others were more than happy to kill Weasel out of rage, Nicholas out a stop to it and made them realize the error of their ways…or at least when it came to Weasel. He couldn't make them repent, but he let them see that Weasel wasn't completely at fault, and the Mobsters forgave one another.

He then explained how Illuzio arrived and sent Nicholas home, with the promise of ending the cycle once and for all and sending the Mobsters to a better place.

"I wonder where they ended up" Nicholas mused as he finished his tale.

"That was so much more exciting than what happened in New York. We just prepared for the fight and fought the Blizzard Zombie. You know the rest really" Juliet said with a grin.

"I'm still tired from dealing with that crap on Alcatraz" Nicholas admitted, and Juliet looked at the bags under his eyes worriedly.

"Come on. Let's catch up on some sleep" Juliet said, snuggling up to his side.

"I wonder what happened to them…" Nicholas muttered; glancing out of the window as the snow fell around them.

Juliet placed her hand on top of his in a comforting way and said "I'm sure they're in a better place"

Nicholas closed his eyes and Juliet did the same, and they fell asleep, allowing their weariness to fade away as sleep took hold of them both.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Joe popped open another Monster and took a sip, shivering slightly as insane amounts of sugar rushed into his system. He had been driving the train for a few hours now, and the monotony of it was getting to him. The train was pretty much going on its own, but he had to keep watching the controls and occasionally had to fix something. Iva sat in the chair next to him, sleeping peacefully with a small blanket draped over her, courtesy of Joe.<p>

"She's cute even when she's sleeping" Joe said quietly with a smile as he turned his attention to the tracks. They were making good time. It was Noon now, and they would make it to Los Angles later that night.

Jess popped her head through the curtain hanging by the entrance of the pilot's room and said "Hey Joe. How's it going?"

Joe held a finger to his lips, and jerked his head in Iva's direction, and Jess nodded and lowered her voice.

"It's going good. If my calculations are right, we'll be in Los Angles by 10 tonight" Joe said with a grin.

"So, what're we going to do when we get there?" Jess asked.

"We regroup when we get there, hopefully Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo can come with reinforcements…whatever that is. The survivors will be there too, as well as everyone who heard our message. We figure out a plan of action, fight off the Zombies, storm the M.P.D. tower, and find Richtofen. We kill him, and I go back to playing Halo and worrying about us being ready for MPA and our football team's terrible win/loss ratio"

"You think things will ever be back to normal?" Jess asked.

Joe sighed and after a moment of silence, said "No…things will never be the same Jess…"

"Yeah…poor Liam…" Jess said quietly.

"You know, I never really got along with him. He was such an asshole to me all the time…but he was still my friend…no matter how much he pissed me off, I never wanted that to happen to him" Joe said quietly.

"How do you think Judith is coping? They were really, really close"

"She's hurting inside, for sure. But, she's a tough chick, so she'll pull through. Liam only broke up with her because he didn't want her to suffer if he died in the future…I wonder if he somehow knew he'd die…" Joe muttered.

"Fate works in weird ways" Iva mumbled as she opened one blue eye and regarded the two teens with a sleepy smile.

"Hey Iva. Sleep well?" Joe asked as Iva yawned widely.

"A bit. Thanks for a blanket by the way. I was a bit cold" Iva said gratefully, wrapping it tightly around herself and shifting into a more comfortable position in the chair. Jess noticed that it was rather cold in the pilot's room, and she noticed that the AC in this particular room was cranked up insanely high.

"I have the AC cranked up in here to keep me awake" Joe explained.

"How are you cold? Aren't you Russian?" Jess asked.

"I was raised in America. I've been to Russia only five times, so I'm not really used to cold weather" Iva said, pointedly ignoring the snow they were currently driving through.

"Wait, it's cold outside. Why do you have the AC cranked up super high if it's already cold out?" Jess asked.

"BECAUSE…if I turned the heater on, which Iva wanted to do, and shift from cold to hot would make it nice and cozy in here, which I don't want. I'll get sleepy" Joe replied

"And?" Jess prompted.

"One of the two of us has to be awake to drive the train to Los Angles. Me and Iva know just enough about trains to keep this thing going to Los Angles. We can't afford to get sidetracked, take a wrong turn, or god forbid, get derailed. We can't screw this up" Joe explained.

"That's pretty smart actually" Jess admitted.

"Thanks" Joe replied, grinning a little.

"Hey, where's Marcus?" Iva asked Jess, who flushed pink.

"Sleeping. A lot of us are catching up on sleep. You should too Joe" Jess said, a hint of concern in her voice for her friend.

"Yeah, you really should get some rest Joe" Iva said worriedly.

Joe waved off her concern with a hand and said "I'm good. You guys rest up though"

"If you want, I'll have someone else come up here and keep me company while you sleep. John's pretty smart, he'd be helpful up here I'm sure" Iva said, sounding a little concerned for Joe.

"Nah, we found this together, we ride together" Joe said cheerfully, and Iva flushed pink and buried her face in her pillow.

"Men. So stubborn" Iva growled, smiling to herself.

* * *

><p><span>Meanwhile:<span>

Train Roof:

* * *

><p>Samantha couldn't help but smile as she watched the snow fall around her. She was cold, yes, but it was something she didn't really care about. The cold air whipped by her as the train soared through yet another city on their frantic journey to Los Angles, to stop the madman that was Edward Richtofen.<p>

Despite how close she was getting to the teens she had befriended over the past few weeks since the outbreak, she needed a little alone time. Up until now, she had only been able to really confide in Jax, the first human to agree to be her host. Now that he was aiding the survivors, she felt that she really couldn't talk to anyone about the strange transition she was going through.

Her new powers were unsettling enough. She started out as just being able to manipulate Zombies, and then she could channel the 115 energies in her body. But ever since Porter's death, she felt that her powers were changing. And then with Jason, and then Yena, another change with each of their deaths.

She was confused…what did it mean? She knew she had absorbed their life essence, and in a sense killed them, but…was there more to what she was doing.

"Hey Sam"

Samantha smiled a little and zipped her jacket up a little more to cover her neck. Sieger sat down next to her, having no problem keeping balance on the moving train and seemingly unbothered by the freezing cold air.

"Hey Sieger…" Samantha murmured as she looked up into the sky.

"What's up?" Sieger asked.

"Thinking…everything's happening so quickly now, isn't it?"

"That's a matter of perspective really"

Samantha cocked her head and said "How so?"

"Well…" Sieger trailed off as he laid down on the roof of the train so that he was looking up at the rolling sky above him.

"You may think it's a weird transition, but to someone like me, it makes sense. You're absorbing their powers, more or less, and making them your own" Sieger said thoughtfully, apparently able to read her mind at the moment.

"OK, and…?"

"To someone like Edward Richtofen, it's another hitch in his plan, and a reminder that he's not the only one who has powers obtained through the M.P.D…you're a threat, Samantha. No matter how much he tries to brush it off, he sees you as a threat" Sieger said to her.

"He should" Samantha said in an annoyed tone.

"Hmmm…"

"So, how do you know so much?" Samantha asked for the umpteenth time.

"All in good time" Sieger replied airily.

"You're weird" Samantha muttered as she laid down on the roof of the train next to him, shivering slightly. Now the cold was getting to her. Of course it would, right when a cute guy showed up and started talking to her.

"You alright?" Sieger asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A little cold" Samantha replied. Sieger nodded and waved his hand casually, creating a wraith of flames around them, warming the air considerably around them. Samantha smiled and said "Thank you"

"No problem" Sieger said with a small smile.

"Doesn't that tire you out?" Samantha asked.

"What? Making Hellfire?" Sieger asked, and Samantha nodded.

"Not really. I've been doing it for so long its second nature to me now. Only if I use it in large quantities for extended periods of time, like last night when I fought Yena and the Blizzard Zombie" Sieger replied.

"Interesting…so what all can hellfire do?" Samantha asked.

"It has all of the properties of regular fire, though I can will it to do what I want it to. I can set this whole train on fire, but burn everyone on it but you if I wanted to" Sieger said with a grin.

"That must take a lot of control" Samantha said, sounding impressed. Sieger picked up on this and said "Well, it takes years of practice. This level of control didn't just happen overnight Sam"

"Too bad I don't have that much control over my own powers" Samantha muttered.

"Well, from what I can tell you've got pretty good grasp of your powers already, considering you've gotten most of them within the past few days" Sieger began.

"When you killed Porter, you gained his ability to generate an aura shield, hence that black and green aura that flickers around you sometimes. It makes you stronger and harder to take down, and it serves as a protective force rather than an impenetrable shield like Porter's aura did" Sieger continued, and Samantha nodded.

"Jason had the ability to manipulate the energy, not electricity, just energy, in the world around him and use it to augment his physical strength and to use it in bursts, sort of like what Richtofen can do. When you absorbed his powers, you gained increased physical strength, an all-around boost in your abilities to manipulate the 115 energies in you, and the ability to throw up barriers of pure energy"

"As for Yena, you can obviously control shadows like Yena could, and I'm sure with some practice you can shadow walk. You should probably have Yena's regenerative powers too" Sieger said.

Samantha pulled out a small knife from her boot and pricked open her finger, drawing blood. She turned her finger over and allowed a drop of blood to fall onto the roof of the train, only for it to slowly float up to her a few moments later.

"Nowhere near as effective as Yena's, but still effective nevertheless" Sieger commented.

"So, I have all of that, plus what I had already?" Samantha said to Sieger, who nodded.

"Most of that was pure guesswork and theory, but yeah, you're pretty much able to absorb the powers of other 115 C Conduits. If you killed me, you'd be able to manipulate hellfire to a degree"

"Why would I kill you though? You're my friend" Samantha said with a small laugh. Sieger gave her a grateful smile at that, and Samantha looked away, blushing a faint pink.

"Hey Sam…"

"Yeah…"

"Thanks…for you know…trusting me on this. I know you just met me, but…I'm going to help you guys stop Richtofen, no matter what" Sieger said quietly.

"I know you will Sieger" Samantha replied, a small smile on her face.

The two shared a peaceful silence on top of the train, enjoying the silence, the cold, and the company. Two humans who would probably find no others like them in the world, so they took great pleasure in each other's company, for there were no others like them in the world, that would understand their pain, their struggle, and their quest.

Save for the man they were both trying to destroy.

* * *

><p><span>A Few Hours Later:<span>

Location: Unknown

* * *

><p><em>"Ah…Victor…you're back again?"<em> a familiar yet evil voice asked.

Sieger opened his eyes, not even surprised to find himself as a small child instead of the young man he was in reality. He was in that large room with the intricate pentagram in the center, with an emaciated man kneeling in the center, wrapped in black chains and unmoving.

Sieger cocked his head in confusion and said "What…what is this?"

"_A dream…nothing more, nothing less…"_

"It feels so real though"

_Little Sieger, do you forget who told you what you know? I told you the secrets to his madness… bah…I get so little credit in this twisted little nightmare we live in…" _the man said with a disappointed sigh.

"Harvey Yena…what is going on?" Sieger asked as angrily as he could in the small weak voice that he had as a child.

"_Hehehe…you all did a good job, killing me like that. I never would've suspected, or even dreamed that poisoning me would be that effective…man I wish I had seen that coming"_ Yena drawled. Sieger let out a yell of rage and pulled out Lux and shot at Yena, only for the bullet to bounce off of him and slam into the side of the wall.

"What's going on!? Why do I keep having these dreams Yena!?" Sieger growled.

"_Fine…I'll tell you…these dreams aren't anything special really, they're your own memories of when we used to talk, mixed in with your current fears and hopes. The dreams are special though, because this is my only form of communication, now that I'm dead"_ Yena's voice purred.

Sieger sat down and said "So…what did you want to talk about?"

"_Ah…that's why I always liked you Sieger, even if you put a bullet into my chest and killed me. You kept me company while I was imprisoned…I wanted to let you know that the key to killing Richtofen, is the staff"_ Yena said.

"What staff?" Sieger said.

"_Not what staff, __the __staff. The Ultimate Staff. The one that all others try to be and fail…"_

"Do you mean the Staff of Magnus?" Sieger asked.

"_In another iteration, where you and me don't matter to the grand scheme of things, Ludvig Maxis and Edward Richtofen tried to replicate it, but failed miserably. In this iteration though…it exists…"_ Yena said cryptically.

"I see…" Sieger murmured.

"_Do you?"_ Yena asked humorlessly.

"Where is it now?" Sieger asked.

"_The question that humanity has been asking for eons. This staff does harness the elements and allow the user to control untold power, so long as they are pure of heart"_ Yena continued.

"Harvey, where is it?" Sieger asked again.

"_Oh, it's with Illuzio. He's kept that little thing a secret for a while now"_ Yena replied.

Sieger and Yena sat there for a while, and after a few minutes of silence Sieger asked "What's death like, Uncle Yena?"

"_Death…hmm…it's like going to sleep, if anything else…" _Yena admitted after a moment of thinking about it.

"So how's hell?" Sieger asked dryly.

"_Hahaha, very funny. If you must know, you little smartass, I'm floating in a pit of eternal darkness at the moment. Sort of like purgatory. It seems as though I'm not quite in Heaven or hell…it's kind of weird, really" _Yena admitted.

"Just so long as you leave us alone, I don't care" Sieger muttered.

"_By the way, you wouldn't have happened to see a blond haired woman with eyes like mine, have you?" _Yena asked curiously.

"What did she do to piss you off?" Sieger asked.

"_Nothing, just answer the question" _Yena asked, now annoyed.

"No, we haven't, though from now on I'll be on the lookout for someone fitting the description" Sieger replied, earning a growl of annoyance from Yena.

"_I think that's all for now…I got the information I needed, and you have some things to think about" _Yena murmured as the shadows around them began to close in.

"Wait, what?" Sieger said, sounding surprised. The darkness closed in, ensnaring his feet and slowly dragging him into the ground…or rather, into the darkness.

"_You've got a job to do, kid. I hate the fact that I lost to a bunch of kids, but I hate the idea of a lifeless world of nothing ruled by Richtofen even more" _Yena growled.

"No! Wait!" Sieger yelled out, his body waist deep in his own shadow.

"_You see kid, I was sort of the one who started this mess. Well, Illuzio too. He kind of dug his own grave too. If I ever crawl out of hell, I'll explain it to you" Yena promised with a demonic laugh._

"_**ENOUGH!"**_Hyena snarled from somewhere in the room.

"_Right Hyena…well, I've enjoyed this chat, but I've got to be going. I've got a not-life of damnation to get back to. Good luck in that fight…" _Yena chuckled evilly.

"Damn it! No! There's something you're not telling me! YENA!" Sieger roared as he sank into his own shadow completely, until nothing was left.

"_Ah…back into the darkness I go…" _Sieger heard Yena mused aloud before all white black.

* * *

><p><span>Train:<span>

* * *

><p>Sieger started and his sunglasses fell from his face and landed on the carpeted floor. He glanced around in alarm, his breathing slowing for a moment and his nerves slowly recovering.<p>

"A dream…it was just a dream?" Sieger murmured as he rolled over on the seat and reached his arm out to grab his glasses.

"Hello Sieger" a familiar voice said dryly from across the room.

Sieger looked up in alarm and saw John staring at him lazily from across the room, lying on a sleeping bag and looking very amused. John looked right into Sieger's eyes with a grin that looked strangely triumphant.

John starred into Sieger's eyes with his own.

"Damn it!" Sieger growled as he snatched his sunglasses up off the floor and jammed them on his face, aiming Fatum at John as he sat up. John had pulled out the Winter's Fury at Sieger as well.

"So…_that's_ what you were hiding" John said in a deadly quiet tone.

"I swear to god…tell _ANYONE_…and I _will _kill you" Sieger growled.

"Tell me why I shouldn't" John said casually.

"Because I'm the biggest asset you've got. I know how to get in and out of the M.P.D. tower, I know Richtofen's game plan, I've got the best shot besides Samantha of killing Richtofen, and I know how all of this really started!" Sieger snapped.

"Telling them would destroy whatever trust they have in me now…I didn't have many friends growing up…so…I'm not good at this. But don't tell them...please John…I'm not going to hurt any of you…I swear it" Sieger said quietly, almost begging.

"Alright" John said simply, and he laid back on the ground and closed his eyes. Sieger blinked in surprise and said "Really?"

"Yeah. It doesn't bother me any…I always suspected it…I _love_ it when I'm right, even when it might bite us in the ass later" John said with a laugh.

"John…I'm sorry about what Richtofen did to you…I didn't know he had captured anyone from Sam's group" Sieger said quietly.

John shivered, remembering the torture he had endured. John gave a Sieger a shaky smile and said "Hey, I got out alive, didn't I?"

Sieger nodded and said "So, what do you think of all of this?"

"What? The end of the world? The Zombies? My torture and subsequent experimentation? Or do you mean the causes of this whole mess?" John said coyly.

"You're smarter than the others…and much sharper" Sieger said warily.

John shrugged and said "A bit…Richtofen's got some serious motivation for wanting everything gone and destroyed. I overheard a bit of stuff while imprisoned…so, who's the girl I keep hearing about?"

Sieger sighed, not even bothering to ask how he knew of her, and said "She's…"

Sieger trailed off and looked away. John smirked and said "What's the problem?"

"She…is the reason, for all of your troubles in a way. She is the cause…for all of this mess"

"So, it's all her fault" John said with a small smile, knowing his prying would get some answers to this mess at last.

"No…no…it's not her fault" Sieger said quietly.

"You're dodging the question" John said sternly.

"THEN STOP ASKING QUESTIONS!" Sieger finally bellowed as John, whose eyes widened at the outburst. He could tell that whoever the girl was, it was a sore subject. Nicholas, Nick, Juliet. Andrew, and Marcus burst into the room, aiming their weapons wildly and looking for the source of the noise and the commotion.

"What the hell's going on?" Nicholas asked tiredly.

"Yeah, what's up?" Nick asked, lowering C.N.

"_Some of us were trying to sleep"_ C.N. muttered.

"Nothing…thing at all" Sieger said as he got to his feet, stretched, and walked out, shooting John a dirty look as he walked by.

"What was that about, man?" Nicholas asked.

"We've got to find out what he knows. Before we get to LA" John said to Nicholas.

"OK…so what was that about?" Juliet asked.

"I was trying to get a rise out of him, to get some kind of information. There's this girl…she's important to Richtofen somehow…and I think to Sieger as well…they were probably friends back in Group 935" John mused aloud before shrugging, though the tone of his voice seemed curious and a little defeated.

"John, is this her?" Nicholas asked as he walked over to his backpack, pulling out the framed picture from the lab back in New York of Richtofen, Sophia, and the little girl.

"That's her" John confirmed.

"Who is she though?" Marcus asked.

"Well, Sieger's got until tonight to give us some damn answers. We can't go into this mess without knowing what happened to Richtofen to make him want to destroy everything" Andrew said darkly.

"Give him some time...he'll come around" Juliet said cheerfully.

"I hope so…come on, Joe said that he sees some Zombies up ahead. We should get ready to fight" Nicholas said to the others, who nodded and went over to the next car.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Location: Los Angles M.P.D. Tower HQ

* * *

><p>Illuzio walked out of a bluish white portal, holding a staff in his hands. It was about four feet long and had an intricate looking design to it, laced with gold silver and black designs. A pure white speared tip of the staff seemed to glow bright white, and give off a faint glow.<p>

He glanced down at it and said "This…this is it"

He looked up at the tower rising out of the ground next to him. It was a massive structure made of metal and other alloys, outfitted with thousands upon thousands of Soul Gems. Most of them were filled, though the life essence of a few thousand more strong souls would seal the deal. The weaker ones would fuel the M.P.D. itself.

Illuzio put the staff away and opened the front doors to the tower. He had cast the powerful illusion spell on the tower himself, and he was certain no one save the members of Group 935 could find it as long as he lived. Illuzio walked into the entryway and began to walk his way up to the top of the tower. That was where his destiny was waiting for him…where he could finally get some payback, ever since he found out all those months ago…

He was on a mission…to kill Edward Richtofen.

And so onward he walked up the stairs, to dance with the devil himself.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>Richtofen vs. Illuzio.<em>

_A showdown for the ages._

_STAY TUNED FOR NEXT CHAPTER!_

_Expect some Survivors action and some high-speed Zombie slaying next chapter, as we lead up to one of the chapters I've been looking forward to the most! Chapter 40! And the last time I looked forward to a chapter, it ended up being my favorite (and personally, I think it's my best one), chapter yet. _

_And by that I meant chapter 34: Reunion._

_Alright guys, I hoped you enjoyed this somewhat shorter chapter. They all can't be super long, but hey, at least I got this one out on time, right?_

_So like always, please review in the section below. It takes literally seconds and means the world to me. It sounds a bit cheesy, but there have been times where I've had a downright horrible day, and then I see a new review telling me about how much they like the story, and it makes the day awesome._

_Seriously, I never would've dreamed this story would be so popular. You all are amazing. Keep up the support, you all are the best. :D_

_Follow the trail of carnage on Twitter, follow me at FlygonNick._

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	39. Judas

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_HOLY SH!T ON A F*CKING SANDWHICH!_

_After 38 chapters, this story has reached the 3rd highest spot in the Call of Duty Fanfiction Archive._

_As of this update, we are sitting at 486 reviews. The next highest story is sitting at over 620…with the highest being a story I myself have read, loved, and sadly see fade away into an unfinished masterpiece. The next is one that I myself have not read, but seems to be pretty top from what I've skimmed._

_I know I sort of beat you guys over the head with this, but you all are what makes this story what it is. If it wasn't for your feedback and support, I'd never have made it this far into the story. Please, keep on reading and reviewing, and with your support, you can make this the top story on the C.O.D. Fanfiction Archive_

_I wanted to do a Halloween update, but I've had projects and stuff due that sort of stopped me from making that happen. Ah well. Despite that, I wrote about 6,000 words in about 24 hours, going from 4,500 words to roughly 10,500. _

_Due to time constraints and lack of inspiration, I scrapped the bit where the main characters fought Zombies. Just wasn't feeling it. So, the characters get a break for now! I may edit in a scene later, but for now, it is not there. _

_Also, I've gotten a lot of questions about both the Green Run Crew making a reappearance and the Mobsters coming back. The only reason I haven't brought them back is because as far as I know, and with how Origins played out, their prospective storylines have ended, at least until Black Ops III comes out…hopefully. My only response is wait and see, and who knows…you may just be pleasantly surprised. You might even see some others making a reappearance._

_Anyway, shoutout to everyone who reviewed last chapter, which included_ _katerinavalentine62601, Dustchu, Dogsled shepherd, RandomName3064, xNewWorld, Lord rage quit, Noskansho, Killz718, Trapinchh, a new guest reviewer known as TMDF-Artyomand, BobbyD, and a new reviewer known as M3D1C101. Thanks again everyone!_

_Enjoy!_

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 39: Judas<span>

"_You want to believe that there's one relationship in life that's beyond betrayal. A relationship that's beyond that kind of hurt. And there isn't"-_ Caleb Carr.

* * *

><p><span>Flashback: 1964<span>

Los Angles 935 HQ

* * *

><p>"It has been several months since I have left the moon, and rebuilt Group 935…" Richtofen began his journal entry, tapping his foot. Sophia feigned sleep in the chair next to him, though she had a feeling Edward hardly cared that she heard him. To her surprise, she found they were getting rather close as of late, with her becoming increasingly more helpful in his experiments, as well as helping him figure out some of the advanced logistics in working with Element 115. Sophia felt a bit of pride in herself when Richtofen had called her his "delightfully talented assistant", which she figured was a compliment from the strange man. He had regained much of his personality that he had before touching the M.P.D., though some acts of oddity and insanity slipped through every now and then, but other than that it was entertaining working with the Doctor.<p>

"Progress is being made, of course, but I still think that we can do better. Porter is working on weapons research, he has a levitation beam Wonder Weapon idea that sounds promising, but may take decades of research to perfect. Ah well" Richtofen said with a shrug.

"Yena is working on creating more outposts for us to conduct our experiments. While I detest staying in this corrupt pathetic country, it has the resources needed for us to move forward. I watch the American News quite often, purely out of habit now, and I'm amazed by what I see. Acts of hatred and greed, of evil and corruption taking place daily…even in Germany, things were never quite so bad. Well, maybe that is debatable" Richtofen chuckled to himself a bit.

"I have many new ideas for Zombie creations in my head. The regular model will of course always be around, due to it requiring little actual experimentation, but I am hoping that some of my other models will prove to be useful later" Richtofen went on.

"With my mind clear and the Group's refocused objective clear, I feel as though in a few years, we can emerge from the shadows and make this world right again. I hope to one day make all of us gods in the eyes of men, so we can take humanity and put it on the road to goodness…strange, I never thought I'd be one advocating overall good…maybe it is because of the bloodshed and death that I have caused already…maybe it is me getting soft…maybe, it is because I want this insanity to end…I don't know…"

"But I do know that my partners and I stand ready to experiment and create. We will forge a new future for this world, for better or worse, and God help those who stand in our way" Richtofen ended as he turned the recording off.

Richtofen slumped in his chair, muttering something to himself, before Sophia opened her eyes and yawned loudly, gaining his attention.

"Ah, you're awake Sophia. Good. Are you readying to begin experimentation with the Juggernaut Zombie Project?" Richtofen asked cheerfully as he got to his feet.

"I'm reading when you are" Sophia said with a grin as Richtofen helped her to her feet. The two locked eyes for a moment and shared a smile before they walked out of the room and got back to work.

"Ah…love" Illuzio sighed happily. Porter looked amused and said "Sophia and Edward Richtofen? Who would've thought?"

"Indeed. Seems like something out of a really bad story" Illuzio chortled as he walked off. Porter chuckled a bit himself as the two got back to work.

* * *

><p><span>Meanwhile:<span>

Present:

Location: Los Angles, California

M.P.D. Tower

* * *

><p>Sophia looked out of the window, her hand brushing against one of the thousands of filled Soul Gems in the MPD Tower.<p>

"If it weren't so evil, they'd be pretty" Sophia whispered as she turned around and sat down, sinking into her chair with a sigh. She shot a blast of fire into the fireplace of the Library and closed her eye for a moment.

The silence was so…unnerving.

"I've got to find him" Sophia murmured before a flash of green appeared in the room and a man materialized in front of her.

"Stairs. Why would I climb them when I can just teleport?" Illuzio muttered, shaking his head before he noticed Sophia.

"Illuzio? What are you doing here?" Sophia asked.

"Just…nothing that you should worry about. I need to talk to Edward" Illuzio said softly.

"He's on the roof. He spends quite a bit of time up there nowadays. Just staring into the sky. I'm usually up there with him, but he wanted to be alone tonight" Sophia said softly.

Illuzio nodded and said "You should be out looking for him, instead of staying here"

"I have! I have no idea where he is! He could be halfway across the world by now!" Sophia said loudly, sounding upset.

"Shh…I didn't meant to upset you. I meant nothing by it…just…Sophia, can you head downstairs for a little bit? I need to talk to Edward…alone" Illuzio said quietly.

Sophia had a confused look on her face and said "Is…something wrong? There's been something weird going on with you lately Jonathan, but…you know you can talk to me if you want to, right?"

"Yes…thank you, Sophia" Illuzio said with a smile as Sophia got up and walked past him before walking downstairs. Illuzio checked to make sure it was just the three of them present on the tower before walking up the last flight of black skeletal looking staircase to the roof.

Illuzio took a deep gulp of air, cold crisp and clear, even in the afternoon. It was a truly beautiful day outside, despite the current events, and he was one who could appreciate the beauty in nature. He looked out across the rooftop of the tower and saw a lone man looking out from one of the railings, staring into the sky so intently that he could have been in a staring match with the sun.

Illuzio smirked and checked that they were indeed alone, and subconsciously sealed off the staircase so Sophia could not interfere, or at least stall her so that Illuzio could have more time to kill him.

Illuzio began to walk towards him.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"FASTER!" Zero growled.<p>

"KID. THIS THING CAN'T GO ANY FASTER!" Joe's dad growled furiously as they hurtled down the highway like a rocket in a sports car.

Finding a way west was harder than any of them had thought. Most of them hadn't realized that the train Joe had outfitted would be able to make it all the way to California in a day, but nothing that they had found would be able to make that kind of trip, and due to the gas shortage and debris in the road, it was adding additional time to their trip.

"Guys, we've got to stop!" Kara yelled from one of the other cars.

"WHY!?" Juliet's mom yelled.

"BECAUSE THESE THINGS ARE PROBABLY GOING BLOW UP!?" Kara yelled, pointing to the smoking engine of their car. The drivers of the other cars reluctantly heeded her words and slowed down their cars to a more or less sane pace.

"We're not going to make it" Starch said in an annoyed tone.

"Don't talk like that, here there's a will there's a way" Juliet's father said smoothly as he eased up on the accelerator.

"We should give these things a break!" Joe's dad called from one of the other vehicles.

"We don't have time!" Juliet's father insisted.

"Do you know how lucky we were to find vehicles at all? Let's not destroy our only transportation that we have" Joe's father replied.

Juliet's father reluctantly admitted that he was right, and the group pulled off of the highway and settled down at a nearby picnic grounds.

Juliet's mom began to fish through the supplies and handing out snacks and drinks to the hungry and thirsty survivors while some stretched or went to the bathroom. Others like Red and Zero went off and did their own thing.

Clutch sighed as he sank back down into the seat of the sports car they had found and said "I wonder how the others are doing?"

"I hope they're OK" Tyler said worriedly.

"I'm sure they're fine" Vice said dismissively.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Nick, don't fall off you moron!" Joe bellowed as Nick leaned out the side of the train.<p>

"DIE MOFOS!" Nick yelled as he opened fire with his Predator, killing Zombie by spattering its head on the side of the train.

"Good shot" Judith said with a grin as he leaned out of another window and snipped two Zombies off of the train in one shot.

Screecher Zombies and regular Zombies were climbing alongside the train, trying to both damage it and to get at the passengers inside. Sieger and Samantha were doing battle with several Blade Zombies on the roof while the others dealt with the Zombies on the side of the train.

"Let me do this!" Nicholas said, grabbing Nick by the shoulders and throwing him directly into the armrest of the nearest chair, which slammed into his nuts.

"AGH! You're a terrible person" Nick groaned as he slid to the ground.

"Taste magical tomahawk assholes!" Nicholas yelled with a grin as he leaned out the window, hurling the Hell's Redeemer as hard as he could. The tomahawk Wonder Weapon flew through the air, tearing through the skulls of five of the Zombies before returning to Nicholas's grip.

"That's badass" Andrew said with a grin.

"Yup" Nicholas and Juliet agreed.

"Aww, I wanna play" Jess pouted.

"Well, you could RPG them off of the train…" Marcus said with a playful laugh, earning a punch in the shoulder from a grinning Jess.

"Like hell you will!" Iva barked from the operator's room in the front of the train.

"Allow me" Joe said as he pulled out his Wunderwaffe DG-7. Nicholas moved out of the way and let Joe lean out the window and fire off a shot, which slammed into an faraway Zombie and killed it instantly, and then the line of lightning traveled down the length of the train and killed every other Zombie on it.

"Now that's what I call Zombie Training? Am I right?" Joe said with an expectant grin.

Jess kicked him in the shin.

* * *

><p><span>Meanwhile:<span>

* * *

><p>Jax smirked and said "Yeah, they're fine. We should be worried about how the heck we're going to get over to Los Angles in a few hours"<p>

At their current pace, they wouldn't even make it to LA By tomorrow night, and they needed to regroup with whoever was already there and form a plan of attack. This was also not taking into the fact that Richtofen probably had the city crawling with Zombies.

Kris, Alec, and Jared exchanged looks and Jordan said "Well, maybe we'll figure something out, maybe not. But we should get moving soon"

Jameson Morris sat down wordlessly, though he nodded in agreement. Kara spoke up and said "Don't forget, our dads are bringing backup. They should be back by tomorrow night"

"Yes. While they figure out the plans with our cavalry, we should focus on a plan to travel west, since our current one sucks" Chan added before he voice was drowned out by arguing.

Serenity and Starch could be heard yelling in the distance about which was superior, Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokémon, to which the world would never know.

"Come on, it's all about that Magikarp, I'm I right?" Starch said with a grin, before Serenity scowled at him and threw the Pokéball he had been brandishing at her at his face.

"Do you liek Mudkipz Starch?" Vice asked with a laugh, earning a middle finger in response.

"Ow! Jeez, are all British girls so mean?" Starch demanded as he rubbed his nose in pain.

"ENGLISH!" Serenity yelled angrily

"Yeah, yeah, God save the queen, Big Ben, cups of tea, blah, blah, blah" Starch said with a widening grin, knowing he was annoying her. Serenity kicked Starch in the shin repeatedly while shouting angrily at him, much to the amusement of the other survivors.

Joe's dad was conversing with Juliet's parents in hushed tones, glancing over at the survivors every now and then.

Jared and Emmanuel were checking out the area and found a few Zombies to kill with Red, and the trio of snipers made quick work of them. Zero watched them for a moment as he glanced over his shoulder before he continued to walk down the street. He felt something dark this way, and was planning on investigating it.

He eventually came upon a young woman, sitting down alone in the middle of a graveyard that was rather close by. The graves had been upturned and the inhabitants had been unearthed to wreak havoc on the living, but she stood there like it was nothing at all. She wore a long black trench coat and a large hat of the same color, all the while with a massive sniper rifle on her back that could probably kill the lot of them with a single shot. She had short blond hair and bright red eyes, and was rather beautiful.

"Well, hello there" the woman said with a smile as she turned around. Zero's hand clenched around Lucifer, his sword which burst into flames immediately, and took a step back as the woman smiled widely, razor sharp teeth on display.

"Who are you?" Zero asked carefully. The young woman smiled and said "You can call me Eris"

"What are you doing here?" Zero asked, leveling his sword at her heart. He could tell that this woman was different. She was…off.

Eris smirked and said "Well, it's none of your business, but I was taking a short rest. Spying on everyone gets a bit dull, so I was just wandering through the area"

"Uh huh" Zero replied, not buying it, but he did lower his sword a bit.

"So, you guys hit a snag or something, or are you staying here to rest up before heading to California?" Eris asked.

"Just stopping, though I don't think we'll make it in time" Zero muttered, and Eris smiled widely.

"Well, I could help with that" Eris offered, still smiling but completely serious.

"How?" Zero asked.

"I can get you all there fairly quickly, and I won't' charge you anything or ask for your souls. Totally free"

"Nothing's free in life. Not even free samples at food courts" Zero replied.

"Well, you guys still need to get there. The more people fighting Richtofen and his forces, the better our chances are" Eris explained.

"What?" Zero asked in surprise.

"Yeah. You think those idiots on the train can take out that Nazi by their selves? And their Zombie forces? The remaining Reclaimer's are there as well, and Sophia's there too. Don't forget, she's not going to stand by and let you kill Richtofen…Nope. They need all the help they can get, which is why I plan on helping them out, in my own way" the woman said with a grin as she sat down on a nearby tombstone and crossed her legs and kept her shot black dress down.

"Oh really? I'm sure you're not doing this out of the kindness of your heart" Zero said suspiciously.

"No, I'm not. But I won't hurt any of you, if that's what you're thinking. I don't play by my Master's rules, no matter how much he wants me too" Eris said with a grin.

"Master?"

Eris shrugged and said "That's all the info you're getting out of me. Sorry"

"That's fine" Zero said with a shrug.

"So what do you say about that transport to California?" Eris asked.

Zero thought about it for a moment and said "What did you have in mind?"

"Doesn't matter what I had in mind, you're already trapped" Eris said with a wide grin as Zero's eyes widened in horror.

Zero was already moving, even as the shadows surrounded him sides. Screams of shock and horror were filling the area as the shadows crept in, immersing everything. Zero sprinted through the graveyard and back towards the camp site, where the others were shooting at the shadows closing in.

"Damn it!" Zero growled as he vaulted over a fallen tree, only for a tendril of shadows to grab him by the neck and slam him into the ground. Zero gasped as his own shadow slowly engulfed him, leaving him time to scream helplessly as Eris laughed at the new development.

Joe's father frantically tried to outrun the shadows, with Clutch Odd, Vice, and Serenity at his heels. Vice let out a howl as a tendril of darkness snaked out from a tree and wrapped around his ankles before pulling him into the darkness.

"Vice!" Serenity yelled, looking back at the fallen young man.

"Serenity wait!" Joe's dad yelled before Serenity let out a scream, being yanked into her own shadow. Clutch Odd turned around and opened fire on the shadows, which quickly overwhelmed him. Joe's father, the lone survivor, looked around in annoyance at the swirling darkness around him.

"Well…come on then!" Joe's dad said impatiently shooting his Glock half-heartedly into the shadows, which engulfed him.

"Well…that's that. They'll waiting for Samantha's group by the train station in LA by sundown, I think…speaking of…I wonder how Illuzio is doing?" Eris said thoughtfully as she fell backwards out of the tree trunk she was standing on, falling through the earth and into her own shadow.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Illuzio slowly walked towards him, as he stood at the edge of the tower. The top of the M.P.D. tower was pretty much a dark purple metal platform, made of a powerful dark purple metal that Illuzio didn't know the name of. Soul Gems decorated the top, giving the roof of the Tower a horrifyingly beautiful appearance. He gave a quick glance at the M.P.D., the pyramid that had sort of started all of this nonsense.<p>

He then looked at the four staffs that he had collected, and were necessary for Richtofen's plan. The four staffs were a mere mockery of the real thing, the one that he had hidden on his person. Fire, Ice, Lighting, and Wind, all taken from an excavation site in another world and timeline.

"If I could get all five together…maybe it could truly revitalize the Staff of Magnus…maybe…" Illuzio pondered for a moment before he stopped walking, a mere thirty yards from Richtofen.

"Are you here to kill me, Jonathan?" Richtofen asked softly.

"No. Why would I do that?" Illuzio asked in a soft voice.

"Hmmm…first Sieger…and then Yena…I cannot bare to lose you as well my friend" Richtofen said, still facing away from Illuzio.

"So, how much longer until we can open the gateway?" Illuzio asked.

"Agartha…strange. In another life, another…world…opening a path to Agartha, would have spelled my undoing…now it is the key to this world's salvation" Richtofen murmured.

"And the soul gems?" Illuzio asked softly as a cold breeze blew through the air, jingling a few of the bells on Illuzio's hat.

"I see you know now…yes, the gems are a key component…they will amplify my powers and allow me to open the gate to Agartha…once I take command of the energies within, I will manipulate them to my will and destroy this horrible world" Richtofen said, letting out a small breath.

"I see…"

"Illuzio…are you here to kill me?" Richtofen asked again.

"Of course not…so, how much longer were you planning on keeping me in the dark about the soul gems. About what we were really doing?" Illuzio asked.

"When this world was destroyed…your morals wouldn't let you let me destroy this miserable planet, so I withheld some details. The M.P.D. Tower is nearly finished, while the M.P.D itself is almost at full capacity. I could probably access Agartha now, but I want to save those who are worth saving"

"Wait…you said to the world that those who pledged your loyalty would be saved" Illuzio said slowly as Richtofen turned to face him.

"No…I lied about that. They're the ones who will die, no matter what" Richtofen said with a cruel smile.

"What!? Why?" Illuzio asked angrily.

"Because, those who want to be saved and spared…are the very ones I wish to destroy…selfish, evil, terrible people who care only for their own salvation…willing to turn against their fellow humans and serve me…they will die…and they will suffer…destroying the evil in this world will come at the price of most of the lives of the inhabitants. This world will be destroyed, and dismantled…my kingdom will be born from the ashes" Richtofen said softly, a wide smile growing on his face.

"That's…that's…" Illuzio closed his eyes, trying to control his rage.

"Illuzio…are you here, to kill me?" Richtofen asked for a third and final time.

"No…" Illuzio whispered.

"Are you sure?" Richtofen asked with a smirk.

"Yes"

"Then…I think since that we're on the same page…let's talk about the Great Disaster" Richtofen said, turning around.

"What's there to talk about?" Illuzio said, anger cracking his voice.

"Ah…so…you _do_ know" Richtofen said with a small smile, closing his eyes.

"Sieger told me…he told me…EVERYTHING…" Illuzio growled, green sparks flashing at his hands.

"Then he told you that he who destroyed your world and your fiancé was not me, but an alternate version of me? He told you that this…ALL of this, was the doing of another version of myself!?" Richtofen demanded. Illuzio nodded again.

"How long have you known!?" Illuzio demanded.

"Years ago…Yena was in on it as well, and once he was certain that it would not change anything, he told me everything. Apparently he and my other self-orchestrated the whole thing. Your forays into the other timeline caused this!" Illuzio flinched at that.

"I was trying to save those survivors! They didn't deserve to be damned for trying to stop Maxis!" Illuzio yelled.

"They deserved what they got because they didn't believe my other self…they let Maxis win" Richtofen said with a grim smile.

"You may not have been directly responsible…but you knew…you never told me…and you used me…to slaughter so many others…I have the blood of the innocents on my hands, because of you!" Illuzio yelled.

"NO ONE IS INNOCENT ILLUZIO!" Richtofen roared, his blue eyes now glowing blue.

"You could have DONE SOMETHING ABOUT IT! I gave you everything, I helped you whenever I could, but you never saw fit to tell me what really happened to my world? My life!?" Illuzio roared.

"Of course not…in the end, you're just a fool Illuzio…besides, time travel is a very dangerous thing. Tampering with your life would have meant destroying the entirety of the present, and I can't have that, now can I?" Richtofen asked with a sneer.

"Reasoning with you is impossible…I guess the only thing I can do now is stop you…it's time to end this" Illuzio said softly. Richtofen scowled horribly as Illuzio got into a fighting stance.

"SO BE IT!" Richtofen bellowed, flinging his arms downwards as his entire body turned into pure green surging energy. Illuzio was blown halfway across the tower by the force of the maneuver, and his hands glowed bright green.

Illuzio snarled as he vanished and reappeared next to Richtofen, throwing a punch that connected with Richtofen's gut. A huge of energy blasted Richtofen off of his feet and onto the ground 30 feet away. Illuzio fired a flaming burst of energy at Richtofen as he got to his feet, sending him crashing onto the metal ground, before repeating the act again and again and again.

Illuzio finally stopped, allowing the smoke to clear. He made out the figure of Richtofen, standing upright and surging with raw energy. He looked thoughtful as he took a step towards Illuzio, who readied his magic again.

"I see…it is time to finally end this game of treachery…first Sieger…then Yena…and now you. Who has been the loyal of all…how fitting that you betray me as well, backstabbing Judas!" Richtofen spat.

"If I can't stop you, Sieger and Samantha will!" Illuzio barked.

"We'll see about that!" Richtofen barked, shooting off like a rocket towards Illuzio, and slammed headfirst into his ribcage, shattering the bones effortlessly. Illuzio flew into the air, only for Richtofen to punch him full in the face and send him crashing onto the roof of the M.P.D. tower. Illuzio muttered a spell that mended his ribcage and sent a green ball of energy at Richtofen, which exploded on impact and sent the Nazi skidding backwards with a snarl.

"You have gotten strong, old friend, but you are still nowhere near my level!" Richtofen sneered.

In response, Illuzio cocked his hand back and hurled a ball of black magic at Richtofen, who vanished on the spot to avoid it. The ball exploded in a power burst, turning that section of the roof pure white.

"I see you are playing for keeps now, aren't you mine Illuzio?" Richtofen cackled as Illuzio continued to try and hit the 935 Leader.

"Keep on running Edward!" Illuzio roared.

Richtofen reappeared, flung a bolt of thin lightning at Illuzio and striking him in the chest. Illuzio let out a scream as energy coursed through him.

"Don't you see Illuzio! See what happens when you betray me!?" Richtofen growled as he slowly advanced towards Illuzio. Richtofen ran up to Illuzio and blasted him again point-blank with lightning, sending him skidding across the roof with a yell.

Illuzio then exploded in a flash of sparks and reappeared behind Richtofen, smoldering and panting, but still standing. His wounds suddenly began to seal up and heal, and Illuzio held out his hand a short wicked-looking black sword appeared in his hand. Illuzio spun the sword expertly and said "En garde!"

Illuzio kicked off of the ground, a blast of energy giving him an extra boost in speed as he shot towards Richtofen. Richtofen grinned widely and conjured a sword of pure green energy hat looked identical to Illuzio's and swung it upwards to meet his former friend's blade. The two swords connected, releasing shockwave of visible force that could be seen for miles.

"Give it up Edward! I'm the last magician in the world! I won't be destroyed by you!" Illuzio bellowed, breaking the sword-lock and slashing at Richtofen, who swiftly blocked the slash. Richtofen grinned and lashed out at Illuzio, sending an arc of lightning at Illuzio that struck him in the chest, sending him flying across the roof and crashing onto the metal panels, cracking it.

"No! Not now…not yet" Illuzio snarled, getting to his feet and hurling a pulsating black spark at Richtofen, who's eyes widened as he raised his sword to block.

BOOOOM!

Richtofen let out a howl of agony as he fell to one knee, blood splattered all across his chest as his chest armor took visible damage. Richtofen shot Illuzio a look of hurt and anger and said "That was…a good shot"

"It took years to perfect…let me show you some of my other tricks!" Illuzio said, gesturing with both of his arms held out wide.

The entire landscape around them began to shift and change. The air shimmered with a series of dazzling green lights. Lights that once amused Richtofen made him weary and on edge for whatever tricks the jester had up his sleeve.

Now they were standing in the middle of a destroyed and ravaged town, with soot and smog and ash filling the air, and filling Richtofen's lungs. Blue-eyed undead roamed the streets while lava flowed freely.

"Is this the other timeline…did he take me here for a reason?" Richtofen thought before Illuzio reappeared in a flash of green light, his sword gone.

Illuzio grinned as he raised one hand, and the lava around them swirled and twisted, engulfing Richtofen, who screamed in agony as the molten liquid doused him. Richtofen stumbled and fell to the ground, even as Illuzio raised his hand. The raging storm above them swirled and twisted around them until it was circling the town.

"DESCEND!" Illuzio barked to the heavens, and a massive bolt of blue lightning soared downwards and slammed into the pile of lava that was smothering the 935 Leader.

"AAAAAHHHHH! EN…OUGH!" Richtofen bellowed, blasting the lava off of him and sending Illuzio crashing into a moving bus, sending him crashing onto the ground.

"Very…very good, Jonathan. There's no denying your strength" Richtofen growled as he got to his feet, his armor badly burned and half of his face melted off. The skin swiftly knit itself back together, but Illuzio saw Richtofen smile even as his open skull was exposed.

"But what you fail to understand, is that nothing…nothing…can stop someone who has lost what I have" Richtofen said in a deadly quiet tone before vanishing on the spot and reappearing next to Illuzio, decking him in the face and sending him into the fog. Illuzio crashed onto the ground with a yelp and rolled to his feet, glancing around him.

"True sight" Illuzio muttered, tapping his temples. His vision suddenly turned fuzzy for a moment before his sight cleared, and he glanced around for Richtofen.

"Where are you hiding Edward?" Illuzio murmured as he got ready to use magic.

All of a sudden a blast of lightning struck down from above, engulfing Illuzio, who vanishing on the spot and reappeared inside of a dilapidated Cabin the Woods.

"Who's running now!?" Richtofen asked gleefully as he strode through the fog.

Illuzio stumbled out of the house as Richtofen walked through the fog. Illuzio growled as he ran forward, yanking the nearby hatchet free from the stump it was embedded in, and hurled it at Richtofen. As the hatchet left Illuzio grasp, it was engulfed in a raging green aura that slammed into chest of the Nazi, who howled in agony as blood seeped from his wounds.

"Not…bad!" Richtofen muttered as he yanked out the hatchet, no-longer glowing Richtofen set the hatchet ablaze in his hands and dropped it to the ground before firing a bolt of energy at Illuzio, who threw up a wall of energy to block the attack. Richtofen smirked and added more power to the bolt, tripling the size and power of it. Illuzio's face hardened and as he tried to keep the shield going.

The barrier shattered like glass and Illuzio was hurled backwards, and vanished in a flash of energy before the attack could kill him. Illuzio appeared behind Richtofen as a black sword with a crimson hilt, and stabbed him in the chest.

Or he would have if Richtofen hadn't stopped the blade with his bare hands.

"Nice try" Richtofen smirked before balling up his fist and decking Illuzio in the face, sending him careening into the nearby cliff.

"AGH!" Illuzio yelled out as his head slammed into the mountain, causing stars to appear across his vision. Illuzio dropped to the ground and was immersed in a glowing green aura, and his wounds began to vanish.

"How about a change of scenery?" Illuzio suggested, a white ball of light appearing his hands. Illuzio tossed it into the air and it exploded in a massive burst of energy, engulfing the two of them. Richtofen opened his eyes and found himself on the top of a heavily damaged building. The sky was no longer smoky, and was beginning to clear it looked like. Richtofen glanced around and realize that this building was Asian, and seemed to be one of the few in the city they were in that was left standing.

"We're in China? How quaint" Richtofen said with a smirk as he turned around, only to get a fist in the face. Richtofen staggered backwards and lashed out with a bolt of lightning at slammed into Illuzio, sending him flying off of the building.

"Look! It's a Die Rise! Get it? High Rise? Die Rise? Ahahahaha!" Richtofen cackled as Illuzio cooked up a pulsating ball of energy in his hands.

Illuzio growled and vanished on the spot, only to reappear next to Richtofen and aim a kick at his skull. Richtofen caught his leg in midair and spun around, flinging Illuzio into a nearby elevator shaft. Illuzio slammed into the metal wall and fell downwards, crashing onto the elevator as it slowly rose.

Richtofen took that moment to look around him, and his gaze fell onto the nearby tower.

"That must be one of the polarization devices…" Richtofen said in wonder as he slowly walked towards it.

"RAH!"

The ground underneath Richtofen exploded, sending him flying into the air. Illuzio slowly floated out from the hole he had made in the building.

Illuzio flung his palms out and his palms flash green before a huge ball of air shot out of his hands and slammed into Richtofen, who exploded in a surge of energy. Illuzio quickly glanced around himself before he was slammed back i9nto the building, tearing through several rooms until they fell into the a hallway.

Illuzio blasted Richtofen off of him and rolled to his feet, hurling another black spark at him and sending Richtofen smashing through the walls with a howl of agony, flying out into the open air before stopping himself.

"Not bad, Jonathan. Maybe in a few years you might be able to keep up with me" Richtofen joked before sending an arc of lightning at Illuzio, who barely managed to jump to the side in time before the lightning tore through the entire building. Illuzio let out a yelp as the entire building shuddered, and he flung his hands out, both of them glowing white. Richtofen and Illuzio's surroundings changed once more.

They were now standing on the rooftop of an abandoned prison, where the sky poured down rain from above them. A plane sat on a runaway, both of them ramshackle in appearance but both of them functional.

"What is this? This…world?" Richtofen asked, caught off guard by the strange aura he felt here.

"Welcome to Alcatraz" was all Illuzio said before flinging his hands skyward. Richtofen glanced around him and saw a series of glowing white knives appear out of thin air and shoot towards him. Richtofen summoned two rods of energy and smacked two of the knives out of the air, but even as he did so even more of them lunged towards him. Illuzio smirked as he added more speed and knives to the attack, but eventually he realized that Richtofen was still able to block the attack more or less.

"Is that all Illuzio!? Hit me with your best shot!" Richtofen growled as he flung his arms to the sky, releasing a pulse of energy that caused the remaining knives to shatter and break the spell.

Illuzio growled and vanished in a flash of light, only for Richtofen vanish as well. The prison was silent for a moment before Richtofen appeared again, holding Illuzio by the neck.

"H-how!?" Illuzio demanded.

"Because, nothing escapes my eye Jonathan. I knew of your treachery, ever since the first seeds of anger and doubt were planted in your heart. The only way to end your misery is to end your life" Richtofen breathed before he drew back his fist and slammed it into Illuzio's skull.

The jester, however, burst black flames that immersed Richtofen, who roared in pain and stumbled backwards. Illuzio reappeared in a flash of light and said "Too hot for you? Let me cool you off then!"

Illuzio snapped his fingers and the rain suddenly stopped falling in a wide circle around them. Illuzio smirked and pointed a finger at the still flaming Richtofen and then water suddenly merged together at one point and then twisted, slamming into Richtofen's face as a torrent of never-ending water.

"AGH! Cu-rse you!" Richtofen choked as the deluge assaulted him from all sides.

Illuzio grinned evilly and doubled the effects of the spell, increasing the radius in which the water was collected and would come at Richtofen. Eventually, Richtofen got sick of drowning and let out a wicked pulse of energy, blasting away the spell and ending the attack.

"You will pay for that" Richtofen said darkly, forming a wicked electric longsword of green energy. Illuzio smirked and his black sword reappeared in his hands.

"FORCE!" Illuzio yelled, and Richtofen suddenly fell through the roof of the building and crashing onto a catwalk.

"BRUTUS!" Illuzio yelled, snapping his fingers multiple times.

Richtofen got to his feet as a large heavyset Zombified man appeared in a burst of flames next to him. Brutus growled and swung his club at Richtofen, who caught the attacked and stabbed Brutus in the chest, sending him flying backwards as a pulse of energy shot him across the cell block and into a wall.

"What sort of hell are we in?" Richtofen asked himself before ten copies of Brutus appeared next to him.

"Heh…child's play" Richtofen said as he spun around, slashing his sword in an arc at a trio of Brutus's charging at him, killing all three at once. Richtofen ducked blocked an underhanded swing and kicked that Brutus in the chest, sending him flying backwards up the stairway and crashing onto the ground with a yell of pain. Richtofen flung out his hand and a bolt of lightning surged from his hand and struck each one of the Zombified Wardens in the skull, killing all of them instantly.

Richtofen looked up at the hole in the ceiling and saw Illuzio looking down at him, a small rotating and pulsating ball of green light in his hand and a cold look on his face. Illuzio turned his hand over and wordlessly dropped the orb of energy into the hole, which landed at Richtofen's feet.

"Wait…is this-?" Richtofen began to say before the ball exploded violently at Richtofen's feet. But the explosion didn't stop there, it created a magical chain explosion, that didn't just engulf the cell block, bu the entire prison. Soon the entire place was exploding over and over again, while Illuzio kept a barrier around the prison to keep Richtofen from escaping.

"_Die…just die already…"_ Illuzio pleaded silently.

As if in response, a figure immersed in a now black aura shot through the smoke and tore through his barrier, destroying it completely. Richtofen's aura died away, leaving the man floating in the air with a scowl.

"Illuzio, stop this. Just hear me out" Richtofen said with a small smile on his face.

"Never. I can't let you go through with this. Even if I did do this to myself, even if I technically started this chain of events, I wasn't the one who doomed us all! Your other self and you have set this world up to be engulfed in fire and death once more! This makes you no different than Maxis!" Illuzio growled.

"You''ll regret those words!" Richtofen snarled, shooting towards Illuzio, who he crashed into. The two began to brawl in the sky above the now destroyed prison, with Richtofen shooting bolts of lightning at the fleeing Illuzio, who was quickly trying to find a way to retaliate.

"_I need a plan! He's too powerful, he just takes whatever I can throw at him! He's electricity powers combined with his 115 manipulation powers are incredible, even more so than I thought!"_ Illuzio frantically through as they broke through the cloud cover and arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Illuzio landed on the bridge and sank through it by muttering a spell, and Richtofen quickly landed on the bridge and ran a few steps before stopping himself.

"COME OUT YOU COWARD!" Richtofen bellowed, energy radiating off of him.

Richtofen glanced at the nearby Pack-A-Punch machine next to him and smirked slightly. He walked over to it and placed his Mauser C96 in the device, receiving the Boomhilda.

"Very nice" Richtofen murmured, placing his other Mauser C96 in the device. He clipped both guns to his belt before continuing to walk on the bridge.

"Come out, come out my dear Illuzio!" Richtofen called.

Richtofen was greeted by the world around him swirling and changing once more. He was now standing on top of a pile of debris inside of an old mansion.

"_Begone…"_

"_You're not of this world…"_

"_Get out…"_

Richtofen stepped back in surprise as several ghostly women flew out from the walls and slammed into him, draining his life force as they did so. Richtofen lashed out with his arm, sending three of them flying backwards with screams of pain.

"I have to get out of here!" Richtofen thought as dozens of the ghosts poured from the walls, attacking him and weakening him with repeated assaults.

"ENOUGH!" Richtofen bellowed, his black aura appearing around himself and letting out a burst of energy that killed all of the ghosts at once. Richtofen spun around and blasted the front door of the house off of its hinges and stepped out into an underground cave, where there was a town before him buried underground.

"Ah…this is where everything began…and ended, in a way" Richtofen murmured, having torn the memories of his other self explaining everything to Yena away from the shadow-user during his imprisonment. Richtofen had demanded answers from Yena about his ramblings and dark remarks, and Yena revealed his role in the plot with glee.

"_This buried well of consciousness…"_ Richtofen thought as he glanced around himself, taking in the buried town forgotten to time itself.

Illuzio reappeared in a flash of light and flung a white and black spark at Richtofen, who batted away both attacks and shot a bolt of lightning at Illuzio, who reflected the attack right back at him, which Richtofen dodged by jumping to the side. Illuzio snapped his fingers and suddenly disappeared, but all of a sudden Richtofen was surrounded by the twenty copies of the jester.

"Idiot! You've shown me that trick already!" Richtofen growled as he summoned his lightning sword again. Each of the Illuzio's summoned a sword of their own and shot towards him. Richtofen smirked and began to deflect and block every one of the slashes sent at him, and returned each one in kind before he was standing alone again, each of the illusions disappearing in a flash of light.

"Come now Illuzio, is that the best you've got?" Richtofen jeered.

"Not even close" Illuzio growled as he reappeared, his hands surging with green magic as he swung a fist at Richtofen, who barely dodged the punch. Richtofen could feel the raw magic at Illuzio's fingertips, and knew that the jester was going all out at this point. Richtofen ducked under a swing and punched Illuzio in the jaw before following up with a backhanded slash with his sword, sending him crashing onto the nearby fountain.

"Agh…just…d-die already…" Illuzio groaned as Richtofen shot another bolt of lightning at him, which he dodged by kicking off of the fountain and landing on the ground. Illuzio flung three green sparks at Richtofen, who growled in pain as the sparks exploded violently as they made contact.

Richtofen pulled out both of his Boomhilda's and opened fire on Illuzio, who was so surprised at the sudden shift to weaponry that he didn't dodge and was blasted several times with the Pack-A-Punched pistols. Illuzio vanished in a flash of light, but not before a grunt of pain escaped his throat.

"Ah, did that hurt Illuzio? Serve you right to betray me after everything I've done for you" Richtofen spat.

"If it wasn't for me and your other self who came from this timeline, you wouldn't even exist!" Illuzio yelled as he flew out of a portal and slammed his glowing green fist into Richtofen's skull, sending him careening into the town and smashing into a pile of crates.

"After everything I've done for you, you'd think you'd appreciate someone who lost everything they cared about. But this is you we're talking about" Illuzio growled as he readied himself for magic once more. Richtofen let out a howl of rage and flung his hand out at Illuzio, sending a massive surge of energy at him. The energy took the form of a massive serpentine dragon and slammed into Illuzio's chest, sending him flying into the ghostly mansion. He slammed into the house while the attack continued to drill into him, electrocuting him and causing him to scream in agony.

"I have to stop holding back…he's much stronger than I could've dreamed!" Richtofen thought tiredly as he healed his wounds, his green aura fading by a significant amount as it healed the horrible damage done to his face by the punch that had nearly killed him.

Illuzio's body vanished in a flash of light and he reappeared on top of a nearby building, panting.

"Fine, how about this!?" Illuzio said fling out his hands, warping the area around them once more and teleporting them to a muddy battlefield where Zombie roamed, planes shot each other in the sky, a massive dig site containing a mystical meteorite capable of reanimating the undead laid, and where giant robots roamed-

"Wait…where the hell ARE we!?" Illuzio and Richtofen asked each other in immense confusion.

"_Oh…right, this is where I got the Elemental Staffs…man this place is weird…admittedly kind of cool, but weird…"_ Illuzio thought with an annoyed expression.

"Look at all of the violence and destruction going on! Explosions and death, with all of this incredible technology…Ah…so wonderful" Richtofen said in sigh of happiness, a content smile growing on his face as he looked around at the new place Illuzio had warped them too.

"Hmm…I have the weirdest boner right now" Richtofen said in surprise, looking back at Illuzio, who scowled and shut him up by snapping his fingers and causing the mud underneath Richtofen to explode.

"It's an alternate timeline" Illuzio growled.

Richtofen got to is his feet with a scowl and jumped back as Illuzio fired a black spark at him. Richtofen then heard the horrible sound of grating metal, and looked up in horror as a gigantic robot loomed above him, its foot raised high above his head. Richtofen threw up his hands and caught the enormous foot with a yell of pain.

"No way" Illuzio breathed in disbelief as Richtofen sank into the mud, but was clearly holding up the Robot's foot.

"No…you…DON'T!" Richtofen yelled as he push upwards with an almighty amount of effort. The robot whirred in surprise as it's foot was suddenly pushed upwards, causing the massive robot ton stumble backwards and fall towards the earth, crashing onto the ground with a incredible slam that could be heard for miles.

"Unbelievable…" Illuzio said, awed at the incredible strength of the Doctor, even at a time like this.

Richtofen got to his feet with a grunt and replied by sending an arc of lightning at Illuzio, who was sent crashing into the mud with a yell of pain. Richtofen held his hand out towards the Dig Site, where tendrils of blue energy flowed into his hands.

"AHA! Element 115! Wait…this is…this looks like the meteorites that Yena described to me…when my other self explained what had happened when he altered the past to him…this is the same meteorite that ended all magic" Richtofen breathed in amazement.

Illuzio vanished in a flash of light and reappeared above Richtofen, sword in hand. Illuzio slashed Richtofen from arm to hip and kicked him in the chest, sending him crashing onto a wooden stairway. Richtofen summoned his sword as well and the two began to battle it out in the No Man's Land as the planes shot each other down in the sky above.

Richtofen sidestepped a downwards slash by Illuzio and stabbed him in the chest with his sword of lightning, sending him hurtling backwards into one of the battlements and crashing down onto a metal platform next to a generator of sorts.

Illuzio staggered to his feet and Richtofen called "Hey Illuzio! I think this is the rock my other self-used to kill everyone you know and love! Isn't that lovely?"

"You…YOU…SON OF A B!TCH!" Illuzio screamed as he flung his hands to the sky. Richtofen's eyes widened as a series of glowing green portals opened above him.

"You…you wouldn't DARE!" Richtofen yelled out, very nervous.

"YES I WOULD!" Illuzio yelled with a maniacal grin on his face as a series of a massive green beams of magic shot from each of the portals, shooting right at Richtofen, who couldn't dodge in time and was engulfed by all of them. Richtofen screamed in pure agony as Illuzio let loose the hidden stores of magic within him and combined it with very powerful spells that involved spatial and energy manipulation, which resulted in Illuzio's strongest attack. Illuzio finally let the flow of magic stop in the attack, and the beams vanished and the portals faded into nothingness. Richtofen lay there, unmoving in the mud, a glazed look in his eyes.

"Oh Edward…you should've just told me the truth…it would've hurt…but you could've helped me…you could've done something other than let me blindly help someone who wants everyone to hurt as bad as he is…" Illuzio said softly, a small tear rolling down his face.

"You're beyond saving…my dear Illuzio…" Richtofen murmured before suddenly sitting upright and shooting Illuzio in the chest with a bolt of green lightning, sending him flying upwards an crashing down into the mud. Richtofen shakily got to his feet and said "I'm not done..."

"Neither am I…" Illuzio said weakly, though he knew that it was a lie. Both were tired, and injured. While the last attack had truly injured Richtofen, it had drained Illuzio immensely. Illuzio snapped is fingers, and the world around them warped for a final time, this time returning them to the M.P.D. Tower that they had begun at, in their own world.

"EDWARD!"

Both men turned their heads towards Sophia, who was running towards them both. She had managed to break through Illuzio's barrier and saw the two vanish into thin air, and she was worried sick about the two men.

"Sophia! Get out of here! It's too dangerous!" Richtofen yelled, sounding truly fearful for the first time during their fight.

Illuzio pressed on that advantage, sending an arc of water as Sophia from his palm while sending a burst of pure black and green energy at Richtofen. Both of them screamed in agony as the two attacks hit them, mainly Sophia, who went crashing onto the ground, growling in pain as steam hissed from his skin. Illuzio had put enough force in the water attack to tear through a reinforced steel plating, and combine that with Sophia's water weakness, would no doubt hurt her. Richtofen crashed onto the ground with a howl of pain.

"Feel that pain!? IT'S NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT I FELT!" Illuzio bellowed as he flung his hands downwards. A series of crimson knives suddenly appeared Richtofen, shooting downwards and embedding themselves into his flesh.

"I may have been responsible for killing your fiancé in a way, but I am not the one who ruined your life…no…you did that yourself, you fool" Richtofen said with a wide smile as he got to his feet, the knives burning away as Richtofen's body turned to pure energy once more.

"It is time to stop playing around, Jonathan. I have a world to conquer, and destroy. Humanity is an evil, evil thing. Far more evil than I, or Yena, or even Maxis…Farewell my old friend" Richtofen said as he raised his hand towards Illuzio, who felt a thrill of horror go through him.

"Open" Richtofen said with a harsh whisper.

"What?" Illuzio said in confusion, before the M.P.D. behind Richtofen flashed white and slowly opened up. A small ball of pure white energy was floating inside of the device, flashing every few seconds.

"Souls of the damned, here my cry. Open the gateway! Open the path to Agartha!" Richtofen cried into the sky, fling his arms out wide.

"NO!" Illuzio yelled as he watched on in horror.

The ball of light shot into the sky, and Illuzio let out a scream of horror as the sky itself was torn apart, a anger red tear going through it as fiery veils of raw energy flowed forth to the roof, into Richtofen. It seemed as if the entire sky was filled with an crimson hue.

"_**Ah…power…the power to change the world…the betterment of humanity…and the end of you, my friend"**_ Richtofen said as his eyes began to glow even brighter than usual. His green surging aura sudden changed to a fiery red one.

"_Now…this is the end…BEGONE!"_ Richtofen roared, pointing a single finger at Illuzio, who threw his arms up at the last second as a crimson bolt of energy soared towards the jester. The multi-layered shield of hardened energy shattered like paper under the force of Richtofen's attack, and Illuzio vanished on the spot just as the energy bolt touched him. The attack soared through the sky, tearing through several skyscrapers and continuing onwards, even several minutes after Richtofen stopped the flow of energy.

"_**He escaped…what a coward…"**_ Richtofen murmured as the M.P.D. slowly shut, closing off the beam of light. The angry crimson rift in the sky slowly shut, and Richtofen's aura slowly changed back to its regular green form.

"That was incredible…I'm so close…so close to finally reaching Agartha! That was just a taste of the power I can command…Ah…how lovely…Once I can maintain the energy, I can use the energies to change this world however I wish…I can bring her back…we can be a family again" Richtofen murmured as his energy aura faded away. He felt a wave of exhaustion fade through him as his wounds caught up to him, and he fell to one knee.

"Damn it Jonathan…it wasn't supposed to be like this" Richtofen muttered as he got to his feet, panting slightly as he looked over at Sophia, who had been watching the exchange with awe.

"Edward, are you OK?" Sophia asked softly.

"I am fine, my dear" Richtofen said just as quietly as he sat down on the ground, trying to catch his breath. Now that the adrenaline was leaving him, he could feel his wounds and injuries catching up with him. Illuzio had given him more of a fight than Yena had in the past, but still, even he could not stop Richtofen.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Illuzio reappeared on the outskirts of town, panting heavily as he collapsed onto the ground. He slowly got to his feet, heaving and shaking with pain as his body tried not to go into shock from the beating he took and from the blood loss. His hands were clutching his heavily bleeding chest, which was glowing bright red from just the smallest brush against the attack that Richtofen had sent at him.<p>

"So…he is mortal, despite what he says. That's good at least…but…that's just a small portion of the energy he gains from accessing the power contained when accessing Agartha…now what!? There's nothing I can do now!" Illuzio lamented.

"Or is there?"

Illuzio tiredly looked behind him and saw a woman with short blond hair walk out of the shadow of a nearby streetlight. She was beautiful, but she had dark crimson red eyes that looked very…

Familiar.

"What do you want?" Illuzio asked, holding his bleeding chest and slowly healing it. Even after applying several healing spells, his chest was severely burnt and hurt horribly. He quickly numbed it with a pain-reliever spell. He'd likely never recover from this wound, no matter what, he realized.

"You tried to stop Richtofen, right?" Eris said with a grin as she crossed her arms.

"Yeah, and he kicked my ass. Why do you care?" Illuzio said bitterly.

"Let's just say I have a vested interest in his death. The thing is though…there's really nothing left you can do besides give her the staff, and hope she can get the job done" Eris said knowingly.

Illuzio summoned the Staff of Magnus to his hands, pointing it at Eris.

"Who are you?" Illuzio said sharply.

"Me? I am but an apprentice of a true master…shadows and blood, Illuzio. Shadows and blood" Eris said with a wide smile. Not evil, no hint of malice. But oh, so deadly nevertheless.

"Yena…he created you, didn't he?" Illuzio murmured.

"No…he simply made me into something more. He saved me from Der Ritter, and I am now his to use as he wishes" Eris said, something like adoration her in voice.

"_So…she isn't outright evil. She just thinks the world of her master…so she can be an ally against Richtofen, in a way"_ Illuzio thought.

"So, is he giving you orders?" Illuzio asked.

"How can he? He's dead…" Eris asked, sounding sad at the words.

"I know…I felt it" Illuzio said softly.

"So, why didn't you use the Staff of Magnus against Richtofen?" Eris asked curiously.

"Simple. It won't work for me. I'm not pure of heart. Maybe a few of the kids in Samantha's group could wield it...But I know that Samantha can wield it for certain" Illuzio said, his breathing returning to normal.

"And Sieger?" Eris prompted.

"Probably not. His affinity to fire makes it difficult to maintain a balance necessary to use the Staff. Samantha is balanced, so she is probably going to be the one to be accepted by the Staff anyway" Illuzio said as he returned the staff to his hip in a flash of white light.

Eris nodded, and then sighed and said "Anyway…I've got more scouting to do, plots to concoct, and more schemes to hatch. If you meet those kids again, tell them they have an ally in the shadows, so to speak. Farewell, Illuzio. I doubt we'll be seeing each other again, so…goodbye"

Eris fell backwards, sinking into her own shadow and vanishing on the spot.

Illuzio sank onto the ground and sighed heavily, putting his face in his hands. He was the cause of his own ruined life. Every time he tried to help, he ended up making things worse. Now Richtofen was close to destroying the world, and it was all his fault.

"I have to make sure…that they're ready…ready for the worst. It's time…for the grand finale" Illuzio murmured before vanishing in a flash of green light.

Eris smiled widely as she emerged from the shadows of the streetlamp, her teeth razor sharp showing and said "Master…should I follow him?"

"_No…stick to the shadows…observe…and wait" _a voice murmured in the back of her head, like a whisper in the wind. The softest and weakest sort of voice imaginable.

"As you wish, my Master" Eris murmured before she sank into the shadows once more.

Richtofen slowly got to his feet, panting with exertion. Illuzio was no pushover. He was incredibly powerful, but the power of the M.P.D. and the souls Richtofen had collected, when combined with his already incredible strength, made Richtofen even stronger than his former best friend. Richtofen knew he didn't need to access Agartha to finish Illuzio off, but if they had drawn out the fight any longer, he would've been probably too injured to access Agartha the next day, and he needed to be at his best for that. He limped over to Sophia, who sighed and said "I can't believe he turned on us too"

"He did so because he is hurt. That is all my dear…he is hurt…just like we are" Richtofen murmured as he wrapped his arms around her. Sophia turned in his embrace and kissed him on the lips, and the two stood together for a moment before starring up at sun that was beginning to lower into the sky.

"_Illuzio…what are you planning?"_ Richtofen wondered as he held Sophia ever so closely, wondering how much more strife must he endure before his plan was complete.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>Hope you all enjoyed that chapter of action and plot. Next chapter, one of the ones that I've been looking forward to most, and I've had planned for over a year now! <em>

_**IMPORTANT NOTE! As you finish this chapter, I'm hanging out with all of the main characters in this story for the first time in over a year, and we're keeping track of reviews right now! So drop a review in the section below so they can all see what you think of it! Longtime reviewers, people who've been reading for a while now, and new people just joining in, let your voice be heard! Let us know who your favorite character is, what your favorite chapter was, or just say what you thought of this chapter! Let this one be the most reviewed chapter yet, so everyone can see your support for this story! :D**_

_Follow me on Twitter at FlygonNick! Stay updated and listen to my incoherent ramblings!_

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	40. Death is Magic

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_GET READY FOR A TIDAL WAVE OF AN AUTHOR'S NOTE!_

_AND ONE HELL OF A CHAPTER!_

_MY LONGEST ONE YET!_

_I'll start off with this._

_I've said it once, and I'll say it again._

_No more OC's!_

_I killed myself throwing in everyone's OC in the New York Arc, and I have heard it from both Jess and Joe how dumb that was of me, but whatever. I learned my lesson on that one, but I stick to my commitments! I got everyone's OC in that submitted one when I asked for one._

_But yeah, stop sending in bios. No matter how awesome they are, your character won't be included in the story. If you want an OC in one of my stories, try later in a few months._

_This chapter was delayed by schoolwork. The end of the year is drawing closer, and I have spent too much effort working on my stories to where I have to revert my attention to school. Please bear with me guys, and I'll keep hammering out chapters. This chapter was also much longer than I thought it'd be. I was expecting 10,000 words, uh…not even close to that. _

_I'd also like to say that you guys are amazing for the feedback last chapter, which was probably my most reviewed chapter yet. You guys are the best readers a guy can ask for. It makes me feel as though I can take pride in myself as a writer. :D_

_So super-special-awesome shoutout to M3D1C101, Dustchu, DigDugDiamond, Vengeance of One, Knightmare Frame Razgriz, Trapinchh, Noskansho, lolperson2, Dogsled Shepard, xNewWorld, hellfire lord ,TMDF-Artyom, MetaKnight0011, two Guest reviewers, Dunka99, RandomName3064, Unkillable, killz718, StaticBomb324, Amy Bachman (AKA Bu11etb1iss115, so good to see you again!), a new guest reviewer known as It's-a-Mii (AKA Jax), eel3234, Snake-scent00, Justsomeperson7734, and lanstetil51, as as well as two new reviewers known as The lone doctor and doomforzombies16. I love all of you, please keep supporting this thing as we draw ever so closer to the end! _

_Special shoutout to a new reviewer known as m8camper9, who happens to be my 500__TH__ review! That's halfway to a thousand guys! WOOT WOOT! :D_

_Also, since these are the last few chapters, I'll be doing a small segment in my AN called DOTD FACTS. Just short little facts about the story, whether in story factoids or just stuff you probably didn't know about certain chapters or whatever!_

_As of this chapter. Jess, Joe, and Nick are the only ones up to date on the story. Jax is JUST NOW reading it (He's on like five or something), Liam and Andrew are too lazy to sift through this thing, Judith is indifferent to a degree, and John wanted to be taken out of it, and then changed his mind after I said people missed his character. _

_That's why I killed John off and brought him back. _

_These aren't serious, just fun facts you guys would find interesting/funny._

_Anyway, now that that's done with, I wanted to let everyone know about something pretty important, because it's something that's been addressed many times now in the reviews, above anything else, and I think this chapter is a fitting place for me to make this reveal._

_The Sequel to this story._

_Now, a while back, I decided that a sequel just wasn't in the cards. This story took much longer than I thought, and its draining doing two long stories at once. I really want to do my Pokémon story, and I'm still doing it eventually, but the thought of continuing Apocalypse seemed insane._

_And then I got thinking…_

_And I somehow, without realizing it, began to piece together a plot. Something that made me smile at the possibilities. A merging of Black Ops I and II, a beautiful harmony of new and old characters like this story, all the while exploring new roads of plot._

_I have to admit, the idea excites me…and not in a sexual way._

_So, here's the part where I say…not yet. It'll be a while before writing that is even a possibility. I have to finish Jak IV: The Avenging Angels before I can commit myself to a sequel. I also have to take into account that Black Ops III is a possibility, and that the story can change dramatically, like I learned from Black Ops II. The underlying plot of this story has changed so much._

_Though it may not seem like it, I have reworked the story time and time again to make it flow better and to evolve the plot. Sadly, I have to wait so I can plan this new one out. If I were to do a sequel, I would want it to top this story, to make it even better…_

_So…consider this Book 1 of the Apocalypse Series. _

_Ahahaha…I love it._

_By the way, I still have a poll up on my profile. What's your favorite Zombie Map or all time? Vote now!_

_Also my AMA is still up and going. If you have any questions about me or the story, go right ahead and ask! If you do ask a question for the AMA, please specify that it's for the AMA. That way I don't miss it. All questions and answers for the AMA will be posted on my profile._

_Anyway, time to get on with the chapter. It's long as sin and is my biggest fight scene yet, which is why it took so long. This chapter is one I've been waiting for for a very very long time, and represents the last stretch of this story._

_To commemorate this chapter, and the countdown to the last ten chapters, I shall use three quotes, and final one coming from a character who served as the inspiration to one of my most interesting characters. _

_This chapter wasn't proofread thoroughly, and I'll look over it in depth tonight._

_With that out of the way…_

_Enjoy._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 40: Death is Magic<span>

_Magic is a state of mind. It is often portrayed as very black and gothic, and that is because certain practitioners played that up for a sense of power and prestige. That is a disservice. Magic is very colorful. Of this, I am sure.- _Alan Moore

_There's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out"-_Lou Reed

_"It would be so very DULL if your journey ended so easily... Instead, it ends with...magic!"- _Dimentio, Super Paper Mario.

* * *

><p>Los Angles:<p>

1987:

* * *

><p>Richtofen immerged from the warehouse and took a deep breath of the chilly air.<p>

"Ah…" Richtofen exhaled, watching his breath float upwards in a puff.

Many years had passed since Richtofen reformed Group 935, under the banner of promoting the good of the world and improving the human condition. He had made incredible leaps and bounds with his experiments, creating many new and incredible forms of strengthening the human body beyond belief. He had experimented on himself as well, increasing his own abilities immensely.

He was now turning to experimenting on his fellow collogues. Each of them had been given the Super-Solider Serum, and Richtofen had noticed that this time it worked to perfection. No adverse reactions to the liquid, no undesired side effects. Sophia had been ecstatic when Richtofen had told her the results, and had even hugged him. Richtofen smiled a little when he thought of the black-haired woman, and he dwelled on her for a time.

"Maxis never appreciated the incredible person she is. Such intellect and beauty…ah, but she would never want me" Richtofen said, shaking his head.

Richtofen had seemingly de-aged a little due to his experiments. He had realized many years ago that he was pretty much ageless now, and that had altered his appearance to the degree that he now looked like he was in his mid-thirties. His short blond hair rested underneath a grey English cap, and he managed to blend in the with Los Angles crowd.

Over the years he had set up several laboratories throughout the country, and even the world. He stuck to the United States simply for convenience's sake, and for the fact that it was the site of his greatest triumph.

Richtofen continued to walk through the street, his stride slow and deliberate. Measure and calculating. He took in his surroundings, and if he concentrated he could examine their life force.

"Ah…imagine what I could do for zhem if I could just perfect all of mine experiments. The human condition is pathetic at best, so we must improve it" Richtofen said shaking his head.

A loud shrill scream broke Richtofen out of his thoughts.

Richtofen's ears perked up and he turned sharply, heading towards the sounds of the screams. He strode down a dark alleyway that ended up leading to an enclosed parking lot that was pretty much abandoned. He turned the corner to see three teenage boys, about fifteen years old each, standing above a young girl lying on the ground, kicking her repeatedly while she was on the ground.

"Come on Izzy, get up!" a blond haired boy said as he took a few steps back, panting.

"Yeah, fight back!" another said with a smirk as he stepped back as well.

"You're pathetic. You can't even get up!" another boy laughed as he brought his foot and kicked her in the stomach. The girl yelled out in pain, and Richtofen's eyes narrowed in anger.

"And just _what _do you three think you're doing?" Richtofen asked coldly as he stepped from the shadows, his boots crunching on the trash on the ground.

"Eh? Beat it old timer, we're busy!" the one the boys snapped, though he took a few steps back away from the little girl, as did the others. The two others slunk out of Richtofen's direct line of sight, and one of them picked up an old pipe lying on the ground. Richtofen's lips grew into a snarl as he walked over the girl on the ground, and he got a better look at her.

She was much younger than the boys that were attacking her, no older than 11 or 12. She had long back hair and had a disheveled appearance, as though she hadn't bathed or combed her hair in a while. She wore a filthy white T-shirt that was much too big for her and wore a pair of tan slacks that had a variety of stains on them. She had bright green eyes, one of which was closed shut from a black eye. From the looks of it, this wasn't the first time she had been beaten like this.

"Are you OK?" Richtofen asked the little girl, who mutely nodded.

"You three. Get out of here. You have no reason to pick on this girl" Richtofen growled at the tallest of the three boys.

"Psh, she's a homeless little weirdo, that's enough reason"

"Yeah, she's a smartass too!"

"She talks back to us, so we beat her up. Simple" the boy with the pipe said, swinging the pipe at Richtofen's skull as he said those words. Richtofen smiled and ducked, easily dodging the swing and grabbed the boy by his arm.

"I see. You're nothing more than trash. Then I suppose I shall you have to, how do you Americans say…take you out?" Richtofen breathed as he brought up his fist and slammed it into the boys ribcage and bruising or practically shattering most of his ribs in a single punch. The boy let out a howl of pain as he shot backwards, slamming into the dirt and coughing up blood. The two other boys helped him to his feet, though the boy was whimpering in pain right now with tears in his eyes.

As the boys slowly backed up, Richtofen snapped his fingers, creating a barrier of green energy blocking both of the ways out.

"There is no escape for you three. Now…" Richtofen helped the young girl sit up and leaned down and hauled her to her feet, letting her lean on him heavily.

"Are you alright, little one?" Richtofen asked in a soft voice.

"Y-yeah…I'll be OK…" the girl whispered, his voice rough.

"Do you want me to dispose of these boys for you? I can kill them quite easily" Richtofen said to the girl, who looked at the three teenagers in front of her.

"They've been bullying me since my mommy and daddy died…every week that beat me up and sometimes they even steal my food…I beg them to stop, but they never do…" the girl whispered, the three boys starring at her in horror.

"Kill them" the girl said in a whisper, and Richtofen smiled.

"Oh puppies…time for dinner" Richtofen sang softly before putting his fingers to his mouth and whistling softly.

Several balls of lightning slammed into the ground around them as Hellhounds emerged from the electricity. The dogs growled and the three boys ran towards the edge of the barrier, banging on it and terrified out of their wits.

"SOMEONE HELP US!"

"WE'RE TRAPPED!"

"HE'S GOING TO KILL US!"

Richtofen smiled as he pulled out three small black gems and said "Sic em'"

The Hellhounds converged and tackled the three boys to the ground, tearing into them ravenously. Richtofen looked down at the little girl, who was looking away from the grisly scene before her. Richtofen held out the three soul gems as the life faded from each of the teens eyes. All three gems suddenly flash purple and white, signifying that their souls were now trapped inside of the gems.

"There…they will never bother you again" Richtofen said as he looked down at the girl.

"T-thank you" the girl said quietly, looking back up at Richtofen.

And that's when he saw it.

Pain.

Loneliness.

Hurt.

Abandonment.

Suffering.

All things he had experienced, all in the eyes of a poor little orphaned girl.

Richtofen had lost his parents at an early age, and their deaths had always affected him. He was so brilliant, but so misunderstood. So…alone. Richtofen saw himself in this little girl's eyes, and he smiled sadly at her.

"Little one, what is your name?" Richtofen asked softly.

"Isabella. You can call me Izzy" the young girl said. Richtofen knelt down to her and said "You remind me so much of myself...brave, intelligent, and alone…"

The girl said nothing.

"Do you have somewhere safe you can stay?" Richtofen asked the girl, who shook her head.

"Hmmm…I suppose it wouldn't hurt" Richtofen muttered. He could always take her to the facility. They could nurse her back to health, and then she could just leave. It would be easy to erase her memories and-

No.

The thought seemed repulsive to Richtofen's mind, the very idea of letting her back onto the streets when she had no home was terrible to him.

"Sophia will know what to do" Richtofen said finally.

"Isabella, would you like to come with me?" Richtofen asked the girl.

"What?" Izzy questioned.

"Just until you feel better. I can sense that you can't walk on your own, and you left wrist is broken. You also have five fractured ribs, and you're currently starving and dehydrated. If you come with me, I can make sure you are taken care of, at least until you feel better" Richtofen said quietly.

"Will…will I be s-safe?" Izzy asked, her eyes becoming watery. Richtofen felt a surge of anger in his heart, remembering the three boys beating up a defenseless little girl.

"You vill be safe. I swear it. I won't let anyone hurt you" Richtofen promised the young girl.

"…I can't walk by myself" Izzy said softly. Richtofen knelt down and picked up the little girl, bridle style. She was incredibly light to him.

"Let's get you home" Richtofen said softly. Izzy nodded and promptly passed out in his arms, her wounds and the recent events finally causing her to pass out. Richtofen began to walk towards the facility, where he would make sure this girl was fed and taken care of. This little girl who was so much like him.

* * *

><p>Several Hours Later:<p>

Train:

* * *

><p>"How much further?" Nicholas asked Iva, who was currently driving the train.<p>

"We're getting close. We should be there just after sundown" Iva replied, watching the snow falling around them as the train plowed on.

Samantha and Sieger opened the doors to the car and walked into, faces pink from cold but looking satisfied.

"Hey you two" Joe said cheerfully.

"Sam's getting a good grip on her powers. She's figured out a few new ones that'll be really helpul once we get to Los Angles" Sieger said.

"That's awesome Sam!" Iva said cheerfully, and Samantha smiled at the Russian girl.

"Yes, it is…in fact, there's something I want to try" Samantha said, and the others gathered close by to listen.

"Now, we may be getting help on this, with the survivors helping us, but _we're_ going to be the ones that go into the Tower to fight Richtofen. And…I want you all to be ready, so I'm going to use some of my powers to grant you every perk I can give you. Juggernog, Quick Revive, Deadshot Daiquiri, the works. All of them. No matter what happens, you won't lose them" Samantha said.

"Awesome" Nick said eagerly

"That'd help out a bunch actually" Judith said with a grin.

Samantha closed her eyes and held out her hands. A small golden ball of light appeared in front of the group before forming into a Golden Perk Bottle. Samantha handed the bottle to Sieger, who shook his head.

"I've got all of the perks Sam, plus a few new ones. You guys go ahead" Sieger said with a grin.

BOOM.

"Weird" Iva said looking up at the roof.

"What was that?" Nick said, looking up.

"No idea" Iva replied, grabbing the bottle and drinking from it. Iva took a small sip and then ripped the bottle away, gasping and shivering. Her eyes were glowing a dark gold color before flashing a myriad of colors before settling back to normal.

"Wow…Joe, drink this" Iva said handing it to Joe.

Joe drank the Perk and his eyes flashed gold as well, and then changed to many different colors as well.

"Not bad. Tastes like Cream Soda mixed with…sugar and some sort of berry" Joe said.

"I call it the Phoenix Elixir" Samantha said with a tired sigh as she sat down in the seat.

Everyone took a drink of the magical Perk Bottle, gaining them every perk in Zombies, as well as a few new ones.

"Hmm…why is my vision so sharp?" Nicholas asked as he took off his glasses. He then put them back on, aware that there was no difference in his vision.

"Vulture Aid. Let's you see things you couldn't before" Sieger explained.

"You're so smart" Samantha said admiringly. Sieger grinned embarrassedly and said "Well, when you grow up with the people I did, you pick up a bit of knowledge here and there"

BOOM!

Iva cocked her head and said "There it is again"

John looked up and then said "Something's hitting the roof of the train"

"Should we check what's up?" Marcus asked the others.

"Get on top of a moving train?" John asked him sternly.

"What? How else are we going to figure out what's going on?"

"Or are you chicken?" Joe said to John.

"I am not a chicken" John snapped.

"You're about as manly as your pink shirt buddy" Andrew said to John, who scowled.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The entire train shuddering as green lightning surged down the length of it, shattering the windows with a resounding boom. The train screeched and hissed before Iva said "The train's slowing down"

Joe swore and ran up to the controls and said "Something is…what? This makes no sense"

"Let's go up on the roof" Juliet suggested as the bangs on the roof grew louder.

The train slowed to a complete stop now, and John sighed angrily.

"Pick up your weapons. I'll lead the way" John growled as he picked up his Lamentation and Winter's Fury. He threw open the door and climbed up the ladder, the others right behind them.

John got on top of the train and blinked in surprise as a familiar figure materialized out of a flurry of snow. He wore a colorful jester's outfit, which was actually thick and powerful lightweight armor. He had a jester's hat that had several bells on it. He looked at the teens starring at them with a sad smile.

"Illuzio?" Judith said in surprise.

The Jester shook his head then and said "I'm a fool"

"All these years, I followed the wrong man, all for the pursuit of fulfilling his dreams. His ideals. Of a perfect world…I now know what this dreams entails. The slaughtering of billions, simply because this world, like all things, has darkness in it…all the while, I was being led by the man who had ruined my life…yes, Edward Richtofen was the one who ruined my life, but it was not the same one…nevertheless, I was used to fuel a madman's madness…while this is better than the future that would've played out had I not been involved at all…it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth" Illuzio said softly, his hand held over his heart, as though trying to keep it from breaking.

"Illuzio…" Sieger muttered.

"Sieger…thank you. Thank you for opening my eyes. You and Izzy…you were one of the small joys in my life, and I am blessed to have seen you both grow into proud young adults, although with Izzy…" Illuzio trailed off, a sad smile as his face. A single tear rolled down his face as he shook his head.

"You have but one challenge left. Richtofen awaits you on the top of the M.P.D. Tower in Los Angles, just a few hours away…I tried to fight Edward myself, but…he was too powerful for me. I came close, however, and that speaks volumes about both of our strengths. He, however much he tries to hide it, is just human. And he can die like a human…"

Illuzio gestured to the red glowing wound on his chest and said "This is a mark of our battle. It hurts me horribly, and I will probably be dead from its effects in just a few days…yes…I will die. But I have faith that everything will work out in the end" Illuzio said, his voice sounding tired.

Illuzio closed his eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling it and letting a puff of white escape his throat.

"Yes…there's only one thing left for me to do now…" Illuzio said as a smile spread over his face.

"There are many things people cannot explain in life. Evil, and magic. The two on this occasion, will cross. And create a wonderful and terrible harmony…yes..." Illuzio said softly, grinning widely now.

"Here is my final test to you all…I'm sorry for letting things get so bad…for starting this mess to begin with…I hope you can forgive me one last time…for this" Illuzio said as his eyes flashed bright green.

"Illuzio…" Sieger said as he slowly reached towards his pistol.

Illuzio held out his hands, both palms glowing bright green, and he said in a deep and horrible voice "_Let inner darkness come forth, and consume me. Strip away morals and mercy, and let my inner evil shroud all…"_

'"What!?" Nicholas said as Illuzio floated into the air, his entire body glowing green.

"_Dark Illusion: Inner Devil!"_ Illuzio intoned as his body suddenly became immersed in a crimson and black aura.

"I had always heard that this spell existed, but…" Sieger growled, Fatum and Lux now in both hands. Illuzio slowly fell to the roof of the train, his eyes shut.

"Illuzio-" Sieger began to say before a massive black bolt of lightning struck Sieger in the chest and sent him flying off of the train with a yell.

"SIEGER!" Samantha yelled out, watching the young man crash onto the ground and remain still.

"You're next" Illuzio said darkly as Samantha turned around.

Samantha turned around and saw two crimson orbs of light starring at her from Illuzio's face. Illuzio's face slowly turned into a horrifying grin, and she remembered the smile of glee on his face from all those years ago, when he had slaughtered her friends and captured Jason.

"It's time for the final test, children…the grand…FINALE!" Illuzio roared, flinging his hands out and then slamming them onto the roof of the train, causing it to shake violently. The entire train heaved and each of the teens were hurled to the roof as the entire train rose smoothly into the air.

"And now the train is flying. Just when this _couldn't_ get any less believable" Nick said dryly as he got to his feet, pulling out C.N.

"You want to explain what the hell is going on CN?" Nick asked the blade.

"Why are you asking him?" Joe asked, pulling out his Wunderwaffe DG-7.

"C.N. knows everything, so he's got to know what the hell's happening" John reasoned as he pulled out his Lamentation and took aim as the jester standing at the far end of the train. Each of the teens readied their weapons, when C.N. spoke up.

"_From what I can tell…he used a spell…that makes you evil" _C.N. said slowly.

"Correct!" Illuzio grinned as he formed a pulsating ball of green energy in his hand and flung it at Nick, who slashed upwards with C.N. and blocked the ball of light, sending it skyward.

"_Hey, Asshole the Clown. Wasn't finished!" _C.N. barked at Illuzio.

"_From what I can tell, this spell pretty much turned the guy evil. He did it to himself to test you guys. To see if you were ready for the big fight. Illuzio happens to be dying as well, meaning his has nothing left to lose at this point"_ C.N. said to the others.

"HOW RIGHT YOU ARE!" Illuzio cackled.

Illuzio flung his hands downwards and a series of bluish portals opened up underneath each of the teens, causing them to yell out as they sank through them. After making sure they landed where he wanted them too, Illuzio vanished on the spot.

* * *

><p>Location:<p>

Germany:

Abandoned Bunker:

* * *

><p>Nick groaned as he crashed onto the ground, rolling to his feet with C.N. drawn. He glanced around at his surroundings, his eyes wide in surprise.<p>

"Huh…weird" Nick said as he walked over to a barred window, allowing him to see outside. Not that it offered much, since the outside only had a few barrels filled with oil, a car or two, all of which was immersed in a thick fog.

"_Nacht Der Untoten"_ C.N. said with a chuckle.

"Why here?" Nick asked C.N.

"Why indeed?"

Nick turned around in surprise and found Illuzio looking at him from the middle of the room. Nick pointed C.N. at Illuzio, who chuckled once more and said "Ah, see, there you go. Using that thing again"

"What? C.N.?" Nick asked.

"Yes…the only reason you're alive at this point. Your reliance on powers you barely understand" Illuzio said softly to Nick.

"What did you just say?" Nick said angrily, gripping C.N. tightly.

"_Kill that asshole. Just invoke the ability when you get within range, and I can obliterate him"_ C.N. snapped.

"You're worthless without that thing. It defies the very nature of the world. Our world" Illuzio said tauntingly.

"Bull crap! I'm just as awesome without C.N.!" Nick growled at Illuzio.

"Prove it" Illuzio said.

Nick flipped C.N. in his grip and stabbed it in the ground.

"_You're taking a dangerous risk kid"_ C.N. muttered.

Nick pulled out his Predator and opened fire on Illuzio, who vanished on the spot. He reappeared a second later, throwing hand towards Nick. A massive fireball appeared out of nowhere and flew towards him, forcing Nick to take cover behind a wall. The fireball exploded violently next to Nick, who jumped out from cover and fired a few shots at Illuzio, who warped in a flash of green light. Illuzio reappeared above Nick, aiming a kick at his head. Nick managed to duck and aimed upwards, shooting at Illuzio again. This time Illuzio vanished in a flash of light and when he reappeared, a black sword was in his hand.

"Like it? I call it Nox. The Lunar Diviner" Illuzio said as he fired a green spark into the ceiling. The ceiling exploded violently and moonlight spilled in, illuminating the area. Nick watched in horror as Illuzio's sword glowed bright blue.

"Ah…this power makes me a lunatic, no?" Illuzio chuckled before slashing the sword downwards towards Nick. An arc of blue energy soared towards him and slammed into him, sending him flying across the room with a yell of pain. Nick got to his feet and said "Use your magic, your sword, and whatever else. I don't need C.N. to beat you"

"That's the spirit" Illuzio said cheerfully as he fired another ball of magic at Nick, who was blasted backwards with a yell. Nick panted on pain as he looked down at his burned and bleeding arms. He wouldn't last much longer. He had to do something…

"_He's trying to trick you. You need to use me to kill him!"_ C.N. yelled.

"NO!" Nick yelled as he opened fire with his Calamity and Jane, causing Illuzio to have to block the shots with his sword. Illuzio then raised a hand, causing a plume of fire to erupt from the ground next to Nick, who barely dodged it.

"SUBMIT!" Illuzio cried as a blue ball of energy formed in his palms and shot forward, slamming into Nick's chest and sending him crashing onto the ground once more.

"_Nick…you have to realize something. There's a reason I picked you, out of seven billion people, to be the Champion of Norris…"_ C.N. said softly to Nick.

"OK…like w-what?" Nick murmured as he got to his feet, barely able to hold his Predator.

"_Well for one, you've got balls of steel. They've been kicked in a hundred times and you're still doing fine for one…seriously though…you've got a strength of character and humor I've never seen before in a human"_ C.N. said quietly to Nick.

"Really?" Nick said in surprise, looking down at the magical knife.

"DIE!" Illuzio growled, flinging his arms downwards. Two arcs of green magic soared towards Nick, who yanked C.N. out of the ground swung at both blasts of magic with him, redirecting them into the ceiling and tearing through the sky.

"HA! Told you that you were worthless without him!" Illuzio laughed.

"_He doesn't need me. I'm not a crutch, because he's strong in his own right. He possesses a strength of heart that can endure whatever crap his friends or his enemies throw at him. He's the Champion of Norris, while you're a pathetic washed up old clown with a magic fetish"_

"And you're a washed up cowboy with a god complex bonded to a worthless teenager!" Illuzio snapped back.

"_No. The thing is Illuzio, you've got it all wrong. This kid is a goof, a pervert, and a bit more obsessed with me than the average high school student…but like the others, he's got a good heart. They're going to save this black and twisted world, and kill Richtofen"_ C.N. said coldly to Illuzio.

"But first…" Nick said with a wide grin.

"We're going to kill you" Nick and C.N. said together before lunging at Illuzio.

"NOX!" Illuzio yelled, summoning a pure black sword Illuzio was immediately forced back as Nick slashed downwards, sending him skidding backwards.

"With just one strike?" Illuzio thought with amazement.

"_See, this kid may rely on me a bit, but that's because he's the only one worthy of my powers. Not even you can say that, Jonathan Ravenwood"_ C.N. said knowingly.

"What the-You…you…DIE!" Illuzio snarled as black sparks ran down the length of his sword. Illuzio slashed downwards and a surging black arc of magic soared towards Nick.

"Not a chance" Nick said cheerfully before jumping to the side, barely avoiding it.

Illuzio slashed again and again at Nick, who blocked every single strike with ease. Illuzio created snapped his fingers and three illusions of himself appeared behind Nick and charged at him from behind, only for Nick to pull out his Predator with his other hand and blast them into nonexistence. Illuzio let out a yell of frustration and rose into the air, firing several black sparks at Nick, who blocked them all with C.N, but as the sparks struck the blade, they dissipated into nothingness. Illuzio snarled in anger and began to charge up a huge ball of pulsating green magic in his hands.

"But…how!? Illuzio howled as he hurled a pulsating ball of green light at Nick, who smirked as he watched the ball fall down from above.

"BECAUSE I'M CHUCK F*CKING NORRIS!" Nick and C.N. screamed before Nick's eyes turned blood-red. Nick drew his fist back and punched the ball of light with an inhuman yell, sending it hurtling back at Illuzio and blasting him into the wall with a scream.

Illuzio's body crashed into the wall where he remained stuck for several tense moments before falling to the ground. Illuzio let out a groan before disintegrating into a cloud of green sparks. A glowing blue portal opened up a few feet away and Nick glanced at C.N. of a moment.

"Any idea where it leads?" Nick asked.

"_The next fight of course"_ C.N. replied.

"Let's do it then" Nick said with a smirk, walking into the portal, which closed up behind them.

* * *

><p>Location:<p>

Wittenau Sanatorium, Berlin:

* * *

><p>John groaned as he slowly rose to his feet, pushing himself off of the ground with a groan. He got to his feet, his hand on the wall. He glanced around and then walked over to a cracked window, where he saw he was in a large compound in the middle of a forest. John pulled out his Lamentation, shivers going down his spine at the horrifying silence that emanated from the building.<p>

"This…this feeling…this place scares the hell out of me" John muttered, his grip on his gun tightening as he slowly made his way into the next room. He avoided the large pool of water that was on the ground and slowly made his ay upstairs, ignoring the chalk outlines on the walls.

And then he heard the firsts scream.

"Agh, where am I?" John muttered as he made his way up the stairs, his eyes looking out at the filthy and bloodstained walls, the site of some epic battle lying before him. Bullet holes riddled the walls, and after a few moments John remembered something Dempsey had mentioned to them in New York. He had begun to tell them how they had met Richtofen, and it all began with a mission Dempsey had went on.

"_I was on an assignment to find Dr. Peter McCain. He was working with our intelligence to infiltrate Groupm935 and figure out just what the hell they were doing…Richtofen apparently caught on, and had him transferred to some crazy place. Erm, uh…an Asylum! That's it"_

"_He was transferred to some Asylum in Berlin, and me and my boys were charged with finding him…we never found him, but we found something else waiting for us…that's when everything changed for me…e and my men held out for ages against those undead freakbags, but everyone died in the end…everyone but me…and then he found me…next thing I know I'm being woken up and told to get ready for a fight"_

Dempsey had described the place as Verrückt.

John closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the screams. He wondered if this was what it was like for Richtofen, having voices in his head. He then chided himself for thinking of that.

According to Samantha, the M.P.D. was an evil device that had corrupted Richtofen's mind. I wasn't something that forced him to commit the atrocities that he had done. No, it simply coerced him into doing them. Soft evil voices in his head that manipulated him to destroy and conquer.

John opened his eyes and saw Illuzio leaning against a wall.

"So, how much longer do you have to live?" John asked Illuzio, pointing to the glowing red scar on his chest.

"Not much longer. If you all can't kill me, this wound will…so, should we get down to business?" Illuzio said as he got off of the wall and held out his hand, Nox forming in his grip.

"Fine" John said as he took aim with his Lamentation and fired it at Illuzio, tearing through his skull and causing him to vanish on the spot. Illuzio warped behind John and threw a fist at his skull, but John ducked and back away, firing at Illuzio again. John switched his guns, grabbing his Winter's Fury instead as Illuzio vanish again.

"Come on John! You're supposed to be the smart one"

"And you're supposed to be a magician. And a jester. But the only thing you're doing is making me laugh right now" John said dryly as he walked over to a chalk outline on the wall, pressing his hand against it. John grabbed the bouncing betty off of the wall (the BO II one, I know it's not a part of this map but I haven't used the BO 1 kind) and clipped it to his belt.

"Hello?" John said as the silence of the asylum crept in again.

A faint scream was his reply. The scream of someone in complete and utter agony.

"Seriously, just get on with it" John said in an annoyed tone.

A flash of green light appeared in front of John, who let out a yell as he was kicked in chest and sending crashing into the next room, next to a Speed Cola machine. John got to his feet and fired a shot with his Winter's Fury, hitting Illuzio in the chest and sending him crashing onto the ground as his chest became coated with ice.

"Chill out numbnuts" John muttered as he ran through the asylum, mind racing.

"_Hehe, numbnuts…"_ Jess's voice said in John's head.

"That's terrifying" John said mildly, shuddering a little.

He yanked the butcher's knife out of the table in the kitchen and ran into the generator room, where a Mystery Box was, as well as a power switch with a severed hand attached to it. John examined it for a moment before he walked into the next room and into a room filled with toilets and bathtubs.

"JONATHAN!"

Illuzio reappeared and flung his hands out, fire racing down the hallway. John jumped to the side and hid behind a wall as the flames raced nearby. As the flames died down John looked out from cover, but a green spark slammed into the wall next to him, causing him to take cover again. Magic surged next to him and wall cracked from the force of the spell as John took aim and fired several shots at Illuzio, two hitting his right shoulder. Illuzio yelped as cold surged through his arm and John pulled out a Symtex grenade and hurled it at him. The jester vanished before the grenade could connect, and John took off down the hallway.

"I need a plan…I don't have anything strong enough to really catch him by surprise or kill him…" John thought as his mind raced.

"Hmm…I need to distract him…but how?" John said ponderingly. Illuzio reappeared down the hallway and sent another spark at him, forcing John to jump to the side to take cover. John took pulled out a Symtex grenade and jumped from cover throwing the grenade and then firing the Winter's Fury three times, blasting the floor underneath Illuzio, who took a step back and then was lost his balance and crashed onto the ground. John fired four more times at Illuzio's downed form, freezing him solid. John walked over to him then shot it three more times of good measure before taking off down the hallway and p the stairs.

John stopped at the power room and began to take apart some of the wires, dragging them to the electric trap. He smirked as he continued to mess and rig with the electric trap and the generator before connecting the two with a large cord. Now the electric trap was hooked up to the Power Room.

Illuzio let out a yell as he broke free from the ice, magic and energy surging around him. He warped on the spot and reappeared a few feet away from John, who was standing in the hallway next to Double Tap causally.

"So, we're cool, right?" John said with a coy smile, causing Illuzio to hurl a fireball at john, who fired five shots of his Winter's fury into the ball to make it dissipate.

"Catch me if you can!" John said with a grin as he spun around and darted down the hallway. Illuzio sprinted after him, hurling green sparks at slammed into the walls leaving massive holes in them. John grabbed a frag grenade and dropped it as he rounded the corner to the power room. Illuzio chased after him, but was engulfed in an explosion by the grenade. Illuzio burst through the smoke, and stopped just after it, stepping into the power room where John was leaning against the wall, not a care in the world.

Illuzio summoned Nox and took a step into the room when he heard a click. A small disc spun into the air and exploded in his face, sending him stumbling backwards. Illuzio clutched his face and grabbed the entranceway as he flailed in pain, but felt several sharp devices protruding from the door and doorframe.

John raised his Winter's fury and fired two shots, freezing Illuzio's feet to the spot, even as he realized that he was right in the repositioned electric trap.

"This-this, did you-!? Illuzio began to say.

"Bye" John said as he casually turned the power on. Illuzio's eyes widened in horror before the generators began to turn on, the grinding noise that slowly became louder. Illuzio began to scream as electricity poured into his body, causing his body to convulse horribly as massive amounts of raw electricity streamed into his body. John watched Illuzio's body slowly faded away in a cloud of sparks and a portal opened up next to him.

"Well…time to jump down the rabbit hole and see where it leads me" John said as he reloaded his weapons and walked through the portal.

* * *

><p>Location:<p>

Northeast Asia:

Manchuria:

* * *

><p>Andrew fell through the ceiling and landed lightly on his feet, glancing around quickly. He was in a dilapidated shack and the smell of rotting corpses and murky water assailed his nose.<p>

He fought the urge to hurl, and instead looked up, only to scream and quickly back away as a body hanging from the rafters slowly swung above him.

"Jesus…this…this…is this…what is this!?" Andrew muttered, putting away Gutripper and pulled out Skullcrusher, his heart pounding.

"This is the Rising Sun Facility. It is better known by its other name, Shi No Numa" Illuzio said as he walked out of a portal, smirking at Andrew.

Andrew scowled and said "What's wrong with you man? I thought you wanted to stop Richtofen from destroying the world"

"I do, and I tried. Seems he's too powerful for me, especially with the M.P.D. at his disposal. This is a test to see if you all can really take him down. If you can't even kill me, then you had no chance at stopping Richtofen to begin with" Illuzio said as his smile widened.

Illuzio held out his palm and a bolt of green lightning shot out of his palm, shooting past Andrew and tearing a hole through the side of the shack they were in. Andrew took aim with Skullcrusher and fired a stream of bullets at Illuzio, who cackled and vanished on the spot as the bullets tore through him.

"I've got to get out of here!" Andrew muttered as he sprinted down the stairway and into the swamp, heading towards the Doctor's Quarters.

"Can't believe I'm at Shi No Numa…" Andrew said with a smirk as he took his first step into the swamp, splashing water everywhere, and Andrew considered himself lucky that he was wearing boots. The water in front of him suddenly exploded and Illuzio immerged from the swamp, holding a jet black sword with intricate crimson designs flowing along the side. Illuzio floated a few inches above the water, holding the sword in front of him.

Andrew smirked and drew Gutripper, saying "Alright, let's do this"

Illuzio smirked and flew at Andrew, sword raised high, and Andrew brought up Gutripper high into the air and blocked the slash, locking their swords together. Illuzio grinned and kicked Andrew in the stomach, sending him crashing onto the ground on the floor of the main hut.

"Cheap shot!" Andrew growled as he got to his feet. Illuzio grinned and snapped his fingers, creating four clones of himself.

"BRING IT!" Andrew bellowed at Illuzio, and all four copies shot towards him. Andrew ducked under the first clone's slash and kicked it in the back before slashing at the second clone, who blocked it with his sword. Andrew threw his weight against his sword, throwing the second Illuzio, off balance and ducked in time to dodge the third Illuzio's overhead slash. Andrew pulled out Skullcrusher and switched to the grenade launcher, firing a shot towards the 2nd and 3rd Illuzio.

The grenade flew towards them and exploded at their feet, causing them to fly backwards with a howl of pain and crash onto the ground. The 4th Illuzio ran up to him and kicked him in the chest, sending Andrew hurtling backwards and crashing onto the ground. Andrew got to his feet and barely brought up Gutripper in time to block a savage overhead strike.

"Submit!" the 4thIlluzio barked.

"Like hell I will!" Andrew growled, once again hurling the jester off of him. Luck for him, Illuzio wasn't exactly a tank, and his strength was just his body augmented with magic, whereas Andrew had a tough build already.

"_He's a lightweight…I can use that against him" _Andrew thought with a smirk as the 5th and 1st Illuzio flew at him. Andrew lunged at the 1st one and traded several blows with him before bashing him in the face with Skullcrusher. Andrew spun around in time to catch the 5th Illuzio's sword with Skullcrusher.

"What will you do now!?" the 5th Illuzio grinned as the 4th Illuzio brought up a hand charging with raw magic.

"THIS!" Andrew grinned as he fired Skullcrusher's grenade launcher at the ground. Illuzio let out a howl of agony and vanished in a cloud of parks as the 2nd and 3rd Illuzio's got to their feet.

"Bring it" Andrew said with a smirk as the smoke cleared. The Illuzio's raised their blades and charged at him. Andrew pulled out a Symtex grenade and hurled it at the 2nd Illuzio, who yelped in horror as the grenade latched onto his sword and exploded violently, killing him instantly. The 3rd Illuzio raised his blade high into the air and brought it down on Gutripper, creating a shockwave of energy that rippled through the air. Andrew grit his teeth as the force came crashing down on him.

"Die…just die…DIE!" Illuzio roared at Andrew.

"F*CK OFF!" Andrew bellowed as he threw Illuzio off of him for the 3rd time, sending him crashing onto the ground. The 3rd Illuzio got to his knees and threw his palms out, a green sparking shooting from it. Andrew barely managed to threw up Gutripper before the spark reached him, but the explosion blasted him through the nearest gateway and slamming into the mud.

Andrew groaned as he rolled to his feet, watching the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Illuzio's strode out of the shack. Andrew got to his feet, switching to Skullcrusher, and fired a grenade at them. The three jester's vanish on the spot, and Andrew let out a growl of frustration.

"This is getting annoying" Andrew muttered.

Andrew heard a splash from behind him and he spun around, opening fire and tearing through the 1st Illuzio with a yell. The jester exploded in a cloud of sparks, and Andrew glanced around the swamp, his hand on his gun. Andrew took aim and blasted apart the two other Illuzio's, who exploded violently in a cloud of sparks.

"At first he was going all out…and then he lets me get a few shots in on him? Weird" Andrew said as he reloaded his Skullcrusher.

"Come on…where are you?" Andrew muttered as the the water in front of him exploded.

Andrew eyes widened as a massive serpent rose from the depths of the swamp, roaring loudly at him. Andrew opened fire with Skullcrusher, the bullets tearing through the monster's hide as it lunged at him. Andrew jumped back as the serpent slammed it had into the ground and Illuzio shot out a ball of energy from atop the monster's mouth. Andrew let out a yell as the ball exploded at his feet, sending him flying into the air. Andrew took aim with Skullcrusher and fired a grenade towards the serpent, which roared in pain as the grenade exploded against its skin.

The serpent snarled and lunged at Andrew, who slashed upwards at the monster, who reared back with a hiss.

"_This is bad!"_ Andrew thought as the snake lunged again, this time Andrew managed to jump to the side to dodge the snake eating him, but the spikes on the side of the snake slashed his shoulder, causing blood to flow down his shoulder.

"I've got to end this" Andrew muttered as he got to his feet. Andrew glanced at the Skullcrusher in his one hand and his sword in the other, frowning.

"_If I could just get one good hit on the real one…without him teleporting away…I've got to catch him off guard…wait, that's it!"_ Andrew grinned as he reloaded the grenade launcher of Skullcrusher.

"And now, it's time to die Andrew" Illuzio laughed as the monster lunged at him, Illuzio leaning forward on the monster's back.

Andrew drew back his hand and aimed Skullcrusher's tip at the ground. Andrew surprised Illuzio by sprinting towards them and jumping into the air, firing Skullcrusher's grenade launcher at the ground as he did so. Andrew soared high into the air from the force of the explosion, well above Illuzio and his monster ,and crashed down on top of Illuzio, slamming the blade of Gutripper into Illuzio's stomach.

"AGH!...Agh…well played…Andrew…" Illuzio gasped before he exploded in a shower of sparks. The monster vanished in a wave of sparks as well, and Andrew fell towards the ground, only to be swallowed up in a bluish portal that took him away from the wretched swamp and to another area.

* * *

><p>Location:<p>

Germany:

Lower Silesia, near Breslau:

_**(The fight for Der Reise was written by JC785)**_

* * *

><p>Iva and Joe opened their eyes at nearly the same time, and had entirely different reactions upon seeing where they had appeared. Iva looked around in silent wonder, realization in her eyes as she recognized the place described in her father's stories. Uncle Dempsey and Takeo had gone into great detail about this place, describing their incredible fight against the undead with Richtofen. Joe looked around with a look that could only be described as glee on his face, as he stepped off of the Teleporter and onto the concrete ramp, walking down a few steps. He looked at the building looming overhead and grinned widely.<p>

"Ah…Der Reise!" Joe said cheerfully.

"Hmm…but why are we here?" Iva asked Joe, who shrugged. Joe and Iva explored the mainframe for a short while, before the an alarm went off. A flash of green suddenly appeared before them, and Joe reacted before he even saw what was happening, barely avoiding a green bolt of lightning.

"Hehehe! DIE!" Illuzio growled as he shot another burst of lightning at Joe.

Joe's face contorted into a snarl as he held his hands out, opening his palms out so the Fists of Thor would absorb the lightning. Illuzio's eyes widened as the green lightning was sucked into the silvery gloves. Joe's snarl turned into a grin as he ran towards Illuzio, who stopped the flow of lightning in time for Joe to punch him in the face with a electricity surged fist. Illuzio yelled out in pain before exploding violently, sending Joe flying backwards onto the ground. Iva growled as she pulled out her afterburner, he eyes darting around nervously. All of a suddenly Illuzio appeared, holding a massive grenade launcher with a large round barrel.

"Like it? It's called a War Machine? Utterly useless in Zombie Scenarios, but for this, it works quite wonderfully!" Illuzio cackled as he began to fire a stream of grenades down at the two teens. Joe yelped and grabbed Iva's hand, pulling her inside of the main lab. The pair got into the lab just as the grenades started exploding out in the courtyard. Iva glanced back at saw Illuzio floating in midair after them, cackling madly as he reloaded his War Machine.

"Ok, that has a lot more kick than I thought it would." Joe said as he pulled out his Refitted-870 Mechanical Cranium Sequencer and started loading it.

"Yeah, I didn't expect that." Iva replied.

Suddenly, Illuzio teleported into the room, floating above the two teens. "And you won't be expecting this either!" He then let out another 6 grenades from the War Machine right on the ground surrounding Joe and Iva. Quickly, Iva kicked two of them away and the two started running again, turning back to try and shoot at Illuzio at the same time. This was quickly proven ineffective as he kept blocking every shot they unloaded on him with a wave of his hands.

"Iva, split up!" Joe shouted quickly, and then turned left at a T-intersection. Iva then tuned right, running back out towards the main compound. Illuzio looked between the two for a moment before turning towards Joe. Joe ran into the building with the third Teleporter in it, the one straight across from the courtyard of the main Teleporter pad, and Illuzio gave chase.

Before Illuzio saw Joe, Joe activated a super magnet on his Fists of Thor, raising him up to the metal walkway above him. Illuzio floated through the entrance, but was then puzzled when he couldn't find Joe.

"Where did he…" Before he could finish, Joe deactivated the Fists of Thor and dropkicked Illuzio from above. Illuzio's skull slammed into the concrete floor, cracking his skull open.

"Meet the Shoes of Loki you mofo!" Joe yelled as he ran toward the Teleporter. Before Illuzio could get his bearings, Joe activated the Teleporter and got zapped to the mainframe. Just then, Iva appeared in the doorway.

"Game time." Iva said before she charged forward and drew her Afterburner and started firing on Illuzio. He blocked all of the shots without effort by creating a ball of energy that surrounded him. He got to his feet and deactivated it, smirking at the Russian for her efforts.

Iva was smiling the whole time though, and this was making Illuzio curious. Suddenly, he heard a clunk by his feet, and saw a frag grenade by his feet. The device blew up, sending him over into the Teleporter. Iva pulled out a pistol and shot the activation button, sending him back to the mainframe.

When Illuzio reappeared in the central mainframe, he was immediately hit was a great burst of lightning. This sent him flying towards the fence which sparked with electricity when Illuzio hit it. Illuzio screamed out in pain before his eyes flashed red for a moment, and then he locked eyes with Joe, who was standing nearby with his Wunderwaffe DG-7.

"ENOUGH!" He then sent out a shockwave, sending Joe to the ground and his Wunderwaffe away from him. Before Joe could get the weapon back, Illuzio zoomed over and picked up the weapon, and fired it at Joe.

The gloves Joe wore only absorbed a small portion of the electricity. The rest was sent through Joe at a painfully alarming rate. He let out a blood curdling scream that Iva head all the way at the furnace room.

Iva ran all the way to the mainframe to see Illuzio mercilessly firing shot after shot from the Wunderwaffe at Joe. "Hey Illuzio!" Iva shouted at him. Illuzio stopped long enough to look at her and aim the weapon at her as well.

Iva paused for a moment before she grimaced and said "Your girlfriend was a уродливым и отвратительным шлюха!" She then ran back into the furnace room while Illuzio was just floating there, registering what he just heard in Russian. He then dropped the Wunderwaffe and vanished on the spot with a snarl.

Iva went to the kennel room and hid behind one of the walls, listening closely for any sounds of the magical jester. But there were none, and that is what scared Iva the most. She looked to the right of her to see if there was another way around, but instead of finding a pathway, she found Illuzio right in front of her.

"How dare you say that about her…" He says quietly before he grabs her by the neck and flies up through the ceiling, his grip horribly powerful, as if his fingers were made of iron. "You have no idea who she was, nor will you ever!" Illuzio's voice was getting increasingly louder as he spoke each word, and his grip on Iva's neck was getting tighter. The pair was now hovering about 20 feet over the mainframe. Iva was struggling against Illuzio's tightening grip on her, for she did not know how to get out of this situation.

"And now, I'm going to make you feel the way I feel. By killing your little tech nerd boyfriend." He whispered in Iva's ear. She had the look of absolute fear on her face, mixed with rage.

"Um, excuse me." Joe said from below. Illuzio and Iva looked down at Joe who was standing up in front of the closed Pack-A-Punch machine doors.

"Oh, look who it is. This saves me so much more time than I would have needed." Illuzio said as he floated down to the ground and dropped Iva, who gasped desperately for air. She stumbled up the stairs and fell to the ground, looking and the standoff between the two men.

"Oh really, and why is that?" Joe said as he pulled out the Wunderwaffe. Iva noticed something different about the weapon however. Instead of the bulbs on the site of the gun, there were 3 black wires sticking out of it. Illuzio didn't seem to notice this however.

"This way, I can kill both you and the girl rather quickly...and the move on to your friends" Illuzio said as he flung his hands out wide, both of them now glowing black and giving off an incredible surge of energy that rippled through the air, creating a fierce gale around them.

"_This guy…he's so powerful"_ Iva thought with horror.

As Illuzio kept speaking, Joe pulled back the overcharge lever on the Wunderwaffe and walked over to the mainframe terminal.

"See that would work, except you forgot one minor detail." Joe said as he looked into Illuzio's eyes.

Illuzio chuckled a bit before replying "And what might that be?"

Joe then pulled back the release handle on the terminal which opened up the Pack-a-Punch doors. Instead of the legendary upgrade machine however, the little area was empty, and the 3 power wires were all feeding into Joe's Wunderwaffe. The gun then started to spark red electricity from the side, and it started to shake as well.

"Hey Illuzio, do you know what the Germans say when they like something?" Joe asked as he aimed the wonder gun at Illuzio. Illuzio's eyes widened in horror and realization as he realized what Joe had done, and he ceased charging up and made a move to turn around.

Joe fired.

"HOW VUNDERBAR!" Joe cackled as the lightning surged around him, rocketing toward Illuzio who screamed high and loud as the red lightning surged into him. Illuzio convulsed and howled in agony, a sound that echoed throughout the compound and into the night. Finally Illuzio vanished into thin air, taking the ball of red lightning with him. Joe laughed manically as the lightning around him slowly died, and then he fell to his knees, grinning, his entire body aching horribly but feeling ecstatic.

"God that a rush!" Joe grinned.

"That was sexy Joe" Iva joked, helping Joe to his feet.

"Yeah well, you know" Joe said with a grin before Iva pulled him close and kissed him on the lips. Joe's eyes widened in surprise, but before he could do more than that a blue portal opened up underneath them and they fell through it, leaving the Giant behind.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Location: Deutsches sol Kino

West Berlin:

* * *

><p>"IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!" Jess sang as she fell through the ceiling and landed in Marcus's arms.<p>

"It's raining hot chicks. Sweet" Marcus said with a grin as Jess smacked him, blushing pink.

"What to do with you two?" Illuzio's voice echoed from the walls.

"Let us go?" Jess suggested.

"Yes…Yes…I could let you-wait what? NO!" Illuzio growled.

"Too late! You already agreed!" Jess said triumphantly.

"That's it! FETCH ME THEIR SOULS!" Illuzio growled as twenty bolts of lightning struck down around them, revealing several growling Hellhounds.

"NO! ZHEE PUPPIES!" Jess yelled in mock horror.

"Yeah, not scary" Marcus scoffed as he pulled out the Petrifier that he had gotten from Samantha, the one that belonged to Jason.

"…you've been hanging out with her for too long" Illuzio muttered as the dogs closed in.

"Time for a bath" Jess replied as she began to spray the Lobby with the Sliquifier. The Hellhounds yelped as the liquid splashed over them, and the twenty Hellhounds exploded in a shower of blood and fur. Jess grinned and said in a German accent "Und that is how zhee cookie crumbles, mine dear Illuzio"

Illuzio appeared in a flash of light and slashed at Jess with Nox, nearly decapitating her with the black sword. He followed up with a black-handed slash that Marcus blocked with his own knife, but Illuzio spun around and kicked Marcus in the head, sending him crashing onto the ground.

"Marcus!" Jess yelled out as Illuzio slashed at Jess, who let out a yelp as the blade missed her head by an inch. Jess took a few steps back and pulled out her MP115 Kollider and fired at the Jester, who vanished on the spot and appeared above her on the ceiling. He dropped to the ground as Jess hopped back, creating a wide green shockwave of energy that rippled across the floor.

"DIE!" Illuzio growled as he flung his hands out, tendrils of magic shooting forward. Jess screamed and sprinted into the next room and outside, slamming the door behind her. The tentacles tore through the door with a sickening noise and Jess pulled out the Sliquifier and sprayed the door, but this did nothing to stop the tentacles.

Illuzio chuckled darkly as he continued to use the tentacles to torment Jess, at least until Marcus slammed his fist into Illuzio's skull, sending him stumbling forward.

"Agh!" Illuzio grunted as he whirled around and shot a burst of black light at Marcus, who rolled to the side and pulled out a Cobra on his hip, unloading the entire barrel into Illuzio, who vanished in a cloud of sparks. Marcus jammed a handful of bullets into the pistol and said "Where did you go!?"

"MARCUS!"

"Jess! Hold on!" Marcus yelled as he sprinted towards the room to his right and broke into the alleyway. Jess was nowhere in sight. Marcus put away his Petrifier and pulled out his Cobra.

"Jess? Where are you?" Marcus asked.

"MARCUS!" Jess's scream was very close now, rebounding off of all of the walls. Marcus clutched his head as the deafening scream increased in volume. Marcus fell to his knees, his mouth open in silent agony as Illuzio materialized in front of him. He waved cheerfully to him before summoning Nox and holding it out to Marcus's throat.

"N-no!" Marcus gasped.

Illuzio moved his hand forward, but jerked back as several purplish red bullets shot by him. He spun around and vanished on the spot as Jess materialized out of thin air, holding a steaming M115 Kollider.

"Silence…oh god" Marcus hissed, rubbing throbbing ears.

"You OK?" Jess asked.

"WHAT!?"

"ARE YOU OK!?" Jess yelled.

"NEVER BETTER! WHY ARE WE YELLING!?"

"YOU'RE YELLING!"

"BOTH OF YOU JUST SHUT THE HELL UP AND DIE!" Illuzio screamed as he reappeared, holding a massive surging fireball.

"RUN!" Jess and Marcus screamed as they bolted down the alleyway and sprinted up a metal stairway.

Marcus and Jess ran into a side room and sprinted down yet another stairway as Illuzio launched another fireball that blasted the walls, spreading flames everywhere.

Jess and Marcus burst onto the stage and hurled grenades at the doorway, with Jess pulling out a Shock Charge and holding it in midair.

"Where'd you get that?" Marcus asked Jess.

"Plot hole" Jess replied.

"Oh, OK"

"_You guys suck"_ a voice told them from above.

"Blame my writer" Jess said to the author as Illuzio burst through the doorway as the explosives went off around him. Illuzio floated above them, cackling evilly and completely unharmed from the explosions, and said "What was that? It tickled!"

"Jess, what's the plan?" Marcus asked as he walked over to the nearby Box and rolled, grabbing an AUG. He checked his Cobra for a moment before looking at Jess.

"Erm…uh…good question" Jess said sheepishly. They both then looked up as Illuzio appeared above them.

"How about die?" Illuzio suggested as a massive pulsating black spark formed in his hand before he shot it down at them. Jess screamed while Marcus swore loudly, and both dived off of the stage before a massive explosion rocked the building.

"_What an insane amount of force!"_ Marcus thought worriedly as smoke filled the arena. He felt something slam into him and he crashed onto the ground, rolling to his feet and swung his AUG out of reflex, slamming into his assailant. Illuzio blasted the smoke away and lifted a hand toward Marcus, who yelped as his entire body stiffened and was lifted into the air.

"Not bad. You're not quite on Liam's level, but you're a tenacious one alright"

"My best friends died because of you morons!" Marcus snarled at Illuzio, who made a claw-like gesture with his hands, causing Marcus to yell out in pain as an intense pressure began to crush him.

"We all lose things in life. It is how you deal with losing those who are important to you, that defines your character" Illuzio said darkly before a sound echoed from the back of the stage and the sound of something flying through the air caused Illuzio to turn around.

BOOM!

Illuzio went flying backwards as an rocket slammed into him, and Marcus fell to the ground in a heap. Jess jumped off of the stage and dropped her RPG to the ground, falling ton her knees.

"Marcus! Are you OK?" Jess asked as Marcus's eyes opened again.

"Yeah…" Marcus muttered Jess helped him up.

"That hurt…that hurt quite a bit" Illuzio growled he reappeared in the air above them.

"Jess, come on!" Marcus yelled as Illuzio sent another black spark down at him. Marcus fired the Petrifier and shot out of the way, and the spark exploded violently on the ground. Jess took aim and fired her RPG, and Illuzio vanished before it could hit him.

"It looks like you missed" Illuzio said with a laugh as he reappeared in front of her, grabbing her by the throat and hurling her across the room and onto the stage.

"JESS RUN!" Marcus yelled as Illuzio's hands charged up and fired several sparks at her. Jess screamed and bolted into the dressing room. Jess spotted the red fire alarm switch on the wall and threw herself at it, throwing it downwards. Illuzio shot towards Jess, holding his sword high above his head before he slammed into a wall of electricity with a yell.

Jess took a few steps back before taking out her M115 Kollider and took aim. The second the wall vanished, Jess fired her gun at Illuzio, who vanished again.

"STOP VANISHING!" Jess screamed angrily.

Marcus walked over to her, holding his leg with a wince.

"You OK?" Jess asked Marcus.

"Yeah I'm fine" Marcus said with a painful grin, his hand coming away from his leg, stained dark red.

"Erm, well...I landed badly when I dodged that attack" Marcus admitted.

"Where is he now?" Jess asked Marcus.

"Above you!"

Jess and Marcus managed to look up before two small balls of magic slammed into the two of them, sending them flying onto the ground hard. Jess opened her eyes and screamed, rolling to the side as a series of razor sharp white knives embedded in the stage floor next to her. Jess ducked under another knife and shot a stream of bullets at Illuzio, who vanished again and reappeared next to her, swinging his foot towards her. Jess ducked under it and sprinted away, and before Illuzio could send an attack her way a blast of energy slammed into his, tearing apart his skin and causing him to scream in agony.

Marcus lowered the Petrifier with a scowl and said "Leave her alone"

Illuzio vanished and reappeared in front of Marcus, smirking slightly.

"So, fancy yourself a hero? Liam died the same way. Hurt and going up against a much deadlier adversary"

"Yeah, but he's not alone!"

Illuzio looked up in time to see Jess falling from the ceiling, her slamming into Illuzio's face. Illuzio fell to the ground and vanished again as Jess rolled to her feet. Jess gave Marcus a salute before Illuzio reappeared above them.

"Grrr…you two annoy me, oh so very much…" Illuzio growled. Illuzio vanished once again and a series of lights and sounds filled the amphitheater, and Marcus glanced around nervously.

"Jess, be careful. He could be anywhere" Marcus said to Jess before Illuzio reappeared in front of Marcus, a fist slamming into his gut and sending him flying across the stage and crashing onto the ground. Illuzio spun around a fired a series of sparks at Jess, who screamed and vanished on the spot.

Marcus fell to the ground, hissing his injured leg pressed against the cold metal stairs, scraping the wound. His lungs were on fire from the blow, and from what it felt like, Illuzio just broke a rib.

Jess reappeared and looked worriedly at Marcus before she looked up in horror. Illuzio floated above her, grinning madly before he hurled a ball of ice at her from above. Jess vanished on the spot with a scream, and the ball slammed into the ground, freezing the stage solid and freezing the walls as well.

"What the hell?" Marcus whispered as he pulled himself up. Illuzio floated downwards and slowly turned to face him, a horrible grin on his face. Marcus glanced around for Jess, who hadn't reappeared.

"Looks like your girlfriend ran away in the explosion…I'll find her. Each of you will die…" Illuzio whispered as he advanced towards Marcus. Marcus raised the Petrifier, only for Illuzio to snap his fingers, blasting the weapon out of his hands. Illuzio snapped his fingers once more and Marcus suddenly felt his body stiffen as he fell to his knees.

"I don't get you. You sort of help us, and then you stop that altogether, and then you turn yourself evil. Is this really some sort of test?" Marcus asked with gritted teeth.

Illuzio leveled his sword at his neck once more and said "I guess you'll never know, huh?"

"NOT SO FAST!"

"What the-!?" Illuzio said as Jess reappeared in front of him, ginning evilly as her RPG rested right over Illuzio's heart.

"Bitches love cannons" Jess said with a grin before she fired the RPG into Illuzio's chest, sending him flying backwards and crashing onto the rows of seats behind him.

"Nice shot" Marcus said with a pant.

"You OK?" Jess asked.

"I'm fine" Marcus said reassuringly.

Illuzio let out a howl of pain and vanished on the spot, though this time in a shower of green sparks. Jess and Marcus both turned around to see a glowing blue portal open up behind them, and they both glanced at it. Jess pulled out a Quick Revive syringe and treated Marcus's wounds, her Invizi-Fizz and general speed helping her avoid serious injury. Jess helped Marcus to his feet, to get a kiss on the cheek in return.

"You were amazing" Marcus said with a small smile.

'Well, you know…" Jess said, flushing dark red.

"So…shall we go on?" Marcus asked, jerking a thumb towards the portal.

"Come on!" Jess said excitedly as she grabbed Marcus's hand and ran towards the Portal, Marcus chuckling at the girl's antics as they went through.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Arlington, Virginia:

The Pentagon:

* * *

><p>Judith groaned as she slowly sat up, messaging her head. She glanced around the room she was in, and realized after a moment where she was.<p>

Several months ago, she had gone over to Liam's house before they started dating to hang out with Nicholas, Joe, and Jess. Once they were there, Joe and Nicholas wanted to play Zombies, and they had eventually decided on the map Five, which took place in the Pentagon. Judith had watched them battle it out against the undead, watching carefully until they went down by round 13.

This was where she was at.

Judith grabbed her Dead Specimen Reactor and made her way down the short staircase and walked into an elevator. She pressed the button on the side of the wall and the elevator sank into the earth, arriving on a floor a few floors down from where she was originally. Judith's eyes widened in horror as she beheld a bloody hallway slick with gore, both Zombie and human.

"What…the…hell?" Judith muttered as she slowly advance down the hallway with a shudder.

"Aw, you don't like it?"

Illuzio dropped from the ceiling with a grin and threw his hands up, generating a wave surge of fire that roared down the hallway. Judith screamed and threw herself into another hallway, barely dodging it.

"Jeez…that was close" Judith said with a pant. All of a sudden Judith's head began to hurt her horribly and she hissed in pain and clutched her head.

"What's going on!?" Judith asked herself.

"_Good question"_ a voice said in her head.

"Time to die!" Illuzio laughed as he reappeared at the other end of the hallway she in in.

"_Judith, behind you!"_ a very familiar voice yelled out. Judith spun around and ducked into the power room as a massive surge of energy roared down the hallway. Judith panted and shook from how close that attack had been, before glancing to her left at the figure standing next to her. Judith's hand went to her heart and she felt her eyes sting . She took a step back and whispered "What…is this?"

A teenager of about 15 years of age stood before her, clad in a simple black t-shirt and a pain of torn jeans. He had a sickle in his hand and had a smirk on his face, which was freckled and had a mess of black hair on top. His entire body shimmered and flickered green, and he had a transparent look to him. He gave Judith a cheerful grin and said _"Good to see you again Judith"_

"L…Liam?" Judith whispered.

"_I don't have much time. Illuzio's magic is making this possible, and we're going to use I against him. What you see now is your memories of me reacting to the magic, add my wandering soul to the mix and, well...you get this. I can help you fight him, but you're going to have to work with me on this. I know we broke up pretty badly, but I want you to get over that, OK? You have to live"_ Liam said, emphasizing the last few words.

Judith simply nodded as a tear rolled down her eye.

"_I'm so sorry…I know you've been through a lot"_ Liam said in a soft tone.

"It's been so hard…I've missed you so much" Judith whispered.

"_I know…I'm sorry"_ Liam said before a chuckle cut him off.

"Magic…sometimes it can affect the dead as well as the living" Illuzio said as he immerged from the shadows.

"_Hey, get away from her" _Liam growled as he stood in front of Judith, holding a sickle in his hands.

"I wonder if you have any physical tangibility in this realm…hmmm" Illuzio said thoughtfully to the shimmering teen, who scowled at him.

Illuzio then threw up his hands with a yell and a massive surge of energy rushed down the hallway, and Liam shoved Judith to the side and was evaporated on the spot.

"LIAM!" Judith screamed.

"_What?"_ Liam said with a grin as he reappeared next to her.

"_Magic"_ Liam said with a grin.

Illuzio appeared in a flash of light and swung a fist at Judith, who stumbled backwards and barely dodged it. Liam threw himself at Illuzio and tackled him to the ground with a snarl.

"_I may have gotten killed by Yena, but there's no chance in hell I'm going to die to you!"_ Liam growled as he rolled to his feet, kicking Illuzio in the head. The jester got to his feet and threw a punch at Liam, connecting with his head and making him vanish on the spot.

"There we –BAM!" Illuzio began to say before a gunshot sounded off and his chest exploded in a shower of blood. Illuzio turned around to see Judith aiming her DSR at him, looking furious.

"No one…will make me relive that…" Judith hissed as she fired again, this time Illuzio managed to vanish in time to dodge it.

Liam reappeared next to her and said _"Come on, we need to get out of the open!"_

Judith nodded and the two ran to nearby room and ducked into it.

"_Any ideas?"_ Liam asked his former girlfriend, who bit her lip.

"Liam…I…"

"_Focus Judith"_

"I CAN'T!" Judith screamed at Liam, who ruffled his hair nervously.

"_You died! I watched you get shot in the chest, I saw you die!" _Judith yelled as tears rolled down her face.

"_Judith, listen to me. I'm dead. No magic can bring back the dead! The fact that I can talk to you is breaking the rules, but one time things happen! This is one of those times!"_ Liam yelled as he drew his sickle.

"_Now, we have two options. One, you sit here, and mourn my death. Or you can help me get rid of this psychotic jester. Choose"_ Liam said sternly.

Judith wiped her eyes and took a few moments to compose herself before she said "Come on…let's get this guy"

Liam helped Judith to her feet and the shimmering green teen grinned and said _"Better?"_

"Yeah, I guess" Judith said with a frown.

"_Hey, no frowning. Let's go kick some ass"_ Liam said cheerfully.

"I just need to get one shot in on him. That should be enough to get him out of here" Judith said to Liam, who nodded.

Liam and Judith stepped out into the hallway, only for Illuzio to appear a few feet away and fling his arms at them, sending a wave of white burning knives at them. Judith hissed as one of the knives slashed through her thigh, causing blood to go gushing down her leg. Liam charged at Illuzio, who sidestepped a slash with the sickle and summoned Nox. The two began to trade blows as Judith slunk off towards the other end of the hall. She glanced at the nearby Teleporter and limped towards it, vanishing on the spot and reappearing at the other end of the hall. Judith took aim and fired her Dead Specimen Reactor, blasting Illuzio in the spine with her rifle. Illuzio howled in pain as the bullet passed through his back, and even louder when Liam jammed his sickle into Illuzio's chest.

"_Nice shot babe!"_ Liam laughed as Illuzio warped away. He reappeared on the other side of the hallway, healing up his wounds. He shot several bolts of magic towards Judith and Liam, who took cover in another room.

"_I'll keep him busy, you line up the shot"_ Liam muttered to her as he ran towards Illuzio again. Judith smirked and calmly walked through the Teleporter again, this time watching the fight from a closer position. Liam began to trade blows with Illuzio, sickle to sword, and Liam got the upper hand and slashed Illuzio in the chest with his sickle with a backhanded swing. Illuzio, not be outdone, punched Liam in the chest and hurled him down the hallway, where he rolled to his feet with a growl. Illuzio flung several blacks sparks of magic at Liam, who jumped through the wall with a cackle as the sparks caved in the hallway at the far end. Liam reappeared next to Illuzio who punched him in the skull, making Liam vanish again.

"Where is she!?" Illuzio snarled, causing Judith to duck behind cover. Judith held her breath for several tense seconds before a loud voice yelled _"I won't let you hurt her!"_

Liam flew from the wall and tackled Illuzio to the ground. Liam rolled to his feet first and kicked savagely Illuzio in the chest and sank his sickle into his back with a savage yell. Illuzio howled in agony and vanished on the spot. Liam glanced around wildly while Judith zoomed in next to Liam.

"Come on…" Judith muttered.

And then it all happened.

The world slowed down…Illuzio reappeared next to Liam, Nox raised high and positioned to cleave Liam's spirit in half. Judith's eyes narrowed as she pulled the trigger of her Dead Specimen Reactor, a loud gunshot echoing throughout the Pentagon. The bullet soared through the air, rocketing through the hallway towards the renegade jester. Illuzio had time for his eyes to go wide before his entire shoulder exploded in a shower of blood and gore. Illuzio screamed in pain before exploding a shower of sparks. A blue portal opened up next to where he died.

"_We…we did it"_ Liam said with a grin.

"Now what?" Judith asked Liam softly.

"_Now that Illuzio's left this place, I'll be vanishing any second. My soul was sort of bound to you, for a while anyway. Guess the magic in the environment gave my soul a physical form for a bit and let me do things here"_ Liam said as he walked closer to Judith.

"_Things like this"_ Liam said as he bent down and kissed Judith on the lips. As he did so, he faded away with a laugh, and Judith smiled as the laugh died away.

"Liam…" Judith said as a single tear rolled down her face before walking through the portal, ready to finish this once and for all.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia

* * *

><p>Samantha looked at the sky as the Lunar Lander travelled through the sky. She recognized the facility as the place where Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, and Richtofen had helped free Gersch.<p>

"Illuzio! WHERE ARE YOU!?" Samantha bellowed to the sky as she descended into the facility. Samantha walked into the starting room, aware she had no weapons at all. She spotted a Mystery Box in the corner of the room, where it had been the Original Crew had escaped the facility, and walked over to it. Samantha pressed her hand on the top of the box and rolled, and smiled a little as she beheld two C275's. Samantha readied both pistols with a grin and rolled again, this time getting a-

BOOM.

A teddy bear floated in front of her, and Samantha growled at it when Illuzio's laughter issued from the box. All of a sudden the box exploded violently in a green burst of energy, and Samantha was hurled backwards and sent crashing onto the ground.

"Agh…come out you coward!" Samantha growled.

"It seems as though your friends are as strong as I believed. So far they have managed to stay alive. So how will you fare, my dear Samantha?" Illuzio asked as he appeared out of nowhere, sword in hand and a rod of fire in his other hand. Illuzio hurled the flaming rod at Samantha, who sidestepped it and opened fire with her C275's, blasting apart the jester.

"So it begins!" Illuzio cried out as he reappeared behind her, hands glowing bright green with magic. Illuzio swung his right hand wide, a wraith of fire flashing into existence next to Samantha, who focused the energy in her and hurled up a barrier of energy. The flames crashed against the barrier with tremendous force, and Illuzio swung his other hand towards Samantha, this time a blue beam of freezing cold energy slammed into the wall of energy, shattering it. Samantha was went flying backwards and crashed into the wall as icicles and fire raced around her.

"Farewell!" Illuzio laughed as he summoned a large icicle and hurled it at Samantha.

Samantha closed her eyes tight and felt the entire world around her become dark and cold.

Illuzio's eyes widened in surprise as the icicle slammed into the wall, embedding into the wall.

Samantha gasped as she slowly slid out of a solid wall a few feet behind Illuzio, before shooting him repeatedly with her C275's, causing the jester to howl in agony. Samantha stumbled out of the shadows, only to be kicked in the face by the jester who grabbed her by the throat and hurled her across the Lunar Lander Pad like a rag doll.

"Come on Sam! Get up!" Illuzio growled. Samantha got to her feet and lunged at Illuzio, who blocked a punch from her and spun around, kicking the girl in the back of the head. Samantha fell to the ground before being picked up by a spell and hurled into the side of the building. Illuzio grinned widely and he hurled Samantha into the wall over and over again until Samantha managed to sink into her shadow again.

Illuzio rose high into the air and held his hands to the sky as Samantha reappeared on the ground at the bottom of the staircase. Illuzio began to laugh as Samantha staggered to her feet and looked up to to sky.

"Don't you understand yet!?" Illuzio asked Samantha as a massive black and green ball of magic formed Illuzio's hands.

"DEATH IS MAGIC SAMANTHA!" Illuzio cackled as a rainfall of black and green deadly sparks fell from the sky, and as each spark touched the ground, a massive fiery explosion followed. Samantha was engulfed in smoke as the explosions rained down around her, causing her to scream in pain. After continuing the barrage for another few moments, Illuzio stopped the attack and cleared the smoke.

Samantha was standing tall as the smoke cleared, drenched in her own blood and starring coldly at Illuzio. She was holding up the fading remains of an energy wall, reinforced with a crisscrossing series of shadowy tendrils.

"I see…so you really are the Chosen One…One Five" Illuzio said with a mad grin, cocking his head.

Samantha took a deep breath as the blood on her body shifted in place and then slowly moved, flowing back into her wounds. After several tense moments Samantha exhaled, and her wounds shimmered and healed. Samantha's face broke into a downright evil smile then, and Illuzio felt some part of him that was horribly numbed at the moment.

This was the kind of person who could end all of this.

He was sure of it now.

"Come on Samantha! It's time to up the ante, so to speak!" Illuzio said tauntingly.

"Fine then. Time for some new tricks!" Samantha growled as her arms flickered gold and green. She flung her arms out wide and said "Let's have some fun!"

"What is this?" Illuzio said, surprised for once.

"_**Kaboom!"**_ Samantha cried out before flinging her charging arms downwards. Illuzio had time to blink before he was enveloped in a massive nuclear explosion that sent him hurtling across the map. Illuzio screamed as his skin seared in the worst way possible, even as he cast several quick healing spells over and over to mend the skin.

"Did…she just use one of her Power-Ups as an attack?" Illuzio whispered hoarsely as he shakily got to his feet. After muttering a few spells that eased the pain racking his body, he cast several energy and power spells to augment his body to bring him back to normal.

"That was…something" Illuzio murmured as Samantha ran over to him, grinning sadistically. She flung her arm at Illuzio, sending three shadow tendrils shooting towards him. Illuzio easily batted away the shadows and fired a shimmering black spark at Samantha, who grinned even more widely and said _**"Insta-Kill!"**_

Samantha's entire body exploded in a golden and green aura that sent Illuzio skidding backwards. Samantha let out in high pitched giggle, horribly like her old self all those years ago.

"How is she doing this!?" Illuzio thought with horror as Samantha shot towards him. Illuzio leaned back to avoid a deadly punch and vanished on the spot to avoid a kick that could have destroyed a bank vault with a mere touch.

"GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT!" Samantha screamed as she slammed her fist into the concrete structure nearby, destroying it completely.

"She's…this is crazy…how can she be doing all this? Why hasn't she shown this kind of power before now!?" Illuzio thought with horror.

And then he realized it.

Jason.

"_He and Sam were very close…she idolized that kid before I captured him…getting that closure and absorbing his energy…maybe it unleashed a new wave of potential for her…"_ Illuzio thought to himself as he slunk through the hallways, invisible.

Samantha growled angrily and said "You're not getting away from me that easily! _**Zombie Blood!"**_

Samantha charged down the hallways, eyeing everything around her carefully and with scrutiny. She heard the sound of someone talking to themselves. Samantha grinned and crouched low, seeing Illuzio clearly with her own Power-Up active.

"…the staff will need to be powered by-" Illuzio said before Samantha lunged at him, tackling him to the ground.

"What the-!?" Illuzio yelled out before Samantha jammed a C275 and fired the pistol, blowing Illuzio's entire jaw off.

"Shut up!" Samantha barked as blood spattered the ground. Illuzio vanished once more, and Samantha sighed in annoyance.

"Stop running…" Samantha muttered as a blue light flickered into existence between her hands. A few moments later a Death Machine appeared in her grip as she walked out of the complex.

"I wretched…but I'm powerful" Samantha sang under her breath as she stepped back out into the open.

Illuzio reappeared a short distance away at the top of the stairway in the distance, next to the Lunar Lander Pad, his jaw healed now but coated in blood. Illuzio snapped her fingers and an RPD appeared in his hands.

"Are you ready?" Illuzio asked coldly.

"Of course" Samantha said in a low voice.

Both of them opened fire on the other, with Samantha vanishing into her on shadow.

"Come on Sam…can you finish the job…are you capable of killing me?" Illuzio whispered.

"YES!"

Samantha jumped out of a nearby shadow and fired a stream of bullets at Illuzio, who vanished again. Samantha spun around and quickly glanced around, snarling angrily.

"Come on, come on!" Samantha muttered, creating two more shadow tendrils, which held the Death Machine for her. A bead of sweat rolled down Samantha's face and her body ached from the repeated attacks. Using her newfound abilities was also tiring her out quickly.

This needed to end.

Illuzio reappeared, shooting at Samantha who flung out a shadow tendril while hurling up a wall of energy to block the bullets. Samantha yanked the gun out of Illuzio's hand and lowered her barrier, sprinting towards Illuzio with her shadows snaking behind her. She created another tendril from Illuzio's own shadow, holding him in place as she shoved the tip of the Death Machine into Illuzio's stomach and held down on the trigger.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Samantha cackled as the Death's Machine tore through Illuzio's chest, mercilessly praying the air with the jester's blood as bullets tore through his stomach. The stream of gunfire moved him upwards and sent him flying through the air, crashing down into the dirt several yards in front of the large stairway.

Illuzio's body slowly vanished in a cloud of sparks, vanishing on the spot. A small blue portal opened up where Illuzio's body had fallen, and Samantha limped over to it. Samantha slowly walked down the staircase as she dispelled her Death Machine, eyeing the portal with distaste. Samantha watched the portal for a few minutes, and then went to go find the Pack-A-Punch. After upgrading her Calamity and Jane, Samantha approached the vortex once more.

"OK you miserable jester. Let's see what happens next" Samantha growled as she jumped through the portal.

* * *

><p><span>Meanwhile:<span>

Siberia, Russia:

* * *

><p>Nicholas let out a yell as he fell through the sky, only to crash headfirst into a pile of snow and ice. Juliet let out a similar scream , but did a flip in midair and skidded through the snow before standing up and saying "Well, that sucked"<p>

"You OK?" Juliet asked as she walked over to Nicholas and helped him up.

"Yeah…damn it's cold. Where are we?" Nicholas asked looking around, shivering as the wind picked up.

They were standing on a bit of land where the snow covered the ground, and a snowstorm was brewing up. Small nearby pathways led to a far off ship while another led to a large lighthouse next to them.

"Wait…I know this place!" Nicholas said in surprise.

"Wait, me too. We're in Siberia!" Juliet said, sounding shocked.

"Call of the Dead…" Nicholas muttered as he reloaded his Speakeasy.

"Nicholas, take Aegis back" Juliet said as she took off the bracelet and wrapped it around Nicholas's wrist. Nicholas began to protest, but Juliet said "Hey, I've got more experience fighting than you. I'll be fine. I want you to be safe"

"Juliet" Nicholas said with a small smile, which she returned.

"Awww…isn't that sweet?" a familiar voice asked.

Nicholas spun around and activated Aegis, moving in front of Juliet as he did so. A massive burst of green light slammed into the shield, dissipating around them. Nicholas lowered the shield and opened fire with his Speakeasy, only for Illuzio to swiftly block it by throwing up a wall of green light.

"You'll have to do better than that kids!" Illuzio cackled as he lowered and shield and hurled a fireball at them. Nicholas blocked with Aegis again and Juliet took aim with her chainsaw.

"Chainsaw…DASH!" Juliet yelled out, her chainsaw slowly grew and a rocket immerged from the back of it and she shot towards the jester. Illuzio threw up a hand and a column of ice erupted from the ground, causing Juliet to slam into that instead of him. Juliet crashed into the ground, sputtering and shivering, and Illuzio aimed his palm at her.

"NO!" Nicholas yelled, opening fire with his Ray Gun Mark II, causing the jester to vanish on the spot. Illuzio reappeared behind him and kicked him in the back, but Nicholas fell to the snow and rolled into a sitting position, shooting his Ray Gun Mark II again and blasting Illuzio in the chest, causing him to vanish on the spot with a yell of pain.

Juliet got to her feet with a grunt and said "I have snow in my bra"

"Well, if you want to take it off or something to get the snow out, I won't judge you" Nicholas joked.

Juliet smirked at that but a flash of light to the side revealed Illuzio, holding two bright green balls of light in his hands.

"It seems as though you all are worth the fight after all. This is the part where I start being serious" Illuzio said coldly as he slammed his palm into the snow. A massive wave of giant icicles shot out of the earth towards the couple, who jumped apart. Nicholas nearly avoiding being impaled on an icicle, but instead fired a stream of shots from his Ray Gun Mark II, causing Illuzio to vanish on the spot again.

Illuzio dashed in and out of the icicles with inhuman speed and kicked Juliet savagely in the chest, sending him crashing into the snow. Nicholas leapt forward, only for to vanished and reappear in the blink of an eye in front of him. Illuzio lunged forward ran the black sword through Nicholas's chest before yanking it out with a mad laugh.

"NO! NICHOLAS!" Juliet screamed as the snow turned crimson by Nicholas. Nicholas began shake from the pain and cold as Illuzio stood over him.

"It's killing me, to see I'm killing you" Illuzio whispered as he leveled the blade above Nicholas's neck.

"DIE YOU MAGICAL FLOATIING DUMBASS JESTER!" Juliet screamed as she shot forward and drove the revving chainsaw into Illuzio's chest, Illuzio howled in agony as blood spurted into the snow, and after a few moments he warped out of the area.

"Where did he-" Juliet began to say before she gasped and said "Nicholas!"

Juliet ran over to the young man and fell to her knees. Nicholas managed to push himself into a sitting position, eyes screwed up in pain. Juliet pulled out a Quick Revive syringe and carefully injected the stab wound, sealing it and making the wound vanish.

"Thanks" Nicholas said with a weak smile as he was helped to his feet.

"Isn't love grand?"

Illuzio reappeared above them, both of his palms on fire. He thrust both hands towards the couple and shot a massive burst of fire at them. Nicholas moved Juliet behind him and activated Aegis, and the silver shield absorbed the flames and dispelled them.

Illuzio stopped the attack and said "Well done you two…then again, one of you is a Zombie-fighting prodigy while the other somehow survived my damned Alcatraz world" Illuzio said, clapping slightly.

"Illuzio…whatever happened to them? The Mobsters that is" Nicholas asked Illuzio.

"Oh, that. Well, after you left, I decided that it was time to end the cycle for good. So I killed them" Illuzio said offhandedly.

"YOU WHAT!?" Nicholas yelled in shock and horror.

"Yep. I killed Weasel with my bare hands, while the others got attacked with Zombies. See, the evil get their just reward in the end. They were evil, so they had to be put down. Their fate is in the hands of God now" Illuzio said with a wide grin. Nicholas began to shake with rage as Illuzio began to laugh.

"Finn will never see his wife again! Weasel died terrified and betrayed! Sal died feeling useless and not in control, and Billy…well, he died as he lived. With a lot of bloodshed" Illuzio cackled evilly.

"You…you…" Nicholas said as he began to shake with rage.

"You're worse than Richtofen. You deserved everything you got" Nicholas said coldly. Illuzio's expression turned dark at that.

"Finn…Billy…Sal…Weasel…you're going to pay for what you did to them!" Nicholas roared as he unleashed a wave of Speakeasy bullets at Illuzio, who vanished with a taunting laugh.

Illuzio reappeared in the far distance on a set of islands away from them, at the starting point on the map. Nicholas and Juliet ran through the area and managed to catch up with the jester, who grinned at them.

"Took you long enough" Illuzio laughed as Nicholas fired another clip of Speakeasy ammo at Illuzio, who threw up a wall of magic and blocked the shots.

Illuzio then snapped his fingers and two torrents of freezing water swirled around him. Juliet and Nicholas opened fire with the Vitriolic Withering and the Speakeasy respectively, but the shots did nothing. Illuzio flung his arms out and the water shot towards them.

"Quick! Grab my chest!" Juliet said to Nicholas, who latched onto his girlfriend.

"CHAINSAW DASH!" Juliet yelled, turning around.

Juliet shot forward as the water chased after them, and sprinted like a maniac through the path and up the stairway, kicking off of the ground and doing a huge flip in midair.

"Juliet!" Nicholas screamed.

"WOOHOO!" Juliet said giddily.

The two teens crashed onto the deck of the ship. Juliet grabbed Nicholas's hand and they continued to run frantically away from the surging water that snaked through the air. Juliet and Nicholas jumped over a gap and landed on the other ship before sharply changing directions and jumping over the railing, heading back towards the lighthouse.

"Come on!" Juliet said frantically.

"Juliet, hold on!" Nicholas said to the blond.

"What?"

"It's stopped" Nicholas said to the cheerleader, who looked back.

The water was indeed gone, and the two had a moment to catch their breaths. Nicholas was hunched over, gasping for air. Juliet looked at him worriedly, but Nicholas smiled at her and said "I'm fine…really"

"Why do you think that attack stopped?" Juliet asked Nicholas.

"My guess? He's recharging. He said he fought Richtofen before this, and he said he was dying. He's got to be at his limit, more so than us. I think he's using every bit of power he has left to push us to the limit.

Illuzio reappeared in front of them with his sword gripped tightly in his hands, legs poised for a lunging attack.

"Well done, you figured out my ruse. Too bad that only gets you an early grave!" Illuzio growled as he shot towards Juliet.

"NO!"

Juliet fell to the ground with a yelp as Illuzio shot forward like a dart, stabbing his sword through the Zombie Slayer's body…

"N-Nicholas!" Juliet screamed from the ground as Nicholas stiffened with pain. The sword was pulled from his body for a second time and blood splashed onto the snow as he fell to the ground again.

Juliet rolled to her feet and fired a few pods of her Vitriolic Withering at Illuzio, who jumped back warily. He shot a deadly black spark at her, only for her to block it with her chainsaw, causing the spark to explode violently. Juliet scowled as the smoke cleared, gripping her chainsaw tightly.

"No one hurts him, got it buddy!?" Juliet said darkly as she revved her chainsaw.

Juliet shot forward and raised her chainsaw high, Illuzio raised Nox and blocked her overhead slash. The chainsaw made a horrible grinding noise as it moved against the magical sword, and Juliet kicked off of the ground, throwing Illuzio off of his feet. The jester stumbled, giving Juliet a chance to dart under his guard and slash him from arm to leg diagonally. Illuzio vanished and reappeared a short distance away, floating thirty feet in the air above Nicholas and panting horribly. Illuzio healed his wounds on the spot, but the pain from the attack remained.

"Juliet! Go for it!" Nicholas yelled desperately as he got to his feet, activating Aegis and motioning for her to come towards him. Juliet realized what Nicholas had planned and pressed a button on her chainsaw.

"Chainsaw Dash!" Juliet yelled, shooting forward like a rocket. Juliet shot forward and Nicholas caught her with his shield. Juliet kicked off of it, darting through the air with an incredible amount of speed and slammed into Illuzio with her chainsaw, tearing through his chest.

Illuzio let out a howl of agony and surprise as Juliet's chainsaw tore through him, ripping his insides to shreds. Juliet finished the maneuver by kicking out, slashing Illuzio in half with the additional momentum. Illuzio let out a howl and vanished on the spot, though this time he vanished in a cloud of green and white sparks, his scream echoing in the wind. Juliet fell to the ground with a legs spread apart in a crouch. She smirked at the sparks fading a pulled out a strawberry lollipop and stuck it in her mouth.

"Well, that was something" Juliet said lightly.

Nicholas let out a painful laugh and said "We got him…"

"Nicholas!" Juliet yelled as she whirled around, dropping her chainsaw to the ground and running over to him. Nicholas fell into the snow and closed his eyes, but Juliet slapped him in the face.

"_There's so much blood"_ Juliet thought worriedly as she pulled Nicholas into a sitting position.

"No! Stay with me!" Juliet yelled as she pulled out a Quick Revive Syringe and jammed it into the stab wound, healing it up. Nicholas still seemed pale though, and when Juliet helped him to his feet, he was leaning on her heavily with his eyes closed.

"Hey…we should get out of the open…" Nicholas muttered.

"Good call. Let's head inside of the lighthouse, it should be at least a little warmer there. Or at least we'll be out of the wind" Juliet suggested.

Nicholas nodded silently and the two made their way to the lighthouse, where they sat down on the cold ground. Nicholas closed his eyes tiredly, and Juliet slapped him again.

"Stay awake!" Juliet snapped, though not out of anger, but out of worry.

"I'm sorry…I'm so cold and tired Juliet…" Nicholas mumbled as he tried to stay awake.

Juliet sighed, and then smiled and said "Well, there's more than one way to get warm"

"Juliet, I just got stabbed in the chest. As much as I'd love to do that, I think we should get out of here before we preform and horizontal happy dance" Nicholas said sleepily.

"Not sex you dork!" Juliet snapped, her face bright red now.

Juliet took off her coat and wrapped it around the two of them, pressing her body against his for warmth. Nicholas felt her blond hair tickle his face, and he fought the urge to giggle. He simply put his head on her shoulder and said "Thank you"

"You're welcome" Juliet said softly, smiling at him.

For a while they sat there, looking out at the snow falling outside. How long they sat there, neither of them could say, but eventually they noticed a blue portal nearby, just waiting there for them to go through.

"Think it's a trick?" Juliet asked Nicholas, who tiredly shook his head. Nicholas slowly got to his feet, his hands tracing his stab wound, and helped Juliet up, handing her jacket to her as well. Nicholas reloaded his Speakeasy and glanced at Juliet, who grabbed his hand with a grin and dragged him into the portal with a laugh.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Location:

Himalayan Mountain Range:

* * *

><p>Sieger grunted as a portal dropped him into the dirt, and felt the coldness on his skin fade away as the harsh sun above him warmed it. Sieger slowly got to his feet, wincing from the attack that had knocked him clear off of the train. He felt dizzy and weak from the force of the attack, and landing in an unfamiliar place disoriented the hell out of him.<p>

"Alright…where the hell I am?" Sieger said to himself as he glanced around nervously.

"Paradise"

Illuzio walked out of a portal and fired a ball of energy at Sieger, who jumped to the side with a growl, dodging it. The ball soared through the air and exploded violently, creating a massive crater where it landed. Sieger aimed Fatum at Illuzio, who chuckled and said "Yes…you do well to remember who taught you how to wield those guns. Never thought my own weapons would be used against me like that…man…" Illuzio sighed with a grin.

"Enough games!" Sieger barked.

"I agree. DIE!" Illuzio said, his personality switching from joyful to deadly once again. Illuzio flung his arms downwards with a yell. Flames shot to life around Sieger, who cloaked himself in Hellfire as Illuzio blasted him again and again with fire. Illuzio grinned and snapped his fingers, and two weapons materialized out of green light. An RPD and a HAMR. The glowing green weapons floated above Sieger and opened fire, causing him to suddenly turn around and leap into the nearby cave, his flames dying away. Sieger sprinted across the bridge as Illuzio continued to shoot at him, and Sieger spun around and fired several shots with Fatum and Lux, one of which caught Illuzio in the shoulder. Illuzio grunted in pain and burst into a cloud of sparks. Both weapons dropped to the ground, only to be destroyed with two bursts of hellfire by Sieger.

"Come now Sieger, you've got to put up more of a fight than that!"

Sieger spun around only for a torrent of water to slam into him, blasting him across the bridge and causing him to crash onto the ground as water filled his nose and mouth. Sieger managed to keep hold of his golden pistols, but struggled against the force of the water.

"If you can't kill me, then your friends will die!" Illuzio yelled, adding more pressure and more water to the attack. Sieger suddenly let loose a wave of Hellfire, blasting away the water and vaporizing it instantly. He took aim with both of his pistols and opened fire on Illuzio, whose eyes widened as he was blasted repeatedly in the chest over and over again.

Illuzio fell backwards, only to vanish in a cloud of sparks. Sieger snarled in annoyance before several portals opened up around him and blasts of energy shot out of them. Sieger yelled out as a beam tore through his shoulder, spilling blood all along the forest floor. Sieger exploded in a burst of fire and reappeared a short distance away, but the beams seemed to follow him. Sieger kicked off of the ground and a burst of fire shot out from under his feet, propelling him into the air.

"_Can't get away!"_ Sieger thought as the beams continued to close in on him. Sieger dived down into the caves, which allowed him a small respite. Sieger pulled out a Quick Revive syringe and jammed it into his shoulder, healing the wound. Sieger sighed as the pain mostly faded away and pulled out Glorious, his golden flaming sword. Sieger walked out of the mouth of the cave, where Illuzio sat waiting for him. Sieger dispelled his guns and summoned his golden sword, Glorious.

"Come on. One on one, swordplay. No magic, no powers" Sieger said as he gestured with his sword.

"Fine. Nox!" Illuzio called into the air, summoning his black sword with a snap. Illuzio then waved his hand in the air, and the sun quickly began to set where they were. Sieger growled angrily as the moon rose into the air, and Illuzio's blade began to glow white.

"Ah, Nox is a full power now. Now, we can fight" Illuzio said before kicking off of the ground and slamming Nox into Glorious, which was barely raised in time. Flames and sparks rushed by the two 115 Conduits, who both snarled in rage and broke the sword-lock. Sieger swung Glorious in an arc, unleashing a wave of fire at Illuzio, who spun Nox in a quick circle, dispelling the fire before stabbing at Sieger, who blocked the slash and kicked at Illuzio, who grunted as the kick connected with his stomach. Sieger spun around and bashed him in the face with the pommel of Glorious, sending him stumbling backwards in a snarl. Illuzio regained his footing and lunged at Sieger, who was forced back as the jester unleashed a series of powerful strikes against the strange young man, who was forced back into the cave.

"Come on Sieger! FIGHT BACK!" Illuzio roared as he dashed under Sieger's guard and slashed him several times with Nox, spilling blood all over the cave floor. Sieger howled in pain as the enchanted sword cut through him, causing the cuts to burn horribly, and Illuzio grinned evilly before kicking Sieger in the stomach, sending him tumbling onto the ground.

"Pathetic…truly pathetic" Illuzio said coldly as a ball of pulsating green magic formed in his palms.

"You're both so alike that it hurts to even look at you" Illuzio hissed.

Illuzio then gasped as Sieger burst into flames and a flash of gold appeared behind him. Illuzio felt the cold yet burning touch of Glorious as it slashed through his hip, spilling his blood all over the cave floor. Illuzio spun around in time for Sieger to crouch on the ground, sword pointed towards him, a triumphant smirk on his face.

"A fire clone? After everything I hit him with? What concentration" Illuzio thought in horror as he brought up his hands, much too slowly.

Sieger lunged.

"NO!" Illuzio roared as Sieger plunged the sword through Illuzio's upper chest, flames racing down the length of the blade. Illuzio howled in agony as he exploded in a shower of green sparks. Sieger grinned and fell to his knees, panting in spite of everything.

A blue portal opened up nearby, and Sieger hauled himself to his feet and slowly walked towards it, and towards the final fight.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Location:

Area 51, Nevada

* * *

><p>Several portals opened up and each one of the teens dropped out of them. Nicholas and Iva howled in pain and collapsed onto the ground, despite their wounds being healed, they were still hurt. Sieger crashed onto the ground with a grunt, only for Samantha to help him up.<p>

"Wait…isn't this…" Nicholas murmured to Juliet, who nodded.

"No Man's land…oh crap" Joe said as he pulled out his Wunderwaffe DG-7.

"And now…it begins" Illuzio said with a grin as he immerged from the mud, immersed in a glowing green aura. He snapped his fingers and a siren began to go off. Hellhounds suddenly began to spawn around them in bolts of lightning and Zombies charged from the sides and immerged from the ground. Each of the teens quickly opened fire on Illuzio, who cackled merrily and vanished on the spot.

"GET TO THE TELEPORTER!" Joe yelled, punching a Zombie in the head with a growl.

The group sprinted towards the far off Teleporter, the crowd of Zombies and Hellhound charging after them. Jess frantically fired her Sliquifier at the horde while Joe charged up a ball of energy from his Wunderwaffe, firing it and vaporizing the horde. The Teleporter began to pulsate and the group vanished in a flash of lightning.

Nicholas opened his eyes and found himself and the others in a large room with several vents in it.

And then noticed the lack of air.

"Air!" Nick gasped, running towards the row of suits in front of them.

"Here!" Samantha growled breathlessly, flicking hand towards the suits and causing them to vanish, only to reappear on everyone.

"Nice" Joe murmured as he flexed his hands in the glove, checking to make sure both of his weapons were still outside of the suit.

"We should get-" Jess began to say before an wicked explosion went off in the room, sending everyone crashing onto the ground. Marcus rolled to his feet and saw Illuzio, standing there, grinning widely with palms glowing bright green. He barely managed to pulled out his Petrifier be for Illuzio flicked a hand towards him, blasting him into the wall.

"Where is all began, and here it ended, only to begin anew" Illuzio said as he vanished in a flash of light. Andrew and Sieger got to their feet, swords drawn, while Juliet helped Nicholas up.

"Come on. Let's find that jester and rip his heart out" Samantha growled as her wounds and burns healed don the spot.

Samantha led the way outside, where Illuzio was standing on the moon's surface. He gestured towards them before firing a series of sparks at them, causing them to scatter. Marcus pulled out the Petrifier and shot towards Illuzio with it, rocketing towards him due to the lack of gravity. Illuzio grunted Marcus slammed his foot into his chest, but Illuzio grabbed Marcus by the leg and hurled him into the reaches of space.

"MARCUS!" Jess screamed as Marcus soared into space.

"No worries" Marcus said through their radio as he shot back towards them with his Petrifier. Nicholas and John took aim and opened fire with the Wonder Weapons, causing Illuzio to vanish. As he reappeared on the ground, Nick slashed downwards with C.N., and Illuzio jumped back with a swear, wary of super-powered blade. He summoned Nox as Andrew and Sieger rushed at him from two sides, and Illuzio conjured another blade of green energy and blocked both strikes at the same time.

Illuzio grinned as he vanish on the spot again, reappearing behind Andrew and grabbing his arm, wrenching it to such an alarming degree that it snapped horribly. Andrew howled in pain and fell to the ground as Sieger flung himself at Illuzio, tackling him in midair.

"Andrew, you OK?" Samantha and Judith asked as they knelt next to him.

"He..." Andrew panted heavily, shaking from pain. "He broke my arm…"

Andrew's body went limp as he passed out, and Samantha growled in annoyance.

"Keep watch" Samantha said to Judith as she got up, hands gripping her Calamity and Jane tightly.

"Give him hell for me. I'll provide long range support" Judith said with a grin.

Samantha managed to reach Illuzio and Sieger just as Illuzio blasted Sieger away with a dragon in shaped burst of magic, sending him crashing into the side of the space station.

"DIE!" Samantha yelled as she opened fire with both Pack-A-Punched guns. Illuzio hurled a wall of green magic at Samantha, deflecting the shots.

"Ta-ta!" Illuzio grinned as he vanished again.

"STOP VANISHING ALREADY!" Juliet screamed in frustration.

"It's how he fights…he-he can alter reality with his magic, warping dimensions and stuff like that. Come on, let's go" Sieger said as he slowly got to his feet, panting slightly. Samantha fell into step next to him, worried. Judith and Nick were supporting Andrew, who was conscious again.

"Are you alright?" Samantha asked Sieger, who was limping now.

"Sam, I'm fine. Don't worry" Sieger said with a reassuring smile. Samantha blushed pink and felt her heart flutter.

The group made their way through the space station, stepping out onto the surface of the moon. The group looked off at the Earth on the distance, and Nicholas chuckled.

"Welcome to urf" Nicholas said quietly, laughing softly.

"Urf?" Judith questioned.

"Urf" Jess said with a grin.

"Jeez, I going to find a closet somewhere to hide in" John sighed angrily.

"Why, so you can finally come out?" Joe laughed.

"Joe, you're not funny" Nicholas replied.

"Maybe you can join him in there Joe. You can both come out together" Nick laughed.

"Who the hell said you can make a gay joke?" Nicholas asked Nick, who shrugged.

"Are you two going to space bang?" Judith giggled at Joe and John, who scowled at the same time.

"It's not gay if it's in space" Juliet said with a laugh.

"I agree" a familiar dark voice said with a laugh.

The group spun around as once and opened fire, tearing Illuzio apart completely and utterly. Illuzio reappeared in front of them and sent a series of green and black sparks at the group, engulfing them in a series of explosions. Juliet, Samantha, and Iva got to their feet first and burst out moon dust, converging on Illuzio. Iva lashed out with her sickle, slicing through the air next to Illuzio's head. Illuzio stepped back to barely avoid being decapitated by Juliet's chainsaw. Illuzio grabbed both women by the arm and threw them into the air with a spell. He spun around and sent several black sparks at Sieger, who managed to create a wall of black flames around himself before the sparks slammed into him.

"SIEGER!" Samantha screamed.

Sieger's flames died away, revealing a badly damaged space suit. Sieger looked worse for wear, but was still standing. After a moment, he summoned Glorious to his hands and got into a stance.

"Sam, wanna tag-team this guy?" Sieger asked the young woman, who nodded with a small smile.

Samantha lunged at Illuzio, who lashed out at her with a kick and sent her crashing onto the moon with a scream as lightning slammed into her stomach. Sieger was there in a moment, slashing at Illuzio with his golden flaming sword, Glorious. Illuzio vanished and then reappeared several feet away, Nox held tight in his hand.

"EN GARDE!" Illuzio and Sieger cried, shooting towards one another and slamming their blades into each other. Flames and energy rippled through the air as the swords locked, and the two fought for control. Illuzio's face was mad with glee, and Sieger's was taut with concentration, knowing that if he didn't manage to kill this man, he'd kill them all in this state.

Sieger's efforts to gain control of fight prevailed, as he pushed off Illuzio's sword and slashed him in the shoulder before spinning around, slashing him in the chest. Illuzio screamed again and vanished in a cloud of sparks, reappearing a short distance away, panting heavily as his wounds healed in front of them.

"V-very…very good…all of you…agh…" Illuzio choked as a line of blood began to fall down his mouth. Illuzio remained standing though, and snapped his fingers for a final time. The world around them vanished, as did the space suits that the group was wearing. Once more they were on the floating train.

"I am at the end of my game…it is time… for the grand finale…" Illuzio growled as two balls of black energy formed at the palms of his hands. He slammed them into the roof of the train, sending bolts of electricity surging down the length of it. Juliet snarled angrily and jammed her chainsaw in the roof, pushing herself off of the ground as the lightning shocked everyone else. Nick got the worst of it, being at the front, and collapsed on the spot with a groan.

Juliet brought her foot up, pulling the trigger of her Vitriolic Withering and shooting several pods at Illuzio, who hurled a green wall of energy up to block the shot. They exploded, however, and the acid ate away at the shield.

"We've got to finish him off Sam" Sieger panted as he rose to his feet, Fatum and Glorious in hand.

"Then that's what we'll do" Samantha growled as she pulled out her Calamity and Jane, opening fire on Illuzio, who vanished on the spot and reappeared behind her, aiming an energy charged kick at her skull. Andrew jumped in front of it and lashed upwards with Gutripper, sending the kick skyward. Illuzio shimmered for a moment, and a clone of Illuzio appeared behind Andrew and grabbed his broken arm and pulled it behind his back savagely. Andrew screamed in agony before Illuzio slammed his fist into Andrew' skull, knocking him unconscious.

Illuzio vanished again, floating upside down on the other end of the train. A series of black sparks raced down the length of the train, but before they could travel more than fifteen yards, Sieger threw up a massive wall of Hellfire to intercept them, causing each of the sparks to explode violently on the other side of the train. Illuzio vanished once again and reappeared in front of Sieger, punching him in the stomach with a glowing green first. Sieger doubled over in pain before Illuzio placed his palm on his head and sent him hurtling backwards down the length of the train in a massive burst of wind.

"EAT IT!" Joe yelled as he pulled the trigger of his Wunderwaffe DG-7, unleashing the electrical ball of pre energy at Illuzio, who turned around and was nailed in the chest with the attack. Illuzio went flying off of the train, only to vanish in a cloud of sparks.

As Illuzio got to his feet, Marcus, Jess, and Iva opened fire on the jester, who vanished again and reappeared in the middle of them. Illuzio threw a magic-charged fist into Marcus's stomach, sending him crashing senseless to the ground, choking up blood. Jess managed to duck under a spin kick of Illuzio's, but was hit with a wicked backhand a second later that knocked her unconscious. Iva jumped to the side to avoid a deadly kick from the jester, only for him to dash forward and punch her in the chest, cracking several ribs and causing her to go crashing onto the roof. Illuzio's body became engulfed in a crimson, green, and black aura as he cackled evilly.

"Yes! YES!" Illuzio roared into the night.

"IVA!" Joe screamed in horror

Judith took aim with the Scavenger and fired an explosive bolt, which soared through the air and slammed into Illuzio's shoulder. The jester vanished on the spot with a laugh.

"Where did he go?" Judith asked Nicholas and Juliet, who shrugged, but looked very nervous.

The jester reappeared above them and shot an arc of lightning down at the group of teens who threw themselves out of the way. Judith rolled out of the jump, looking upwards and firing another shot. Illuzio warped again and reappeared in front of her before punching her savagely in the chest. Judith screamed in pain and crashed onto the ground next to Iva, Jess, and Marcus.

Joe slowly got up, seething with anger and clenching his fists. Joe glared at Illuzio and said "Well? I'm waiting"

"Someone's confident. I like that in a victim" Illuzio purred before lunging at Joe. Joe threw a fist at Illuzio, who threw a fist at Joe. Both men's fists connected, and a massive surge of lightning and magic blasted through the air, creating a wicked blue and green wraith around the two. Joe's face was contorted in effort, as was Illuzio's. After a few more moments, both of them were hurled backwards with a yell from both of them.

"Juliet, come on!" Nicholas yelled to the blond, who nodded.

"No! I'm going to kill him myself!" Joe barked as he ducked under a uppercut from Illuzio and decked him in the jaw. Illuzio stumbled backwards and then darted forward, sucker-punching Joe in the stomach. He then jumped into the air and a delivered a brutal heel kick to the back of Joe's skull that sent him crashing onto the roof of the train unconscious with a bloody gash on his head left from the impact.

"This is getting ridiculous" Samantha muttered worriedly. Nicholas and Juliet opened fire on Illuzio, who vanished and reappeared at the other end of the train.

"Keep him busy" Samantha muttered to Nicholas and Juliet as her left right glowed bright green, and then began to surge with energy. Nicholas pulled out the Golden Spork while Juliet pulled oyt her chainsaw.

"So that's the thing you got from Alcatraz?" Juliet asked.

"I'm going to shove this thing down his throat!" Nicholas snarled as he ran forward, Ray Gun Mark II in his other hand. Juliet reached Illuzio first, and swung her chainsaw in a wide arm. Illuzio jumped over the two of them and summoned Nox before slashing t Nicholas, who blocked with the Golden Spork.

"Awwww, guess what? Did you know that Finn's last words were the name of his wife?" Illuzio laughed.

"Shut it!" Nicholas barked as he was thrown backwards. Illuzio sent a spark at Nicholas, who threw up Aegis to block. Juliet dashed by Nicholas and threw herself at Illuzio, slamming her chainsaw against Nox and disarming him. Illuzio screamed as the chainsaw tore through him, and he vanished again, this time thirty feet away.

"Good shot. Just like when I killed Weasel with a punch to the chest" Illuzio panted as his glowing fingers traced the slash wounds, healing them instantly.

"DIE!" Nicholas growled, firing the rest of the shots he had left in his Ray Gun Mark II at the jester. Illuzio laughed and vanished again, this time reappearing mid slash. Nicholas yelled out as the blade sank into his chest. Illuzio kicked Nicholas savagely in the chest, sending him crashing onto the roof.

"That…is IT!" Juliet screamed, fire in her eyes.

"DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!" Juliet screamed as she slashed furiously at Illuzio, who resummoned his sword and began to trade blows with Juliet. Nicholas jammed a Quick Revive into the deepest part of the slash wound, sealing up the wound mostly. He staggered to his feet and jumped back into the fight.

Nicholas and Juliet continued to trade blows with Illuzio, who blasted both of them away with a wave of his hands, sending them crashing back onto the roof of the train. Nicholas tried to get to his feet, but collapsed onto the ground, utterly spent. Juliet got up and aimed her chainsaw at Illuzio, who flung a ball of green magic at her and sent her flying backwards, crashing again and again on the train like a ragdoll until she remained still.

"NO! Juliet!" Nicholas screamed, rage filling his body and forcing himself to his feet. Illuzio vanished on the spot and grabbed Nicholas by the throat. Illuzio floated in the air and smirked, murmuring "You two remind me of me and my fiancé…Richtofen killed her, so long ago…killed her, like I'll kill you"

Nicholas scowled and said "Not on your life"

Nicholas then brought his leg up and kicked Illuzio where it hurt the most.

Illuzio cried out in pain and dropped Nicholas, who fell forty feet to the train. Marcus aimed the Petrifier at him and shot a stream of energy to slow his descent.

"T-thanks man" Nicholas said gratefully as his feet touched the ground, before he collapsed onto the ground.

Illuzio let out a howl of rage and reappeared on the other end of the train.

"Cheap shot!" Illuzio barked at Nicholas.

"So what? You broke you word and killed them…you deserve everything you get Illuzio. Just because other people ruined your life doesn't mean you get to ruin others. You and Richtofen are alike in that regard" Nicholas said coldly as he eyes slowly fell and he slipped into unconsciousness.

John managed to get to his feet. He looked over at Sieger, who nodded at him and said "I hi high you hit low?"

"Fire and ice, low and high" John said as he loaded the final cell into his Winter's Fury. Sieger made his guns vanish and held his hands out, Hellfire springing to life along his palms.

John and Sieger sprinted down the length of the train, past their fallen friends and fired fire and ice blasts at the jester, who hurled up a wall of energy to block the blasts. Illuzio vanished and reappeared behind John, grabbing him and hurling him down the length of the train before blasting him with a shimmering green blast of magic that made him freeze in place, as if time stopped.

Illuzio turned around to get a fist full of fire in his face. Sieger delivered a series of quick punches, each giving off a deadly burst of fire, before following with a flaming roundhouse kick to the head.

Illuzio's body exploded in a burst of water, exploding over Sieger who stumbled backwards with a hiss. Illuzio reappeared next to him and pressed both of his palms against Sieger's chest before blasting him with a surge of dark magic. Sieger screamed as the black magical energy surged into him and lifted him high into the air. Sieger convulsed and screamed in agony as the black lightning enveloped him.

"NO!" Samantha screamed as Illuzio stopped the attack.

Samantha's eyes widened as Sieger fell backwards towards the ground, his glasses falling off of his face and falling off of the train and towards the ground below. Sieger crashed onto the roof in a heap, bleeding heavily with his eyes closed.

"You…you…" Samantha growled as she turned around to face Illuzio.

"Hey Illuzio…" Samantha said in a soft voice as she raised her hand, which was glowing black and green with a raging aura. Illuzio allowed a small smile to grace his lips, even as the red flickered out of his eyes and were replaced with a dull green color.

"_**Abracadvre"**_ Samantha said coldly as she vanished on the spot. Illuzio smiled widely before Samantha reappeared in front of him, crouched on the ground, her legs coiled up and ready to pounce. Samantha lunged upwards and plunged her glowing hand into Illuzio's chest and tore through his chest, clawing a huge chunk of his chest out with a feral snarl and splashing blood all over the roof of the train. Illuzio howled in agony and fell onto the roof of the train and remained utterly still, even as the blood pooled from his body.

"Well done…" Illuzio said softly with a painful grin on his face

The world around them shifted and warped before a blast of cold wind rushed through them, nearly blasting them off of the train, which was moving quickly along the tracks once more. The freezing cold air whipped by them, and the sun was long gone now. The moon loomed overhead, shining down on the teens as they gathered near the jester, save for Sieger.

"What…we we're stuck in the air? How are we moving again?" Iva asked Joe, who shrugged.

"Maybe it was an illusion. Illuzio can alter and wrap reality with his magic after all" John said softly.

"Samantha…can you hear me?" Illuzio whispered, his eyes slowly opening up.

"Yes" Samantha said softly.

"Come…closely…I haven't much time left" Illuzio said softly. Samantha felt her body kneeling next to Illuzio's. She could tell he was really dying now. She had done it. She had avenged Jason, and finally killed the jester.

Yet why did this leave such a bad taste in her mouth?

"Samantha…I'm so, so sorry for what happened to you. If I could do things over, I would. In a heartbeat…I've messed up so many things. So…so many things. But changing the past is an unforgivable crime, and no matter how badly I'd like to…I can't change what's happened like the other Richtofen did…Samantha…Richtofen is driven by the same thing that fueled me for so long…you have to know this" Illuzio gasped weakly.

"What are you both fueled by?" Samantha asked softly.

"Pain…yes, me and Richtofen have lost so much…so much Samantha. You see him as a psychopath, but that's because of the M.P.D's influence…he is a true genius, who wanted nothing more to improve the human condition…it was his dream…your father's dream…" Illuzio whispered.

"Samantha…this all began because I was trying to help others who are a part of this…in another life…another timeline…they were pawns to Maxis and Richtofen, and Maxis prevailed…he….he was…is… on the verge of global domination, and I tried to help those poor survivors…I messed up…I left them a magical gift that Richtofen, the one in their world…took control of…he then changed everything…gods I messed up…but you and the others…can correct the mistakes of a fool" Illuzio coughed up a large chunk of blood and rasped "Oh…and…another thing. Don't judge Sieger for things he can't control. He really just wants everything to go back to normal. He's had it rough, so go easy on him when you find out"

"Find out what?" Samantha asked softly.

"I can't say…hehehe…" Illuzio chuckled weakly, a bubble of blood coming from his mouth. Silence ensured once more, and Illuzio gathered his strength to speak once more.

"Here…I need to give you something…it's very important…that I give this to you" Illuzio said after a few moments as he took a deep shuddering breath.

"What is it?" Samantha whispered.

"Take this…" Illuzio breathed, holding out his hand.

A beautiful staff appeared with a flash in Illuzio's hand. It was four feet long and had an intricate design adorning it. Beautiful gold and black designs flowed down the length of the staff, which ended in a white diamond tip, perfectly cut and deadly sharp.

"It's beautiful…but what is it?" Iva asked Illuzio.

"It…is the Staff of Magnus…the only weapon in existence that can completely neutralize the powers of Element 115 and the M.P.D…it can kill Richtofen…kill him and end this…it is the greatest source of magic in existence, and can augment the powers of the one who wields it…use it in the fight…it will obey you…" Illuzio said to Samantha, who nodded.

"Take it…take it Samantha…" Illuzio whispered.

Samantha quietly reached for the staff, her fingers touching Illuzio's as she grabbed it. As their fingers touched, a surge of energy flowed from Illuzio and into Samantha, causing her to stagger backwards with a gasp. She felt so much stronger, more confident. She could feel Illuzio's powers trying to manifest in herself, and she pushed them away for now.

"My gift to you…Samantha…listen to me…" Illuzio whispered.

"Don't dwell on the past…look to the future…save the world Sam…please, save Edward. Sieger…he can explain everything...I don't have time for details…there are many forces at work here, some even I can't explain. But don't worry…just have faith in the good in the world, and you'll…you'll be just fine" Illuzio said softly.

"But what about you? Can't you use your magic to save yourself?" Nick asked softly.

"No…I'm dead…magic doesn't work like that…it is a wondrous thing, but it can't always bring back those who are damned…" Illuzio whispered.

"But if it can cause all of this craziness, why can't it save you?" Juliet asked Illuzio softly.

"That's the thing about magic...it works in ways you could never imagine...it's a lot like life…if you think about it" Illuzio rasped, a small grin on his face as his eyes slowly closed.

"Elizabeth…I can see you…how…magical…" Illuzio whispered before he finally let out a his breath let out a small rattle…and then he was still.

"Illuzio…" Samantha whispered.

Illuzio's body began to disintegrate before their eyes, dissolving in a cloud of beautiful green sparks. The group watched silently as the sparks floated into the freezing cold sky, and Samantha broke the silence and said "Guys…after this…I think we're ready"

"We've got something that can kill him…" Judith said a small smile on her face. She looked distinctly more cheerful for some reason that the others couldn't place.

"Sieger!" Samantha realized, dispelling the staff that vanished in a flash of white light. Samantha and the others ran over to the end of the train where Sieger had landed. Sieger stirred feebly and groaned in pain as he got on his hands and knees, looking downwards.

"Are you OK?" Samantha asked.

"Sam, get away from him" John said sharply.

Samantha's hand jerked back when Sieger said in a weak voice "Samantha…"

Sieger slowly got to his feet, turning around and not facing them. They could tell that he was no longer wearing his sunglasses anymore, and his jacket was blowing slightly in the wind.

"Sieger…you OK?"

"I…guys…before we get to L.A…you should know something" Sieger said in a low voice.

"What is it?" Samantha asked, nervous.

"I…I…" Sieger sighed very deeply.

Sieger then slowly turned around and looked at them sadly with his blue eyes.

His electric blue eyes.

The very same eyes of the man who they were going to kill.

"What…the hell?" Joe said as he took a step back, starring into the bright blue orbs that were Sieger's eyes.

"You…your eyes…they're the same…what?" Jess whispered as she grabbed Marcus's arm. Samantha starred at Sieger wordlessly as Sieger took a deep breath, looking at them with his piercing and bright blue eyes.

"Yes…now you know…" Sieger said in a low voice.

"My name is Victor Richtofen, son of Edward Richtofen and heir to the world he is building, and the first perfect Super Soldier of Group 935" Sieger said sadly as he looked up to the sky and saw the moon slowly rise above, signifying that the sun had fallen and night was now upon them all.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>Hehehehehe…<em>

_Alright guys, that took a while, but I've finally done it. I've been looking forward to this chapter for good reason._

_Sieger is Richtofen's son, Samantha now has the Staff of Magnus, and the group is nearing Los Angles._

_Stay tuned for more awesomeness._

_Until then, I beg all of you._

_Please review._

_This took a lot of time and effort with my full schedule to get this chapter done right, so please let me know what you thought._

_We're on the final stretch guys, so let me know your thoughts. Take a minute or two and review, let me know what you thought of the chapter, of the possible sequel, of Sieger's real identity._

_Follow the trail of carnage, follow me at FlygonNick._

_Also, make sure to leave your XBOX 360 GAMERTAG IN THE REVIEW SECTION BELOW AS WELL!_

_I just happen to be the owner of an XBOX 360, as well as Minecraft and Black Ops II, so drop your Gamertag in the review section below and I'll add you. My Gamertag is the same as my PSN Username._

_I hope to have fun slaying Zombies with people from both consoles. :D_

_Alright, so make sure to review, I put a ton of effort into the chapter! I hope you enjoyed it!_

_Until next time, FlygonN out!_


	41. The Truth

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!_

_Yes, I uploaded the chapter a few days ago, and then re-uploaded it on Christmas day. _

_Why you may ask?_

_Because I'm an asshole._

_ But hey, this is a Christmas re-update, with a special message from FlygonN ( AKA FlygonNick)._

_Happy Holidays to everyone. Be you celebrating Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or simply just enjoying Winter Break. I hope all of you have had a great break so far, mine's been pretty good so far. _

_I've got a lot to be thankful for this year. I really do...I mean, good grades, good health, my family's doing well, and both of my stories and my reader fanbase have grown like crazy. I've gained more confidence in my writing and have gained quite a bit of support from you guys as well over the year. I've got no complaints at all._

_ This next year will see the end of the Apocalypse, but the start of something else...something possibly even better...well see._

_Here's to another amazing year filled with plot, cliffhangers, love, betrayal, and breaking the fourth wall._

_So...here's where the actual author's note begins._

_So...sorry about the delays guys. Finals had to be dealt with, and I don't regret not working on the story for a bit, because I got awesome grades this semester. _

_BRING IT 2014._

_So this chapter was made in response to overwhelming reviews, feedback ,and requests, and once again proves I'm a dork that can't say no to you guys…ah well. :D_

_Besides, the scene is just too cool to not write about._

_The Blacks Ops II Easter Egg Song "Always Running" does not belong to me in any way shape or form. But, to amplify the experience of this chapter, pull up another tab and have the song ready to play. Then when you get to the point in the chapter where I tell you to start the song, hit play. Seriously, do it…now._

_Also, I did some research, and just realized that this story is the longest fanfic in the Call of Duty section of Fanfiction . net, so woohoo for that. I could do some self-indulgent crap about me writing lengthy chapters with meat to them, but my inferiority complex forbids it. So, I'll take pride in the fact and quietly get back to work._

_Also, an update on Second Chances, I officially have my introductory chapter done. So this thing is happening. I already have several characters planned out, and even have an OC protagonist main character and OC antagonist ready to go. More details on this to come, so don't you worry._

_The next two weeks will be filled with me buckling down and hashing out chapters like a mofo. My plan is to have three chapters done by the end of the break, done, not updated though. Hopefully this will happen, as there are no more scripted long chapters for this story. Everything should be 10,000 or less. Should be anyway._

**_EDIT: Here's DOTD Part 2! Yes, I forgot two chapters ina row, and yes...I suck._**

_1. Dr. Richtofen was not actually the first villain I had chosen for this story, surprisingly enough. It started out as Richtofen's son, Victor, who was trying to destroy the world for his father and access Agartha so he could obtain ultimate power. I changed it to Richtofen at chapter 4 because I liked the idea of Richtofen being a bad guy as opposed to some OC no one cared about._

_2. I think the first name I had for the guy was Thraksivich or something like that. _

_Shoutout to everyone who reviewed last chapter, which includes lolperson2, Dustchu, DigDugDiamond, BobbyD, CarriedCoin, TMDF-Artyom, Trapinchh, Justsomeperson7734,Killz718, Lord rage quit, Knightmare Frame Razgriz, lanstetil51, StaticBomb324, doomforzombies16, DylanKTB, Dunka99, a new gust reviewer known as YouHadMeAtCOD, a guest reviewer, Mooman1706 (my second double reviewer!), Amy Bachemin, xNewWorld, as well as new two new reviewers known as Babykatnissfirefly and Jlyman. You guys are the freaking best!_

_Special shoutout to Carried Coin, who not only helped me complete the "Lost Little Girl" Easter Egg on Origins, but was there to witness me finally achieve the Shotgun Rank in Zombies._

_Also, I'd like to give an additional shoutout to those who have been gaming with me on XBOX, especially with Zombies. I have re-purchased a Season Pass for Black Ops II, meaning I now have all of the maps on both consoles. The transition was fairly easy, and I actually like the XBOX better. Then again, with Party Chat and being able to use a controller that ISN'T COMPLETELY DESTROYED, my opinion may not be entirely unbiased._

_Alright, here's the chapter guys! _

_Enjoy._

* * *

><p>Chapter 41: The Truth<p>

"_The truth is rarely pure and never simple"_- Oscar Wilde

* * *

><p>1987:<p>

* * *

><p>Richtofen set Izzy down in a large leather chair, causing her to wake up.<p>

"Where…where am I?" Izzy asked quietly, eyeing the room with anxiety.

The room she was currently in was a study of sorts, filled with books and journals, along with thousands of memos and sketches. A roaring fire was in the fireplace of the room, giving the room a rather cozy atmosphere. Izzy slowly calmed down and said "This…this place is nice"

"Thank you. You can stay here until you feel better" Richtofen said as he snapped his fingers.

"Jonathan!" Richtofen called.

Illuzio appeared in a flash of light and said "Yes?"

"Illuzio, meet Izzy. She'll be staying with us for a short while" Richtofen said to the jester, who grinned widely.

"Well hello there little lady! My name is Illuzio! Master of magic!" Illuzio said, throwing her arms out. A crackle of silver and green sparks popped and flickered behind him, causing the girl to laugh in delight.

"That was cool! How'd you do that?" Izzy asked Illuzio, who grinned at her.

"A magician never reveals his secret" Illuzio said teasingly. Illuzio became a bit more serious and said "So, what are you doing here?"

"She is here to rest and recover, Illuzio" Richtofen said as he walked over to the girl.

"Doctor Richtofen saved me from some bullies. He said he'd help me feel better" Izzy said to the jester, who nodded.

"And you will. Me and my friends will make sure you recover and are taken are of while you stay here" Richtofen said to the young girl, who nodded at him.

"Heal her leg" Richtofen said to Illuzio, who nodded.

"I need to heal your leg, Isabella. This may sting a bit, but then you'll feel better. OK?" Illuzio said kindly to the little girl, who nodded. Illuzio knelt down and gently grabbed the girl by the leg and his hands began to glow bright green. Izzy whimpered in pain for a moment before a sigh of relief escaped her mouth.

"Better?" Richtofen asked the girl, who nodded.

"Thank you" Izzy said to Illuzio, who beamed at the girl.

"It was nothing at all! Edward, we should get her something to eat, shouldn't we?" Illuzio asked the Doctor.

Richtofen nodded an Illuzio vanished on the spot. Richtofen closed his eyes and located Sophia with a flick of his mind. She and him had a short exchange before she walked into the room herself, dressed in goggles and a white lab coat with a 935 insignia on it.

"So Edward, who's this?" Sophia asked the Doctor as she walked over to Izzy.

"I'm Isabella. Call me Izzy for short" Isabella said with a cheerful smile. Having her leg fixed by magic and being surrounded by these kind and generous people were having an effect on the girl.

"My name's Sophia. Nice to meet you" Sophia said, extending a hand towards the young girl, who shook it.

"Likewise!" Izzy said to Sophia.

Illuzio chose that moment to reappear with a plate filled with freshly made chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, with a large glass of juice in hand. Izzy's eyes widened as Illuzio conjured a table for her to eat on and set the food down in front of her.

"Bon appetite!" Illuzio said cheerfully before Izzy pounced at her food, tearing into it with gusto. Illuzio chuckled while Sophia and Edward took a few steps back so they could speak to one another.

"She's adorable Edward" Sophia said with a grin as they walked away from the little girl who was devouring the food at an alarming rate.

"She's been through much, Sophia. Vhat should we do with her? She has no home, no parents, and without any help she will be back on the streets foraging for food" Richtofen asked his assistant.

"Are asking for my advice?" Sophia asked playfully.

Richtofen smirked and said "Vhat if I am?"

Sophia walked over to Richtofen, looking him in the eye and said in a low voice "She should stay here for as long as she likes, Edward"

"Do you think it is dangerous having her here?" Richtofen asked the woman.

"No…she's just a little girl, she's no danger to us. Relax" Sophia said, placing a comforting hand on Richtofen shoulder. Edward caught the faint scent of peaches from the woman, her perfume no doubt, and smiled at her. He felt something in him stir, but he pushed it down for a moment.

"Perhaps I vill" Richtofen replied with a small laugh.

"Edward…we should go out and see the city sometime" Sophia suggested quietly.

"Vhat?" Richtofen asked in surprise.

"Well…we spend so much time in the lab, and all you do is work and monitor the news, listening to all of the horrible things that happen in the world…why not spend the day enjoying the sunlight…or even moonlight…?" Sophia asked.

"Hmmm…" Richtofen thought about it as Illuzio helped Izzy to her feet, her food already gone. The girl requested to see more of the facility, and Illuzio obliged, walking her into another room.

"Perhaps we can" Richtofen said with a small smile as he turned around and walked with Sophia into the Mainframe Chamber, where Illuzio and Izzy were.

It was similar to the one at Der Riese in size and structure, but was much newer and sleeker. More efficient and with various updates in overall engineering, it stood in the center of the room with a massive power grid concealed behind a large metal panel next to it.

"This is known as a Teleporter, Izzy. For vhatever reason, we cannot get it to work just right. I have been trying to use my own powers over Element 115 to stabilize it…but to no avail" Richtofen said to himself as much as to her.

"Yes…it seems as though a specific combination of bursts will stabilize the power grid. This device would allow us to teleport anywhere we want to in the world. Coming back here, to this mainframe, would be as simple as pressing a button" a cool voice said as a slender man with black hair and bright blue eyes said as he walked into the room.

"Harvey" Richtofen said in a soft voice. Yena smiled and said "The mainframe is experiencing some problems, like Edward said, but these things happen, no? It's our job as soldiers of science to combat problems like this and to solve them"

"Well said, Harvey" Illuzio said cheerfully.

Yena smirked as he walked over to the power pox and pulled it down, revealing a series of sparking and crackling nodes that were mostly glowing blue. A few orange glowing nodes were also present, with one white node in the center.

"Wow…" Izzy said before noticing a blueprint on the table.

"Ah, be careful with that my dear. That paper is very important" Richtofen said as he walked forward.

"Hmmm? This one isn't like that one" Izzy said as she pointed to one of the surging blue nodes, all the while starring at the blueprint.

"Vhat did you say?" Richtofen said as his eyes flickered between the glowing power grid and the blueprint.

"If that one was orange, and that one turned blue" Izzy pointed to another node three to the left of the first one, "then shouldn't the whole turn white like the picture says?" Izzy asked Richtofen, who looked at her in amazement. Richtofen glanced down at the schematics for a moment, swore colorfully in German, and then shot an arc of energy at the two small nodes that Izzy had indicated, putting more power into the static-y orange one than the blue one. All of the nodes suddenly flashed green and then glowed bright white. Izzy cheered and bounced up and down on the heels of her feet before saying "We did it!"

"_Incredible…she's a genius!" _Richtofen thought as he looked down at the small girl beaming at him.

"How…did you know that would work? That specific combination?" Yena asked Izzy, obviously impressed and not expecting something like that to happen. Richtofen felt a bit of pleasure in catching Yena off guard like that…he seemed to know everything that was going on, even before he did…

"If you look at it long enough, it makes sense. You guys did a lot of the work, I just did the rest!" Izzy laughed as she looked at the dumbfounded expressions of the adults around her.

"Well done, Isabella. You're a genius!" Richtofen said with a smile. The girl laughed and said "Glad I could help! I love science-y stuff like this!"

Her expression fell slightly and she said "I wish I could do stuff like more often…I sometimes get to read science books and stuff in the library…but not do stuff like that" Izzy looked around the room, smiling widely and said "This place is wonderful…I would love to work here one day"

Izzy trailed off, looking around at the other complex machinery. Richtofen and Yena locked eyes before glancing down at Izzy. Richtofen was now wondering what else this girl could figure out. She obviously had a well-developed mind and was incredibly mature for her age. She was quite gifted…Richtofen looked at Sophia, who smiled at him. Richtofen smiled a little as well in response.

"You would?" Richtofen said to Izzy, who looked at him. "Hmm, perhaps you could be a junior assistant here? After all, we're in your debt for helping us. Who knows what else you could help us with!"

"Works for me!" Izzy giggled. Sophia looked at Richtofen with a critical eye before breaking into a wider smile.

"_I've never see him like this… Richtofen sees something in her that is making him so…sincere…as if all of the walls around him are gone, and lets me see his true self…the man he really is…Maxis was completely wrong about him after all…"_ Sophia thought as she slipped away, a small smile on her face.

* * *

><p>A Week Later:<p>

* * *

><p>Sophia grasped Edward's hand as he lowered his cap, the two of them exited the building. The cold of the night was upon them, and as a snow flurry blew by Richtofen shivered slightly.<p>

"We shouldn't stray too far from the Lab…I am still wary of the world, Sophia" Richtofen muttered.

"It'll be fine Edward" Sophia said with a playful grin as she pulled on Richtofen's hand.

"What do you think of this Sophia…?" Richtofen asked his assistant.

"Of Izzy? Poor girl is as sweet as can be. She's welcome to stay there as long as she wants"

"The girl's intellect is incredible…I can sense she has an immense amount of potential" Richtofen said to Sophia.

"You mean like you?" Sophia asked, and Richtofen flushed for a moment before replying "Yes"

"Well, maybe she'll want to stick around for a while. We've got the extra room" Sophia said to Richtofen.

"Perhaps…it is up to her. I will not force the child to do anything she does not want to" Richtofen said in a low voice as they continued to walk down the sidewalk.

"What do you see in her Edward?" Sophia asked Richtofen in a soft voice. Richtofen's grip on her hand tightened, not in a bad way though. He looked around, and upon seeing them alone said "She is a lot like me, Sophia. Ever since my mind cleared, I can remember things I could not before. My upbringing in the orphanage, my education, meeting Doctor Maxis…meeting Samantha…"

"Izzy grew up without her parents, alone and misunderstood…she has displayed an intellect beyond her years, and has a great deal of potential…there are other, smaller things I gleaned from her mind that also make me feel this way. This girl…she is special. She has nowhere else to go, and Group 935 can offer her a future…"

"I see…"

"Sophia…I ask you again…" Richtofen looked at her in the eyes. Sophia's eyes starred into the piercing yet beautiful electric blue eyes of Richtofen, eyes that bespoke an incredible intellect, a cunning mind, and a heart that was ravaged from what he had endured.

"Will you stand by me?" Richtofen asked the assistant.

Sophia smiled and pecked Richtofen on the mouth, causing him to blink in surprise at the small kiss. Sophia blushed furiously and said "You have treated me with nothing but kindness and respect. I get to use my mind to its fullest potential, and we've made more strides in the past year than Maxis ever did. I will always stand by your side, Edward. Always"

Richtofen smiled at the woman and said "Thank you, my dear…now, let us explore this town and see if we can get to know each other a little…_better_"

Sophia laughed and the two scientists linked arms and walked down the street, so very cold yet filled with a warm fire in their hearts.

* * *

><p>Present:<p>

Los Angles Survivors HQ:

* * *

><p>"Alright…alright, alright" Starch said as he walked through the building, eyeing it with appreciation.<p>

The survivors had been mysteriously warped to right outside the HQ that had been made, just on the outskirts of Los Angles. The city itself had been destroyed, and was a complete and utter war zone. While there were no Zombies in sight (usually), there were hundreds upon hundreds of Reclaimers, who practically filed the city, with more and more coming to the city every hour.

Despite that, more and more survivors had poured in, armed with whatever they could find and ready to fight. It seemed as though Samantha's message had reached through to many, as there were hundreds of small sites set up along the perimeter of the city, ready for the word.

The word of war.

But according to the leaders of the survivor assault, they were waiting for the very person who made the call to arms.

Samantha Maxis.

Starch glanced to his left as Lieutenant Maxwell walked by, Juliet's parents walking alongside him, with Zero and Joe's father slowly walking behind them., deep in conversation. Zero had apparently made contact with a strange being who helped them get to LA in time, and so he was being watched now in case this strange ally came back.

Starch watched the group walk into the next room, a makeshift conference room, to discuss attack strategies. Zero walked out a moment later, glanced at Starch, nodded at him, and then walked away. Starch rolled his eyes and walked outside, taking a deep breath of the smoky air and immediately began coughing and choking. He had forgotten about the about the smoke grenades set off a few minutes ago by Vice and Zero.

"Jeez…*hack*…if the Zombies don't kill me, the smoke will" Starch grumbled as he staggered back inside and walked over to where the other survivors were relaxing, inside of a storage room filled with couches and chairs.

"Bah" Vice said as he twirled his Arbiter's Staff with a grin. Serenity and Tyler looked over at Starch while Red starred out the window, eyeing the city like a bird of prey. Jameson, Kris, and Alec watched from the side, cleaning their weapons.

"So…when do you think they'll get here?" Kris asked Starch, who shrugged.

Serenity sighed and said "They'll be here soon…I hope.

"Hopefully Sam and Sieger can figure out a plan of attack…I'd rather not just charge down the street, guns a blazing, if you catch my drift" Vice said as he leaned against the wall.

"You think they have a plan?" Kris asked Vice, who nodded.

"It's possible that the plan may be to wait for more reinforcements…I mean, aren't we going to fight tomorrow?" Starch asked the others, who nodded.

An hour after they arrived in the city, Richtofen made contact with Lieutenant Maxwell, who identified himself as the leader of the forces preparing to assault him. Richtofen had allowed them to prepare whatever supplies they could and prepare themselves. At dawn on Saturday the fighting would begin. While Richtofen had given them his word that he wouldn't break the agreement, they of course didn't believe him. The three soldiers Maxwell had with him opened fire on Richtofen, who shrugged off the gunfire like it was nothing, and then promptly killed each of the soldiers with a bolt of lightning to the heart.

Nothing short of horrifying.

So far, they had spent their spare time trying to recover from their previous fights. Starch glanced over at Serenity, who was drawing a picture of a very detailed anime character holding a two golden shields with angel wings sprouting from his back.

"Do you always draw Serenity?" Vice asked curiously. Serenity nodded and said "People have their hobbies, drawing's mine"

"Got anything from Pokémon?" Zero asked as he walked into the room and leaned against the wall.

"Umm…well, I've only got a picture of this" Serenity said as she flipped to a page in the book she was drawing in.

It depicted a young man with long flowing grey hair with piercing gold eyes, a cold cruel smile on his lips. He had several Pokéballs at his belt and wore a long black and red trench coat, holding a small short sword dripping with blood in his right hand.

"That's dark" Kris said quietly.

"I've had a bit of inspiration from current events…it came to me in a dream" Serenity admitted.

"Still looks good" Tyler said with a smile, and Serenity grinned back at him before a loud boom echoed through the city.

"I thought Richtofen was waiting until dawn tomorrow?" Starch asked the others.

"It's the Reclaimers…they're preparing their defenses…" Zero said in a low voice as he looked out the window, eyeing the burning city and the large black skeletal tower looming over the massive city, just in the center. That was where this all would end…

"What do you think they've got in store for us?" Vice asked Zero, who shook his head.

Suddenly the door burst open, revealing Jax, who was bleeding from his arm and panting heavily. The survivors looked at the teen for a moment before Emmanuel piped up and said "You OK?"

"What? Oh, this. It's not my blood. It's some Reclaimer that Maxwell killed that tried to break into the complex. He tried to stab me when Maxwell shot him, blood got on my arm and all that" Jax said with a grin as he put the Zeus Cannon he had under his arm. The group noticed his Ray Gun was missing though from his hip.

"Where'd the Ray Gun go?" Serenity asked, looking up from sketch.

"Oh, I gave that to Maxwell. He said he needed it to help pick off a few stronger Zombies that he spotted coming towards the complex" Jax explained.

"That I did" a rough voice said from behind Jax, causing Jax to start and move into the room so another man could come in.

He had a large build, standing at about 6 '1', and had a lean tough body. He had tanned skin, riddled with scars and scratches that were from his two tours in Afghanistan. He had two dark green eyes and a small mouth, which was in a smirk. He wore a pair of long camo-cargo pants and had on a plain white t-shirt, stained with dirt and mud, with a bullet proof vest covering his chest. An RPD was on his back and two KAP-40's were on his waist, with a Ray Gun in his hand.

"You kids alright?" Maxwell said as he looked at each of them in turn. He got a collective nod in response, and he nodded in return and said "One of my scouts reported that a train is heading our way. Appeared out of nowhere in a flash of green light. If that's Samantha and her friends, then we need to make sure that they get here in one piece. Who wants to meet them at the train station?"

"I'll go" Zero offered.

"Me too" Jax said with a grin.

"Count me in" Jared said as he slung the tagger over his shoulder.

"Me too" Clutch Odd said as he got off of the wall, smirking slightly.

Jameson Morris simply stepped forward with a nod.

"Get to it. The sooner they're back here, the sooner we can finalize a game plan" Maxwell grunted to the teens, who nodded and ran out through the door.

"You guys better rest up…this is simply the calm before the storm…and we need to be ready for what's to come…" Maxwell said before he turned around and walked out the door, leaving the survivors a bit puzzled and a little bit more worried about what was to come.

* * *

><p><span>Train:<span>

* * *

><p>Sieger sat down on the seat and ran his hand through his hair, looking tired all of a sudden. Nicholas, Andrew, and Joe had weapons trained on him while the others tried not to make contact with his eyes.<p>

Those shining electric blue eyes.

The eyes of Richtofen.

"So what now?" Sieger asked the group in a low voice.

The others didn't reply, but Samantha said in a very soft voice "You…you're really his son?"

"_I knew it…"_ Dr. Maxis rasped, his voice barely audible.

"You..." Sieger growled, eyeing the gem with anger.

"_I can sense it…your pain and intellect all but makes you a spitting image of that monster…how fitting that you will fall by my daughter's hand…just like your father will" _Maxis said coldly to Sieger.

Sieger growled again and said "Du bist nicht besser als mein Vater, Maxis! Ich will nicht von leuten wie du gescholten werden!"

Samantha's eyes narrowed and she kicked Sieger in the chest, sending him crashing back into his seat with a grunt of pain.

"Don't talk to my father like that, Victor" Samantha said angrily.

"Don't call me that! Call me_ Sieger_!" Sieger muttered.

"Isn't that just Victor in Germen?" Juliet asked.

"Yes…but my mother made that nickname for me, and I prefer it to my English name…" Sieger replied softly.

"So…you're _really_…?" Juliet said in a soft voice.

"Yes…Edward Richtofen is my father and Sophia Okaniasa is my mother… As you can guess, my powers are a sort of mixture between my father's powers and my mother's pyrokenesis" Sieger explained.

"OK…say we believe what you say. Tell us what exactly is going on here, Victor. After that, we can try to figure out whether or not we can trust you" Samantha said in a low voice.

"Don't call me Victor. It's Sieger…" Richtofen's son said again with an ounce of annoyance.

"Sam, you can't really be doing this!?" Andrew said angrily.

"We should hear him out" Samantha said firmly to Andrew.

"It all began long ago…on the battlefields of the Great War…" Sieger began to say before the train began to screech.

"We're coming close to LA! From the looks of it, we've got ten minutes!" Iva yelled as she began to slow the train down.

"_Good thing he stopped. Last thing we need is to bring Origins into this" _C.N. muttered to Nick, who shrugged.

"Come on. Just say it…let it all out" Samantha said to Sieger.

"Well…this all sounds a bit nuts, but based on what's happened, Uncle Yena seemed to be telling the truth…" Sieger said in a low voice.

"Wait, Yena?" Judith said to Sieger.

"He's my Uncle. Porter and Illuzio were too…this whole thing is basically what Uncle Yena told me, and what Illuzio told me when I traded information with him. This is…I guess the whole story…though there a few parts I still don't know" Sieger explained.

"Like what?" Jess asked softly.

"How….how it'll end…" Sieger said softly, earning a confused look from everyone.

"This all began in another world…another timeline…events in the timeline played out a lot like the ones in this timeline, except for several key events…Uncle Yena…for whatever reason, he knows everything…he planned this all out…I guess you could say he saw all of this happening before my father even did…as for Illuzio, he enjoys going in and out of other timelines and dimensions, and he watched things take their course for a while…little did he know that the events he watched would change everything…" Sieger began.

"One of the biggest differences in the two timelines is Illuzio. He had no part in shaping the events in that timeline, but…he was created by it, in a way…that'll be explained later. It makes sense to go in order…so…we begin with the story of the first timeline, with this being the second one…"

"You see, another one of the differences is that the rockets launched at the Earth, as part of Maxis's failsafe on the Moon, were much stronger than anticipated, and the planet was incinerated. Without Illuzio's magic to weaken the rockets and protect the planet, and world was turned to a fiery wasteland where the remaining humans fought for survival against the undead…the video game based off of the events that happened concerning my father, Dempsey, Takeo, and Nikolai, are all pretty much accurate in terms of the other timeline. Richtofen controlled the remaining Zombies that infested the world, and the remaining survivors were hard-pressed to survive" Sieger explained. The others realized this would take a while, and sat down. Iva kept her eyes on the tracks, but her ears on Sieger. The one would finally explain everything.

"Four lone survivors, known Marlton Johnson, Abigail "Misty" Briarton, Russman, and Samuel Stuhlinger were contacted by your father, Samantha. Dr. Maxis…he became darker once his plan failed to stop Richtofen, so he devised a new one…according to Yena, he became fixated on the idea of finding you…under the guise of protecting the planet, he asked the survivors to help him gain control of a special Polarization Device in Hanford, Washington. It was one of three pylons scattered throughout the world that would allow him to heal the earth and reverse the effects that the missiles had on the world" Sieger explained, closing his eyes and leaning back in the chair.

"Yet, Richtofen, the one from that timeline, would not be outdone…no, he made contact with Samuel Stuhlinger, a survivor who could hear him from the Aether, and began to instruct him on how to turn the pylon to his favor…"

"With Maxis speaking to the survivors through electronics from the computers at the Griffin Station, and Richtofen speaking to Stuhlinger from the Aether, it became a very deadly power struggle between the two forces, both of which seeking to manipulate the survivors for their own personal gain"

"Dr. Maxis and Dr. Richtofen, two colleagues once working together, were now bitterly fighting to control the powers of the Aether, both seeking to expand their power" Sieger explained.

"Edward…" Samantha growled.

"This is interesting and all, but what does this have to do with anything?" Joe asked Sieger.

"There's more" Sieger said to Joe, and the group continued to listen.

"The four survivors managed to turn the first polarization device, the Obelisk, over to your father Samantha, all the while ignoring the words of Richtofen. Once they were sure that the device in Washington was polarized in favor of your Doctor Maxis, they were teleported to Shanghai China, on top of a series of dilapidated buildings…"

"This was the site of yet another one of the polarization towers, and once again the group of survivors set out against the undead that were attacking them. Once again ignoring the words of Richtofen, they set out to polarize the Tower in favor of Maxis, whose promises of helping them and healing the earth continued…"

"After the 2nd tower was set, the group set out to Africa, and one month later they arrived at the Primal Plates. There they would arrive at an abandoned mining complex, which had a Wild West style town underneath it…"

"Stuhlinger would once again ignore Richtofen's pleas for help, and with the mission of healing the earth in mind, the crew of four would once again help Maxis polarize the towers in his favor. Then, after everything was said and done, they reactivated the tower"

"Maxis then opened a portal to the Aether and gained control of the energies within…he revealed to the stunned survivors that not only did he lie to them when he said that he would heal the Earth and mend the damage that he and Richtofen had caused, but that the process of opening a path to Agartha…the entire world and its remaining inhabitants would be destroyed as a result of what Maxis was going to do. His reasoning behind this was so that he could find you in Agartha, Samantha, and despite damning the world to hell, he would be reunited with you…no matter what the cost" Sieger said in a whisper.

"WHAT!?" everyone shouted at once.

"Daddy, how could you do such a thing!?" Samantha demanded as she grabbed the Soul Gem around her neck.

"_I do not know what he speaks of…like he said, this is a different iteration of ourselves, so that was not me that doomed the earth in that timeline...I suppose if things happened the way that they did in that timeline, then my heart would have become hardened enough to disregard the lives of everyone else…just so I could find you again Samantha..." _Maxis said admitted softly.

"So…Richtofen is the _good guy_ in that timeline!?" Nick asked in amazement.

"Sort of…he was trying to stop Maxis, and he was aware of the plans Maxis had in store for the polarization towers. If Richtofen had succeeded, then he would have left the Earth as is and continued to watch as the survivors fought Zombies. The world would become his own personal playground while damning Samantha to Agartha and causing Doctor Maxis to cease to exist. If you're looking at it from an unbiased standpoint, Richtofen was the lesser of two evils by a long shot…"

"Now, here's where things get tricky" Sieger said with a small smile.

"Over the past few years, in the present of our own timeline, Illuzio has been obsessed with delving into alternate worlds. Alternate timelines, like the first timeline whose story I just described. He chanced upon the first one and became attached to the survivors fighting for their lives, and helped them along their way, helping them find food and supplies and protecting them while they fought. When Maxis's intentions were revealed at the Primal Plates, he decided to aid the survivors and cast a spell…a spell of incredible power and potential" Sieger said as he opened his eyes again.

"What sort of spell?" John asked.

"Yena called it the "Fate Render". It allows one to rewrite their own destiny, and is considered one of the near-impossible spells to preform; simply because it is hard to focus your intent into a spell of such magnitude. Its potential is virtually limitless, and with it the group could have overturned the entire fight and turned everything to normal…but, things didn't work out that way"

"Illuzio departed from the timeline and left the four survivors to fend off Maxis's Zombies, confident that the spell he left them could give them the edge to set things right. What he didn't count on was Richtofen gaining control of the magic and using it to change everything" Sieger said, shaking his head.

"That was pretty careless of him" John said with a scowl.

"Indeed…I wonder what he was doing that was so important that he couldn't wait for the spell to help them…" Sieger murmured.

"Wait, if Maxis gained control of the Aether, what happened to Richtofen?" Judith asked.

"He was forced into the body of a Zombie, unable to die and stuck in that body forever, wandering the world as an undead husk. Richtofen found the magic of Illuzio and used it to depart from his timeline and travel to this one" Sieger explained.

"He then met Uncle Yena at Der Riese, which was overrun at Zombies by this time. Yena learned everything about what had happened in the other timeline from the undead Richtofen, and began to explain the differences between this timeline and the one the Zombified Richtofen had come from. One of which is that most of the members of Group 935 were killed in the first timeline, while this one, the second we'll call it, a fair few survived"

"Yena told the Zombie Richtofen about Illuzio, a magical jester that my father had befriended and how convinced to help him. Yena theorized that Illuzio's magic is what allowed the other Richtofen to travel to this timeline, and so he deduced that this Richtofen could use that magic to create this very timeline. He would create the very timeline that they were in…are in"

"Wow…" John murmured, his eyes closed and in deep thought.

"Richtofen learned what he needed to go back in time to the past, and he travelled to Illuzio's homeland in the past and altered the past how he needed it to…in order to prevent the events from his timeline from happening in this one…"

"One day, sometime after touching the M.P.D. and becoming a sociopath, my father was working on the Teleporter when it overloaded and sent him to Illuzio's time as well. The two met and became good friends. Illuzio was fascinated with my father's intellect and theories while my father in turn was amazed with Illuzio's magical prowess. However, Illuzio refused to accompany my father back to his own timeline, despite my father's requests that he do so. Illuzio had a fiancé and a home to take care of, and was happy in his world of magicians and magic"

"Magicians and magic?" Jess said, confused.

"Yes, once upon a time there was magic in this world. It was all destroyed in an event known as the Great Disaster" Sieger said.

"Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. My father stayed with Illuzio for some time, and was there when the first Richtofen, the Zombie one, came to the timeline. That Richtofen knew that he had to force Illuzio to go with my father to the present, and so he invoked the Fate Render spell that was contained in his body and summoned forth a massive meteorite. He also enchanted it with a spell that it would not only destroy Illuzio's home, but destroy all magic in the process"

"So, that's why nothing awesome exists" Nick concluded.

"You live in a post-apocalyptic world filled with Zombies and you're standing two feet away from three video game characters" Nicholas said dryly.

"Oh yeah"

"ANYWAY…Illuzio noticed the meteorite and tried to stop it, with the help of the other magicians, and while he was distracted the first Richtofen slipped into his house and murdered his fiancé. The magicians couldn't stop the meteorite though…With the destruction of his home imminent and his fiancé dead, Illuzio went with my father back to his present time and began to assist him."

"Things went the same as they did in the other timeline, with my father trying to kill Doctor Maxis and you, Samantha, and after a series of events I'm sure you're all too familiar with, your father was shot, and you went berserk and tried to kill everyone who was in 935. When your father was killed, he was sent into the M.P.D, where he tried to find you. He was eventually captured in the soul gem you have around your neck" Sieger said pointing to Samantha.

"Daddy…" Samantha whispered.

"My father reunited with his test subjects, Takeo, Dempsey, and Nikolai, and then fought their way to Der Riese, where they would meet up with a few remaining members of 935. Henry Porter, Harvey Yena, Illuzio, and my mother, Sophia. Richtofen managed to earn their support and together they vowed to recreate 935 after getting rid of you Samantha, so Illuzio cast them into the future where it was safe and protected your father and the other test subjects while they travelled to the moon"

"Now, when you and my father swapped souls, you tried to switch them back using an Anti-Vril Generator that was hidden on the moon, correct?" Sieger asked Samantha and Dr. Maxis.

"_That is correct, It was a fallback plan in case Edward succeeded, aside from the rockets"_ Maxis replied.

"The Anti-Vril Generator was actually made by the Richtofen from the other timeline with Illuzio's magic, and was designed so that it would grant my father more of Samantha's powers in the event they swapped souls once more. Richtofen had instructed Yena to have Illuzio hide the device on the moon and implant false memories of it and its location in both of your minds, so that you would use it. He tricked you both into giving him more power"

"So, it wasn't all my fault?" Samantha asked Sieger, who shook his head.

"…_No…NO! CURSE YOU EDWARD!"_ Maxis bellowed furiously.

Sieger smiled a little and said "To your credit, this was set up by multiple people. Anyway, once Samantha and the others were on the run, my father and remaining 935 members went into exile, hidden from the world so they could perform their experiments"

"The goals of Group 935 had shifted back to what they were originally. To improve the human condition and to make the world a better place. Richtofen had perfected the Super-Soldier serum, and had developed many methods of inducing superhuman abilities in humans. Water-breathing, Pyrokinesis, shape-shifting, and so on"

"_Impossible. Edward was hell-bent on world conquest. He'd never-"_ Maxis began to say before Sieger said "Shut your mouth, you miserable soul. My father underwent a major transformation when he went back to his original body, turning him back into the man he was before touching the M.P.D. That thing drove him to do most of the things he did to the two of you, so shut your damn mouth!"

The others looked at the soul gem and Sieger for a few moments before Samantha said "Daddy…let him speak"

"…_Continue"_ was all Maxis said.

"OK…the experiments continued in this fashion until one cold winter day, my father chanced upon a young homeless girl by the name of Isabella"

"Isabella…Izzy?" Samantha said to Sieger.

"Yep…Izzy" Sieger said with a small smile.

"Richtofen welcomed the starving, orphaned girl into the facility where she was taken care of by the members of Group 935. After fixing a Teleporter and demonstrating an incredible talent of processing raw information and figuring out stuff, Richtofen and my mother adopted the girl into Group 935. Around this time, my father and mother began to fall in love, and they decided to adopt Isabella legally and take her in as their own"

"As the years went on, my father began to experiment even more, creating the nodes in the cities that you all have taken down and creating a grid that would allow him to control the dead on an even greater scale. He developed the cures to many of the world's diseases and began to experiment with immortality serums, and while those were unsuccessful, he did manage to make many potions that could extend one's life span greatly"

"My father also was a keen observer of the state of the world, and as each day passed, he grew more and more disgusted with the war and corruption that he saw every day. He vowed to make a new world…a better world…" Sieger trailed off.

"During this time period, my mother was experimented on heavily by Richtofen, and he allowed her to gain the ability of Pyrokinesis, though this ability wouldn't be discovered until later…my father knew she would gain this ability later, and he theorized that it was dormant, and once awakened would make her even stronger than he had expected…"

"…and then my mother got pregnant with me" Sieger trailed off.

"My father and mother were married shortly before my conception, and when I was born, my father knew I'd be special. They name me Sieger Adelino Richtofen, and I was brought up and educated by Uncle Yena and Uncle Porter, taught how to think and read by my mother, taught how to dream and wonder from Uncle Illuzio, and how to fight and use my powers by my father…and Izzy…well, Izzy was there to help me through it all" Sieger said warmly.

"She was such a good, pure person. No matter what, she'd see the bright side in any situation…even when Yena went insane, she knew he'd eventually go back to normal…me and her would sit there for hours with Yena…she was everyone's favorite, and pride and joy of all of Group 935…she had so much potential…but…you know how the old saying goes…" Sieger trailed off, his voice now devoid of all warmth.

"The good die young…" Sieger said harshly.

"My sister…she was kidnapped and brutally murdered by a serial killer who managed to cheat America's flawed justice system again and again. By the time my father found her, she was on the verge of death…she died in his arms…we lost our Izzy…the light of Group 935 was extinguished, just like that…" Sieger whispered, raw pain in his voice. Jess had a hand over her mouth and even Andrew looked sympathetic.

"After that…everything changed…" Sieger whispered, closing his blue eyes.

"My father became dark, cold, and angry at the world. A world that could do that was not a world that deserved to continue to exist…so my father began his plan to destroy this world, culminating in the worldwide destruction of all civilization by opening a pathway to Agartha. My father will then take control of the energies within Agartha and unleash them upon the world, destroying everything. He will then reshape and recreate a better world, one free for corruption and pain…a perfect world" Sieger said to the others.

"My father began his plan a few weeks ago, starting off in Bradburn County, Florida, where you guys were. He was burnt out, so to speak, and used the Element 115 in his lab there to recharge and refuel his powers before the final phase of his plan…unleash his Zombie hordes and draw out Samantha…and then kill her and those who would no doubt follow her once and for all before destroying everything the world that took Izzy away from us…"

"Uncle Yena explained everything that I said to you, and with that knowledge in hand, I ran away from the facility and set out to find you Samantha. I encountered Illuzio along the way, and explained how a Richtofen from another timeline ruined his life, and that the secret to all of this is in another iteration of this world…I didn't see him again until after he met you all. He told me that he believed that you all could stop my father, and that we have to believe in the good of the world…"

"I met up with Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, Chan, and Kara in Tennessee and then met up with guys…and that's everything…" Sieger finished.

"That's…that's a lot to take in…" Samantha said softly.

"It's the truth…guys, I know you have no reason to trust me…but I swear…I would never hurt any of you. Even if it means killing my father, I just want this meaningless violence to stop. I want peace just as much as him, but not at this cost…" Sieger said, shaking his head.

There was a pause…

"OK" Samantha said softly.

"…OK?" Sieger said questioningly.

"I believe you" Samantha replied, her voice stronger this time but still soft. The others looked dumbfounded.

"Sam…this is Richtofen's _son_!" Andrew said angrily.

"Yeah, we should think about this a bit more Sam" Iva said to the 115 Conduit, who shook her head.

"We don't have _time_ for this. We have a little more than 24 hours before Richtofen destroys the world. I can't stop him by myself…We need Sieger's help…I believe what he said, and I believe him when he says that he means us no harm" Samantha said, looking to her friends.

"Sometimes…you just have to let go" Samantha said in a whisper, closing her eyes.

Now she understood.

She understood everything.

She knew how to really stop Richtofen…what Jason had meant…

It only took Richtofen's son pouring his heart out to her to finally get it…

Sieger looked at Samantha in surprise, but gave her a grateful smile. The others looked at Sieger, and then Samantha, unsure of what to do.

"Letting go…" Nicholas murmured to himself.

"…OK" Jess said quietly, a small smile on her face. Marcus glanced at her uncertainly and said "He could've stabbed us in the back at any point, and he hasn't yet…I guess we can trust him"

"He did help us put down Yena and Illuzio" Nick chimed in.

"_True dat"_ C.N. added.

"If he wanted to turn on us, he would have done so already" John said, nodding to Sieger.

"Well…OK then. I guess your story makes sense" Judith said with a small smile.

"Based on how he's helped us, he's not a thing like his dad" Joe said with a nod.

Iva sighed and said "As much as I don't like the fact that you're his son…you're not a bad guy, Sieger. I'm with you"

"Alright…Illuzio had such a high opinion of you, and you really don't seem like a bad guy…alright" Nicholas said in a low voice, a small smile on his face.

Andrew scowled and said "I don't like it…but it's the only explanation for what's been going on…"

"Fine…just watch yourself" Andrew said, lowering his sword and taking a few steps back.

"Guys…thank you" Sieger said with a small smile.

Joe sighed and said "So…we're all cool?"

"Like I said, I planned on helping Samantha out from the start. She's the only one he can kill my father" Sieger said to the others.

"What about you?" Nick asked Sieger, who shook his head.

"No. I can help, but only Samantha can do it. And to do that, she needs to use the staff of Magnus"

Samantha nodded and summoned the staff, holding it lightly in her hands. The group inspected the staff for a moment before Sieger said "Only you can wield it Samantha"

"Can this really do it?" Samantha asked Sieger.

"My father and Illuzio researched the origins and lore of the staff…it's the only thing that can do it. The staff will only accept the one that became what it was made to destroy. Someone who would truly manipulate the Element that tears the dead from their slumber and wreaks havoc across the dimensions. This staff is one of kind, even on the dimensional plane…think of it as God's gift to you to kill my father" Sieger said with a small smile.

"…Can you really say that? That you're going to kill your father?" John asked Sieger.

Sieger closed his eyes and said "I do not hate my father. Far from it actually…but his grief has blinded him. He is too wrapped up in the injustices in the world…the pain…the hate…the sorrow…we have to remind him that there's still hope left"

"I will help you defeat my father, because doing so will prove that our ideals are correct. That despite everything that has happened…one must still have hope that things will turn out for the better…hope for a better future…it was the goal of Group 935 to pave a path for humanity that led to the betterment of the human condition…in other words…hope that things will be better." Sieger said as he looked up at Samantha, who smiled down at him and reached out towards him, offering him her hand. Sieger clasped it and Samantha pulled him to his feet, and for a moment they locked eyes.

"Sieger…you are not you're father…" Samantha whispered as she starred into his electric blues eyes with her dark black ones.

Sieger nodded.

"_Jesus Christ, just bang already…"_ C.N. muttered to Nick and Jess, through their minds.

"I think it's adorable" Jess thought with a cheerfully smile.

"_I think you're too sappy for your own good"_ C.N. replied.

The trains screeched to a halt and Iva yelled "Already A-Holes, time for our stop! Next stop, Richtofen's M.P.D. Tower!"

Everyone gathered their supplies and their weapons, and as the door opened and Sieger made a move to jump out, Samantha grabbed him by his shoulder and said "No matter what…you're my friend. Blue eyes or not. Got it?"

"…Got it" Sieger said with a smile as Samantha hopped out of the train, hiding a hidden blush and a twinge of guilt in her smile as she began to walk over to a group of familiar survivors walking towards them. She could feel the displeasure from her father, but she ignored it. She wasn't really a daddy's girl anymore…not after what she had learned…

"That was painful…but at least it's out in the open now" Sieger said with audible sigh of relief.

"Yeah. They handled that better than I thought they would" John said with a smirk as he walked by Sieger.

Sieger ran a hand through his spikey black hair and looked up at the rising moon and said "Yeah…Uncle Illuzio…you were onto to something…no matter what, the good see the good in others…"

"Not much further now…we're close to the end" Sieger said to himself as a breeze rolled by, blowing his coat in wind as the snow began to fall in Los Angles once more.

* * *

><p><span>Meanwhile:<span>

Primal Plates:

* * *

><p>Stuhlinger limped through the Candy Shop, blearily looking around and wincing with every step. After twenty downs, his entire body throbbed with pain as the past 48 rounds of Zombies took their toll. His hand tapped the Claymore's on the wall, causing two of them to appear on his hip. He glanced around once more before spotting a Teddy Bear in one of the barrels of Candy.<p>

"_Weird place for a bear"_ Stu thought as he reached for it. He ran his fingers over the bear's head, smiling a little at the memory of his own childhood. Simpler times.

Stuhlinger heard a strange noise snap that snapped him out of his reverie, and a song began to play. He continued to walk until he got to the Courthouse, where the others were.

_**(Begin "Always Running" by Maluka)**_

Stuhlinger leaned heavily against the wall as he walked into the room, groaning as the Quick Revive serum healed the massive slash wounds on his arm. Russman was sitting on the ground, his face in a constant scowl as his aged body throbbed and screamed in agony. Marlton and Misty simply exchanged glanced at each other, their hands clasped.

"You OK Russ?" Stu asked the old man, who nodded silently.

"Hey…Stu…hear anything from Richtofen yet? Anything?" Misty asked softly as she got to her feet, her aching muscles throbbing like everyone else's. Stamin-Up and Juggernog could only keep them going for so long. Fatigue and exhaustion was crashing down on each of them, and the Zombie got stronger with every round. They had been fighting nonstop for weeks, and they had been down in the town for over five hours…

_In this solemn field of silence,_

_I can barely feel the pain._

_Blind and deaf to all the violence…_

_And I've always felt this way._

"Nothing…I haven't heard anything since the shift" Stu said in a weak voice.

"I just can't do this anymore…I'm so tired" Misty said weakly as she punched the wall, her hand screaming at her in response.

"I know Misty, but we've got to keep going. We're the only ones who can make things right" Marlton said bracingly, smiling weakly at them.

"Not by ourselves…we don't know what to do without that guy…" Misty whispered. Marlton didn't reply.

_La, 'La, 'La,'La_

"So…what now?" Stuhlinger asked softly.

"I don't know…" Russman replied weakly to his friend.

"We're at the end of our game guys…" Misty replied softly.

"No…there has to be something we can do" Marlton said firmly.

"Like what?" Misty asked.

_On the wind a smell of misery._

_Fear and death perfume the air._

"Fight. And then continue to fight, until we cannot fight anymore" Marlton said firmly. The others looked at him with respect, but the weight of the situation made them less than enthusiastic. Hope was dying quickly.

_It begins again in mystery_

_And I always end up there._

The final Zombie suddenly twitched violently and fell onto the ground, unmoving. The four Zombie Slayers starred at the unmoving corpse in horror as the orange light faded from its eyes and the end of round music began to play.

"_**So…do you still think you can stop me? How foolish…you're all that's left…and you too will fall…" **_Maxis said to the group as the Zombies pounded closer.

(Round 49)

"GUYS! Get up! Get ready!" Misty screamed as she pulled out her Actualized Neutralizer 94000. The others got to their feet as the sound of screaming and feral snarling filled the cave. Hundreds of the undead clawed their way through the earth to attack the four people capable of stopping their new master.

_Always unsuspecting._

_So easy to lure them away from..._

_All the angels within._

"HERE THEY COME!" Misty screamed as the Zombies pounded their way upstairs, streaming out of the doorway like an undead tidal wave and screaming with bloodlust. The group took aim as one and opened fire, spattering the walls with crimson.

_I am running, from something I'm becoming._

Unstoppable.

"KEEP SHOOTING! DON'T LET UP!" Russman bellowed as he fired a stream of grenades from his Dystopic Demolisher. The sound of Pack-A-Punched gunfire filled the courthouse, as did the sounds of screaming and screeching.

_And I'm coming from the something that I'm running from_

_Becoming one..._

Marlton fell back to the base of the stairway, taking aim and firing a stream of shots from his Shadowy Veil Utilizer. Despite the strength of the Zombies at this point, the headshots from the sniper rifle managed to pick of a few of the Zombies. Misty and Stuhlinger opened fire with their Pack-A-Punched machine guns while Russman blew apart the Zombies as quickly as he could. Despite this, the crew was forced up the stairs, where they ran towards the ledge that led them back to the Box.

_Always Running_

_Like something might be coming._

"DIE DIE DIE!" Stuhlinger screamed as they sprinted towards the ledge, jumping off. Russman spun around, firing a stream of grenades that exploded all around the streaming horde. Russman then spun back around and landed on the ground with a howl of pain.

_To follow me_

_And I'm running from the something that I'm coming from_

_Becoming one..._

Stuhlinger doubled back and grabbed his friend by the hand and pulled him to his feet, earning a grateful smile from the old man. Russman and Stuhlinger continued to shoot and reload their weapons, pouring everything they had into the wall of the undead. Marlton and Misty hung back by the armory, blasting away from afar.

_I am_

_Letting go of all I Know_

Stuhlinger and Russman turned tail and sprinted away, following Misty and Marlton, who were now heading into the Saloon.

"Now what?" Misty growled at the men next to her.

"Close the door. Russman, shoot upwards and cave in the floor below, the wreckage will slow them down" Marlton instructed smoothly.

_From this buried well of consciousness_

_I can barely hear the rain_

Russman nodded and fired upwards, caving in the ceiling and blocking the doorway with debris. The Zombies slammed into the makeshift blockade and quickly began tearing away at it.

"Watch your backs!" Stuhlinger warned as he reloaded his SLDG HAMR.

_Everyone becomes anonymous_

_All their faces seem the same_

_Always unrelenting_

_Descending into our own nightmare_

_From this twisted fantasy_

"Come on, come on!" Misty growled as she, Marlton, and Russman fired through the cracks of the debris that was quickly being torn apart. Stuhlinger closed his eyes and said "Are you happy?...Is this really what you want? To destroy the planet? To kill all of us…even _he_ didn't want to do that…so who's really the evil one, huh?"

"_**Richtofen was a monster who sought nothing but power…to me, nothing matters except finding Samantha…the world will be destroyed…it is inevitable…accept it Samuel…" **_Maxis replied coldly as dozens of Zombies climbed into the building from the barriers and the walls.

"Never…" Samuel Stuhlinger replied coldly.

_Falling far away from_

_The Beauty of Annihilation_

_Do the faceless face fear_

"HERE THEY COME!" Stuhlinger yelled as he opened fire once more at the Zombies that had broken through. They poured in from all sides, and the group began to fight once more in earnest.

_I am running, from something I'm becoming._

_Unstoppable._

Marlton glanced to his left and saw four Zombies charging from the side at an unaware Misty. Marlton let out a snarl of rage and flung himself at the Zombies, knocking them to the ground and causing Misty to spin around and let out a gasp of horror.

_And I'm coming from the something that I'm running from_

_Becoming one..._

"MARLTON!" Misty screamed as the Zombies changed direction and converged on him, causing him to let out a scream of agony as he vanished from sight.

"NO!" Misty screamed as she frantically tried to shoot the Zombies off of him, to no avail. As tears rolled down Misty's face, Russman grabbed the young woman by the hand and pulled her up the stairs.

_Always Running_

_Like something might be coming._

_To follow me_

"Marlton!" Misty hissed as the trio jumped from the building, right into the thick of another horde.

"To the house! Quick!" Stuhlinger yelled, and the group sprinted towards the haunted house.

_And I'm running from the something that I'm coming from_

_Becoming one..._

Misty closed her eyes, hyperventilating, as they made their way into the house. However upon reaching it, she flung the doors to the Mansion shut, locking herself out and keeping the others inside.

"NO!" Russman yelled, pounding on the door.

_I've become_

_Something they all run from_

_I want you to be gone_

"COME AND GET ME YOU UNDEAD BASTARDS!" Misty screamed as the Zombies swarmed from all sides. Misty continued to fire and blast away at the undead, even as three Zombies dragged her to the ground. Misty let out a high scream of agony and then was silent.

_But I know you've just begun_

_Why am I numb?_

Russman and Stuhlinger remained in that spot for a moment before they turned around and sprinted through the house, blasting apart the Ghosts in there as they went. Stuhlinger and Russman hissed in pain as the Ghosts absorbed their life force, their points, but still they pressed on.

_To everything I have done…_

_There's no going back for me…_

_Becoming has taken its toll on me_

"Russ…it's just me and you buddy" Stuhlinger said as they jumped out of the house and ran towards the base of the maze.

"Then let's give a fight to remember Stu" Russman growled as they walked towards the fountain.

"_**Why do you continue to fight…even Richtofen has forsaken you…it Is hopeless…accept your fate!"**_ Maxis growled at the two remaining fighters as they reloaded their weapons.

_I am running, from something I'm becoming._

_Unstoppable,_

_And I'm coming from the something that I'm running from_

_Becoming one..._

The Zombies poured into the maze and Stuhlinger and Russman opened fire, yelling all the while. The undead came relentlessly and forced the two men deeper and deeper into the maze.

_Always Running_

_Like something might be coming._

_To follow me_

_And I'm running from the something that I'm coming from_

_Becoming one..._

Russman threw his Dystopic Demolisher to the ground the second it ran out of ammo and opened fire with his Sassafras, blowing apart the undead that came at him with a feral yell.

_I am running, from something I'm becoming._

_Unstoppable,_

_And I'm coming from the something that I'm running from_

_Becoming one..._

Russman realized with horror that he had headed down a dead end and had been separated from Stuhlinger, and the Zombies continued to stream in. Russman aimed his pistol and aimed for the Zombie's heads, blasting them off as fast as he could and splashing blood everywhere. Russman then let out a yell of fury at the Zombies as they closed in and then let out a howl of agony as they overwhelmed him just like the others.

_Always Running_

_Like something might be coming._

_To follow me_

_And I'm running from the something that I'm coming from_

_Becoming one..._

"It's just me…" Stuhlinger whispered as he continued to shoot down the Zombies making their way up the stairs, frantically trying to keep the dozens of undead at bay and spraying the ground with blood and gore.

_Always Running_

_Like something might be coming._

_To follow me_

_And I'm running from the something that I'm coming from_

_Becoming one..._

Stuhlinger gasped as he finger pressed the trigger of his SLDG HAMR over and over, only to produce a clicking sound. He pulled out his Voice of Justice, putting his other weapon on his back and said "ALRIGHT! COME AND GET ME!"

_I am running from the other ones_

_And the other ones_

Stuhlinger blasted and blasted at the undead with his pistol, blowing off heads from their bodies, but eventually the swarm began to overwhelm him just like his comrades.

_I'm running from_

_And becoming one means I'm running from_

_All I am…_

Stuhlinger screamed as the Zombies surged around him, taking him down to the ground. As the bodies of the undead pressed down on him like a weight, he closed his eyes.

"_I guess it's your turn to get a bite out of me, huh?"_ Stuhlinger thought as he waited for them to tear him apart. He heard a horrific tearing sound, followed by the sound of blood spattering on the ground.

He was surprised when he was instead covered head to toe with blood and gore as the Zombie's around him let out a scream of pain before falling to the ground with a thud. Stuhlinger opened his eyes and found himself laying on the ground, covered in scratches and a few bite marks, but still very much alive. The horde in front of him was torn to pieces, and only a lone Zombie, a walker, remained. It was bound by several black tendrils of some strange substance that he couldn't identify.

"W-what the hell just happened?" Stuhlinger said in a low voice as he got to his feet, his body throbbing.

"_From Shadows, we descend upon the world"_ a male voice said to him in his head, darker than the darkest darkness. The cruel and evil voice that sent shivers down Samuel's spine.

"_Hey! Are you OK?"_ a female voice asked him inside of his head.

Stuhlinger nodded and he said "A little roughed up, but OK…um, who are you?" He asked the voice, looking around curiously.

The woman laughed and said _"Let's just say I've been watching you guys for a little while now like the jester did. And like him, I'm going to help you"_

"W-what? H-how?" Stuhlinger asked the voice.

"_First thing's first, we're getting you out of there" _the female voice said to Stuhlinger, who felt a tingling feeling in his legs. He looked down to see his feet and knees were swallowed up in strange black substance…his shadow?

"W-what the hell is this!?" Stuhlinger yelled, pulling out the Voice of Justice and blasting away at the darkness that was quickly engulfing him.

"_Do not be afraid, Samuel Stuhlinger…just embrace it…" _the male and female voice purred to Stuhlinger, who's eyes widened in horror. The darkness was now up to his neck at this point.

"_**And just **__**what **__**do you think you're doing?"**_ a cold voice said to all of them.

"_Ah, Dr. Maxis. I was wondering when you'd revert your attention back to here"_ the woman said to Dr. Maxis, who growled furiously at them. His growl shook the entire cavern, dislodging several rocks from the ceiling and sending them crashing into the maze.

"_Eris, hurry up! Maxis is nearly as strong as Richtofen when he's in complete control of the Aether's energies!"_ the male voice barked at the woman.

"_**You will die now. I can't let you stop me from finding my daughter!"**_ Maxis yelled as Zombie's began to pour into the maze again.

"_Ta-ta for now Doctor Maxis"_ the woman said as Stuhlinger body became immersed in darkness. The mass that was Samuel Stuhlinger sank into the ground, into his own shadow, and dissipated. The Zombies looked around in confusion while Maxis roared in rage, shaking the cavern once more.

"_**I will succeed…no one will stop me…not them…Richtofen…no one will stop me from finding my daughter. No one…"**_ Maxis said in a deathly quiet voice before he turned his attention to destroying the world.

No mercy.

No regrets.

No turning back.

Maxis chuckled to himself and said _**"Can you feel it Richtofen…my wrath…my anger…ah…this is what true power is like…I will find you and destroy you, my old friend…first you…then the world…I may have become worse than you…became the very thing I despised…but it doesn't matter now…what matters is Samantha…I will find her…and I will destroy anything that gets in my way"**_

The sound of booming maniacal laughter filled the cave as Maxis began his search, a search that would result in the destruction of the earth and the deaths of those who had the will to keep fighting, despite everything.

"_So…how will this play out?"_ the woman from the shadows asked the male voice, observing Maxis from the afar, a pair of red eyes lurking in the shadows of the Stamin-Up machine.

"_How it always does, little one…with blood…_" the male voice replied in Eris's mind. The woman laughed to herself before sinking completely into the shadows once more.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>That's the end of another chapter. We're drawing ever so close to the end.<em>

_What did you guys think? Please, review and show me and the story some love! _

_Make sure to follow me on Twitter for any and all updates to the story. My twitter handle, as you all know by now, is FlygonNick._

_I just so happen to have a BO II Season Pass for XBOX 360, so I'd be more than happy to play some Zombies with the very people who've kept this story going. Or just talk with you in a party chat. _

_Make sure to drop your Gamertag/Username in the section below, as I'll be doing Easter Egg attempts for Richtofen's side all week long! Or, just PM me on this site._

_This is my last update for the year, so I'll see you guys on the 2-yar anniversary of the story, January 4__th__._

_And to end this outro, I have a serious question to ask all of my readers._

_I have been debating changing my Fanfiction . net username from FlygonN to FlygonNick. FlygonNick happens to be my internet name, and is my twitter handle, RT Handle, and Internet Box handle, and I'd really like to make the switch on here as well. It's just easier to have everything be the same. _

_The problem is that I've amassed quite a following on this site, and most you know me as FlygonN. My question to you all is would this throw you off? Or, do you think that this would cause any problems for you? Please, let me know. I need feedback on this guys…so either let me know in the review section of vote on the poll that's on my profile page. Would you all be OK with me changing my name from FlygonN to FlygonNick, and will this create any sort of confusion to anyone? Let me know your thoughts in the section below._

_Thanks a ton, and make sure to leave your feedback in the section below! **(The site is now back to normal, so everyone can review again. :D)**_

_MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!_

_Until next time, FlygonN AKA FlygonNick out!_


	42. The Calm Before the Storm

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Hey there guys, FlygonNick here._

_Happy two-year anniversary everyone!_

_Two years ago today I posted the first chapter of this story…man, time flies huh? _

_We're getting close to the end though, only a few chapters left and we're done._

_Thank you. All of you…for giving me this chance to write something like this. There's just no way to explain how much motivation and drive I get from the feedback I get each chapter. Seriously, it's something that helped me in the beginning get through the story's first rough chapters, and even now, keeps me going. Even when real life wants to get in my way and try to put a damper on things, a review saying how much someone enjoyed my story cheers me right up._

_Thank you everyone. Thank you so much, for everything._

_So, onto yet another AN._

_I finally made the name change, hopefully this doesn't throw anyone off. I know it's just three letters, but still._

_In other news, I am DELIGHTED to announce that me and my OC character, Agent Indiana, were both accepted into the Freelancer Collaboration of their sequel story "Phase Two: Betrayal". That means that in just a few short months, you'll be seeing me write for a group-effort story of just sheer awesomeness._

_Now, this won't cause any sort of delay in either Jak IV or Apocalypse, since the chapters for it aren't nearly as long as normal, and have to be done ages ahead of time. This does mean that you get to see my write for an RvB story that's freaking amazing as hell. Please show your support by checking out both stories and by following the stories as they go. Review, favorite, and all that good stuff._

_Despite this being a super short chapter, I was hit with a massive wave of writer's block. Go figure, right? Well next chapter will be extreme carnage and mayhem, with so much action your heads will spin. This is a bit of a fluff/set up chapter for the next couple, and I promise, the next few chapters will blow your effing mind._

_**EDIT: DOTD Facts PART 3!** _

_1. When I decided to include the Original Crew in the story, me and Joe decided that they should have children (specifically girls), and when I created Iva, Kara, and Chan, I knew they would have to not only be like their fathers, but still have their own personalities and hold up as characters in their own right. _

_2. The creation of Sieger came when the Original Crew's three daughters were created, as I knew Richtofen should have a child as well. Joe then suggested it shortly afterwards, and to this day he says he's the one who came up with the idea of Sieger, despite me creating EVERYTHING about Sieger's character and knowing that Richtofen should have a child as well. _

_Shoutout to those who reviewed last chapter, which includes Trapinchh, Amy Bachemin, babykatnissfirefly,_ _Justsomeperson7734, Dustchu, Killz718, DigDugDiamond, lanstetil51, a guest reviewer, a new guest reviewer known as Antwa78, hellfire lord, DylanKTB, Mooman1706, and CarriedCoin._

_Additional shoutout to those who reviewed the new year update, which included_ _Knightmare Frame Razgriz,_ _Justsomeperson7734, Princess Shahnaz, Amy Bachemin, Trapinchh, Dunka99, Killz718, Lord rage quit, and another guest, as well as a new reviewer known as Robert Aaron M. Obong Jr_

_You guys are the absolutely best. :D_

_Let's get right down to it. _

_Here's to another year of awesomeness!_

_Enjoy._

* * *

><p>Chapter 42: The Calm Before the Storm<p>

"_The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today"_- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

* * *

><p>1991:<p>

* * *

><p>Izzy grinned down at Yena as he blasted apart the Zombies coming at him from all sides. Now wearing the pure white coat with a 935 Emblem on it, she began to scribble down notes as Yena let out a cackle of delight.<p>

"Come on! Faster! More! More! IZZY, SEND MORE OF THEM!" Yena yelled as the last Zombie fell. He was currently in the middle of a deep pit filled with dirt, where the Zombies around her were spawning.

"You've got it Uncle Yena!" Izzy said cheerfully as she ran over to the terminal and threw the switch. The blue meteorite surged behind her and crackled as the earth around Yena exploded beneath him. Zombies crawled free from the earth with a snarl, and Izzy slowly lowered her clipboard and decided to watch the man face the Zombies head on.

Yena was dressed in a simple long-sleeved black shirt with black slacks, his long hair flowing down to his waist. A silver pistol was in his left hand while in his right was a jet black one. The two pistols in his hand, the Jackal and Crow, were massive in size and firepower, and despite being several times heavier than a regular pistol, Yena had no trouble holding them.

"The Super-Soldier serum really is as strong as Papa Edward said…" Izzy muttered as Yena smiled widely.

"Come and get me, you maggot-ridden filth" Yena purred as the Zombies got to their feet.

"REEAH!" a Screecher Zombies screamed as it flung itself at Yena, only to be shot in the chest with Crow. Yena sneered in delight, despite and pistol's recoil causing him to stumble backwards a bit. The Screecher fell to the ground with a whine, blood pooling on the ground now.

"COME AND GET ME!" Yena roared as the Zombies closed in. Yena ducked under a Zombie's swipe and spun around, placing the tip of Crow at the back of a Zombie's skull and blasting its head clean off of its body. Yena glanced forward and grabbed a Zombie's outstretched arm and yanked downwards, ripping its arm clean from its socket with a yell of fury. Yena tossed the arm to the ground and sent the de-armed Zombie to oblivion with a shot to the throat.

"Excellent! Bravo Edward! This weapon is incredible!" Yena cackled as he spun around, jumping into the air and swinging his foot through the air and connecting with a Zombie's skull, caving it in completely and spattering gore on ground.

Yena laughed again as a Juggernaut Zombies clawed its way to the earth and swiped at Yena, who ducked under the deadly swipe and distanced himself with a smirk.

"Come and get me, big boy" Yena purred as the Zombie roared in fury and charged at him. Izzy felt a thrill of horror as Yena remained still as the Juggernaut pounded closer and closer…

"Oh no!" Izzy murmured as the Juggernaut Zombie drew it's massive fist back and threw it at Yena, aiming for his head. Izzy gripped the railing tighter and tighter and yelled "Uncle Yena!"

Yena then moved so quickly Izzy saw a black blur, but just as the Juggernaut Zombie's fist began to move towards Yena, he darted forward, ducking under the Zombie's arm and placing the tips of both Crow and Wolf against the back of the Zombie's skull before blowing its head off, splattering the walls of the Pit with blood.

"Yes! That was incredible Uncle Yena!" Isabella yelled cheerfully, bouncing up and down on her feet. Yena regarded his pistols for a moment, smirking at the steaming barrels and blowing on them like an old west outlaw did, and clipped them back to his belt. Yena then looked up at Izzy and gave her a salute, which she returned with a wide grin.

"Vhat is going on in here?" a familiar voice said with amusement.

"Papa Edward!" Izzy said cheerfully as her adoptive father walked out from the other room, a small smile on his face. Richtofen regarded the young girl with a nod and said "Izzy, vhat are you doing here? You know that you can't stay in the Minion Testing Chamber without either me or Sophia being here with you"

Izzy looked at the floor, ashamed, but mumbled "Uncle Yena said it was OK…"

Richtofen sighed, but smiled a little and said "It is fine, little one. No harm came of it...just be more careful from now on, do you understand?"

Izzy nodded, and Richtofen looked around the room for a moment before looking at Izzy in confusion and saying "So, vhere is Harvey?"

"Hey there Edward, fancy meeting you here!" Yena said with a laugh from down in the Pit.

"Hello Harvey. Vere you testing zhee new weapons?" Richtofen asked Yena, who nodded.

"You're newest invention is useful as hell for it" Yena replied.

"Ah, zhee Zombie Portal? You were using it to test out the firepower of the zhee Wolf and Crow" Richtofen said with a smile. Izzy grinned and said "Come on Papa, it's pretty dang cool! Plus, it's perfect for Uncle Yena! It worked to perfection!"

"Cool? Ah, you American's and your euphemisms" Richtofen sighed.

"It means she thinks it's very very nice Edward!" Yena called from the Portal Site.

"And you should know better than to deplete our supply like that" Richtofen said to Izzy, who shuffled nervously.

"Ah, well, there's more where that came from I suppose. How are Harvey's weapons preforming?" Richtofen asked.

"Incredible. So much power packed into just two pistols…if it wasn't for that Super Soldier Serum, he'd have blown his arms off just from the recoil" Izzy said in awe as Yena quickly dealt with another wave of Zombies.

"Yes, the serum has come a very long way. From the failed experiments from before, to dear Dempshey, Nikolai, and Takeo, to myself and you all. Yena seems to show even more promise than Porter and Sophia…though…" Richtofen trailed off.

"My findings seem to indicate that children whose parents have been injected with the Super Soldier Serum show even greater promise" Richtofen thought as Izzy walked over to the nearby terminal and said "Uncle Yena, I' shutting it off now"

"That's fine. I was done here anyway" Yena said as he slammed his fist into the skull of the final Zombie, crushing it's skull in with his bare fist and sending it crashing onto the ground. Yena looked up at the small platform slowly being lowered into the Pit. Yena stepped onto it and Izzy raised the platform so he could get back to their level.

"Man that was fun. Same time tomorrow, OK?" Yena said to Izzy, who nodded. Yena smirked at her and put a hand on her head, ruffling her black hair in an affectionate way, before walking out of the room.

"Come" Richtofen said to Izzy as he turned around and began to walk into the other room. Izzy bounded after Richtofen and walked into the lounge, where one could take a break from research and simply relax. Porter was watching the television, the news droning on and on about the latest political scandal. Richtofen had always known and dealt with corrupt leaders and politicians, but in America, it went to a whole new level. Richtofen felt his disgust for the US rise each and every day, and if it weren't for Yena and Izzy, he'd have moved the main lab years ago.

Bu they liked it here. They were far away from the Nazi's influence, though they were long gone now, and they were in a country that was not war-torn or in revolution. It was peaceful, and Sophia had confided in Richtofen that she enjoyed the peace. That seemed to sway Richtofen more than anything, so…in America they stayed.

The news reporter than began to speak of the results of a popular trial. Jordan Brantley, who was charged with the murder of a young woman in Wyoming. Despite the evidence pointing to him, the prosecutors deemed that it was all circumstantial, and he was cleared of all charges. The cameras got a great deal of footage of Jordan leaving the courthouse, and Richtofen saw a familiar grin on his face…

An evil grin. The grin of someone who had killed, and killed, and killed…and loved it.

Richtofen knew that grin because it was the one he wore. Though this type of killing disgusted him. It was senseless. Murder with a purpose, now that was fine. If the end's justified the means, then so be it. Science was a perfectly understandable reason to kill someone as well. Hell, Richtofen had killed plenty of people in that regard…

But this man…Richtofen felt a surge of anger towards him and said "Zhis country…how can they simply let killers such as him roam free?"

"Apparently he's been tried multiple times for the deaths of women all across America…" Porter said with a sigh.

"It's people like that that symbolize what we're trying to change, right?" Izzy said quietly to Richtofen, Yena, and Porter. The three looked at her in surprise. Richtofen then pulled the girl into a hug, which she returned.

"You've come a long way Isabella. You think like the greatest of philosophers, yet have the heart of gold" Richtofen murmured.

"Papa, do you think that we can really end all of the fighting? All of the war in the world?" Izzy whispered, the image of that man's terrible green eyes in her mind.

"And the corruption" Porter added darkly, clicking the TV off.

Richtofen broke the hug and looked into the eyes of the girl standing before him. She was quickly approaching adulthood, and had grown into an intelligent and capable scientist thanks to the upbringing that 935 had given her. She was loved by all of them, and loved them in return.

"Yes…Izzy, I do believe that in my heart of hearts, we can save this world…" Richtofen said with a small smile.

"That's good" Izzy said gratefully.

Sophia poked her head into the room and said "Izzy, can you come here for a moment? I need your help making lunch!"

"Sure thing Mama!" Izzy said as she bounded into the other room.

"That girl always makes my day a bit more cheerful" Yena admitted in a soft voice from his armchair, his eyes closed.

"Yes, she's special alright. It seems as though fate works in mysterious ways…three if the greatest scientists of the century, armed with superhuman abilities, and all of us are wrapped around the finger of a teenage girl"

"I am surprised you all welcomed her as quickly as I haff…Yena, what made you so fond of her?" Richtofen asked his friend, who smiled.

"She doesn't flinch when she sees me. She said that even though I am a dark, dark man, there's still a bit of light in me…for that, I would do anything for her" Yena replied in a low voice.

"And Porter?" Richtofen questioned.

"She's smart, she's helpful, and she's so sweet. Having her around reminds me of my daughter…before the accident" Porter said, his voice catching when he said the last word.

Richtofen and Yena both looked sympathetic and Edward said "Yes…she is special. Our light in the dark of our hearts, you may say"

"Yep" Yena said with a smirk as he fell asleep. Richtofen glanced towards the kitchen and the retire to his study to get back to work, a small smile on his face now that wasn't there before.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Present:

Los Angles Outskirts:

* * *

><p>Zero smirked as Samantha and Sieger walked toward them, followed by everyone else.<p>

"Welcome to Los Angles guys" Clutch Odd said with a smirk as he waved at the group.

" Hey guys! Hey Samantha!" Jax said cheerfully.

"Jax!" Samantha said cheerfully, running over to the teen and hugging him tightly.

"Weird, I missed you a lot" Samantha said with a wide smile.

"It's been a day!" Jax laughed.

"Yeah, I guess so" Samantha said as she broke the hug, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.

"So, how was your trip?" Jared asked as he shoulder his Tagger Rifle.

Everyone exchanged looks an then said "Boring"

The others blinked and Jameson said in a quiet voice" I don't believe you"

"Come on, what happened?" Zero prompted.

"Did we tell you guys about Illuzio?" Nick asked Zero.

"Yeah, magical jester guy that's sorta good but is kinda bad. What about him?" Clutch asked.

"Well, he attacked us on the train and we beat him. He gave Samantha a staff that he says can be used to kill Richtofen and neutralize his powers" John said to the others, who looked stunned.

"Wow" Jared said in response before another explosion ripped through the city.

"What was that?" Juliet asked Zero, who shrugged.

"Odd noises have been going on for a few hours now. Come on, let's get you back to the main HQ" Zero said as he turned around. The group slowly began to follow the small group back to the HQ of the Survivors, all the while being watched.

Eris smiled widely and as he head popped out of the shadows of a nearby lamppost and said "I never realized how much fun spying was until I could pop in and out of shadows"

"_Yes…"_ a cold voice replied dryly.

"Come on Master, you're no fun!" Eris pouted.

"_Eris, do you realize how much effort it took to escape from Maxis? Besides, that side trip…even I wouldn't have taken those four from where they ended up...you do realize they have to go back? Right?"_ the man murmured weakly.

"We need them Master" Eris insisted.

"_Fine, little one. I need to rest…continue to do what you must…and when the time is right…well…"_ the cruel voice laughed darkly and sank into the depths of Eris's mind. Eris shivered and said "I've never met anyone so terrifying…and so special"

Eris sighed dreamily for a moment before opening her eyes again and saying "Well, since the others are resting up, I can spy on Richtofen. Might as well see if I can get anything useful from over there…"

Eris dove into the shadows once more.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Well, well, well, the lady of the hour!"<p>

Samantha's first impression of Maxwell was "Tank Dempsey's brother". She was fairly spot on, as this man was a hulking male that had a thick powerful build, and seemed to be the stereotypical soldier. Riddled with scars, this man had indeed seen some combat before, and had lived to go back here for the ultimate fight.

A fight for humanity.

"Nice to meet you" Samantha said with a small smile.

"Commander David Maxwell, at your service. You're quite the public speaker, Miss Maxis. You inspired those who could make the trip to fight their way west, just to join you on the battlefield. I am one of them. When I heard your speech…" Maxwell smirked and said "Well, I felt a fire in me like I hadn't felt in years. It'd be an hour to fight by your side against that Nazi freak"

"Thank you" Samantha said with a smile.

Samantha introduced the others, taking care to leave out Sieger's identity, earning her a smile of thanks in return.

"Good to see you all made it here in one piece. Come on, let's swing by the armory and get you guys anything you need, and then we'll head to the briefing room" Maxwell said to the others, who nodded.

"So, what do you think?" Sieger muttered to Sam as they began to walk through the warehouse.

"I don't know what to think right now…" Samantha said in a low voice.

Sieger smiled and said "Really? That surprises me, you're always thinking"

Samantha smiled a little and said "True…OK, I'm a bit worried about the fight. We seem so under-equipped compared to them"

"I wouldn't say that" Maxwell said, surprising them both.

"I've got plenty of soldiers on hand as well, bolstering our own forces. We may be against a lot of opposition, but we're not exactly outmanned and outgunned either.

"Alright guys…here's the armory!" Maxwell said to the group as he opened the doors by flinging them open.

"Oh my god…I think…" Nick stopped there.

"I have the weirdest boner right now" Joe said in a low voice, causing Iva to look at him with a odd smile.

"Holy…crap…" Nicholas said with a grin.

It was a masochists dream…

Pistols, Shotguns, blades, rifles, SMG's, LMG'S, and explosives of all shapes and sizes filled the warehouse, complete with a rack filled with different sized bullet-proof vests. Maxwell smirked and said "They others have helped themselves to weapons already, and this is straight from the Armory back in my home state. Managed to get ahold of a good chunk of the supplies, so help yourself"

"This is good" Samantha said with a smile as she walked over to the shotguns. She picked up her favorite gun, the SPAS-12, and hefted it over her shoulder before smiling widely at the group.

"Lock and load people" Samantha chirped.

Nicholas walked forward and glanced at the weapons, setting down his current supplies on the floor. After picking out a bulletproof vest from the rack, he regarded his chipped and bloodstained combat knife and discarded it, deciding the Golden Spork was enough. He walked back over to the massive weapons rack grabbed an M27 with a grin and set that aside, grabbing as much ammo as he could for it and stuffing clips into every pocket he could, realizing that everyone else had had their pick and they could take whatever they wanted. He then realized that the Speakeasy ammo could only be refilled by a Max Ammo at this point, but decided to keep it anyway. Nicholas clipped the Ray Gun Mark II to his belt.

Nicholas nodded and grabbed a few Symtex grenades, a frag grenade, and two shock charges. Desperately thankful for Stamin-Up and Mule Kick for letting him carry all of this and still being able to move quickly with no issues, Nicholas put on all of his weapons; making sure everything was set, and looked over at the others, who were picking out their weapons.

Nick smiled as he picked out an RPK from the weapons rack, regarding it as he set his Predator aside. He strapped his RPK to his back and then clipped C.N to his belt, and then clipped CN to his belt. Nick looked down at his Calamity and Jane for a moment before walking to the rack and grabbing as many clips for his RPK as he could.

Joe simply walked to the rack, set his Pack-A-Punched Remington to the side and grabbed an M4 Carbine off of the wall. Joe regarded his new weapon with a grin, Maxwell walked over to the shotgun and said "What the hell happened to this Remington?"

"Pack-A-Punch. It gives weapons a ridiculous power boost, though it changes how they look quite a bit" John explained.

Maxwell cocked an eyebrow and said "Huh. That'd be helpful to have"

"We've got a Pack-A-Punch machine ready and waiting, as well as a ton of Perk-A-Cola's" Samantha said to Maxwell, who cocked another eyebrow.

"Vending machines that can give you special abilities like increased durability, endurance, and swiftness" Samantha explained.

Jess looked the rack up and down, tossing her RPG and M115 Kollider to the side of the room and picked out two military cutlasses with a silver and gold handle. Jess spun them with a laugh and said "I like"

"What happened to you being the crazy explosives chick?" Marcus asked as he grabbed a Stakeout and cocked it with a smirk. He then shrugged and put it back on the rack before clipping his Python back onto his belt and grabbing a few AUG clips.

Marcus smirked, glanced at Jess, and said "Alright, what gives?"

"I'm going to make a bow and arrow set now. Then my collection will be complete!" Jess proclaimed, skipping out of the room merrily with her new weapons in tow.

"That girl is odd" Nicholas said.

"Says the guy who wrote this whole damn story" Joe shot back.

"Eh" Nicholas shrugged.

John considered his options, clipping his Winter's Fury to his belt. He grabbed a few Symtex grenades, and grabbed a Colt Commando off of the wall, regarding it with a smile. He then grabbed grenades, a few Frag and Symtex, and then grabbed a pack of C4 off of the wall.

"That'll be useful" John said with a grin as he grabbed more Colt Commando ammo.

Juliet set down her weapons and grabbed a Scar-H off of the wall, testing the weight of it. She wasn't much of a shooter, but she realized the wisdom in having a gun on hand, so she accepted the Scar-H and grabbed more ammo for it. She regarded her Vitriolic Withering and chainsaw before walking back over to Nicholas.

Judith simply walked over to the rack, and picked out a B23R. She remembered it as the gun Liam had used when he had been killed by Yena, and clipped it to her hip with a small smile. She strapped the Scavenger to her back and held the Dead Specimen Reactor in her hands before grabbing more ammo for the B23R.

Iva regarded the rack for a moment, looked at her Afterburner on her back and the Sickle on her waist, before grabbing an M8A1 and a C275 Pistol.

Andrew scanned the rack up and down, pointing to each weapons as he looked at it with Gutripper. With Skullcrusher as his primary, he simply grabbed two Five-Sevens and said "Alright, I'm good"

Maxwell nodded at them, pleased with their choices. As the group made their way out of the weapons locker, Maxwell sealed the door behind them and said "Alright, we can go to the debriefing room now. After that, we break for dinner, and then its curfew"

"Curfew?" Nick asked the man, who nodded.

"You guys will need whatever sleep you can get. Richtofen won't attack until dawn" Maxwell said as he led the group into a room with two large steel doors. Maxwell knocked three times, and the door's opened, Juliet's mom's face appearing in the doorway.

"Mom!" Juliet said cheerfully. Juliet's mom opened the door all the way and hugged her daughter tightly.

"Hi sweetie! How was your trip?" Juliet's mom asked as she looked over at the others.

"We fought against a magical jester and had a major revelation about not just one of our friends, but life in general" Nick explained.

"…That's great!" Juliet's mom chirped as she broke the hug and gestured for the others to come in.

Inside of the room was Zero, Kara, Chan, Sieger, Joe's Father, and Juliet's father. All of them looked up as the teens walked into the large room, which seemed to be a large office turned into a conference room. Each of the teens stood around a table, with Samantha taking a place between Sieger and Zero. Sieger flashed Samantha a small smile, which she returned.

"Alright, ladies and gentleman. Now that Samantha is here, we can finalize our battle strategy" Maxwell said to the others. Maxwell tapped a small glowing device in the center of the room, and a large hologram of the

"Our plan of attack is simple, yet all the more dangerous because of it. Their forces are focused on the main roads, where the most direct route is to the tower where Richtofen is hiding in. All of the main entrances into the city are blocked by massive steel gates"

"Those won't be an issue though" Joe's dad said to the others.

"No. But if we waste time blowing all of the gates open, we waste valuable time and resources trying to get access to more points to attack Richtofen, and while that'd help, that's also give them time to mobilize and have a force ready to crush us when we open another gate" Maxwell said.

'So we're going with just one gate?" Kara asked Maxwell.

"One gate. Once it's open, we go right into the thick of it. We then split into seven parties, three of which will be led by me, one by Samantha, and another by Zero"

"Damn straight" Zero replied.

"We then make our way to the tower, fighting off all hostiles, and once at the tower's base we establish a perimeter. We then go in to take down Richtofen" Maxwell said.

"How the hell are we going to fight our way through the massive horde of Zombies they no doubt have at their disposal?" Joe demanded.

"Or the thousands of Reclaimers armed to the teeth and ready to defend their leader?" Nicholas added.

"We don't have the resources to do anything else!" Maxwell growled.

"We have to fight our way through to Richtofen, using whatever we can use to get through his forces. We're not exactly useless, I'll have you know. Many of the people here are already outfitted with weapons, so they're battle ready. Our job is to get you" Maxwell pointed to Samantha, " To the tower. We hold them off while you kill him, and we all go home heroes"

"Now, do you have anything you'd like to add, Samantha?" Maxwell said to the young woman. Samantha nodded and said "Me and my friends will be leading the main charge. It's a straight shot to Richtofen, so that's what we're going to take. Me and Sieger will be the main focus of their fire, so the others should be able to take out the enemy as we go"

"Me and Sam together can dish out a crazy amount of damage. The Reclaimers are still just human, while we're…something more" Sieger said in a low voice, the Samantha nodded in agreement.

"Hey, don't forget our friend" Zero interrupted.

"Ah yes. The Shadow Woman" Maxwell said with a nod.

"Shadow Woman?" Jess asked curiously as she strode into the room, holding a black military bow and a quiver filled to the brim with arrows. The bow itself seemed to be hunting bow, but one of the well-made ones that was both durable and light. Jess walked over to Marcus and grinned at the others, who exchanged glances with one another before Zero said "Yeah, some lady I met attacked us with a bunch of shadows, but instead of killing us, she warped us here. It's a good thing she did, otherwise we would've never made it in time"

"Can we count on her for assistance in the big fight though?" Joe's dad asked Zero.

"I think so" Zero said with a nod.

"Maxwell, if I can interrupt?" Samantha said to everyone.

"We've got several Perk-A-Colas stored in item capsules, we can get them set up for everyone has a better chance in the fight" Samantha said to the others.

"And everyone can Pack-A-Punch their guns and stuff too!" Nick said excitedly.

Maxwell nodded and said "Yes, the next few hours should be focused on rest and preparation. From what I've heard, you guys are pretty worn out from a fight on the train"

"I was stabbed three times" Nicholas stated.

"How terrible. Alright, let's head outside and spread the word" Maxwell said to the others, who nodded and headed out. As Sieger passed Samantha, he said "Just go and assault Richtofen's forces? Head on?"

"Well…what else can we do? We can't really do much else" Samantha admitted with a sigh.

"We started fighting at dawn on Saturday. Richtofen has agreed to a ceasefire until then. Take that time to rest as much as you can…you'll need it" Maxwell said the others.

Samantha and Joe then began to set up the machines, and soon the Perk-A-Cola machines we're up and running and Pack-A-Punch was operational. Word spread throughout each of the camp's, and one by one the survivors began to drink their perks and upgrade their weapons. Samantha fed energy into the machines from her body, allowing people to get perks without having to do the Zombie training scenario thing. Sieger realized what was going on after a while and went over to help her, giving her his energy so she wouldn't put too much strain on herself.

The others simply sat to the side and chatted.

"Hey…" Nicholas said to Jess.

"Yeah?" Jess replied.

"You ever wonder why we're here?" Nicholas asked her.

"Hmmm…nope"

"…really? You're just going to…you know, leave it at that?" Nicholas said in an annoyed tone.

"Yup"

"…part of me wishes the world would end so that never happens again…no wait…then Red vs. Blue wouldn't exist anymore" Nicholas realized.

"See, you can think!" Joe said cheerfully, earning a middle finger from Nicholas. Juliet sat down next to Nicholas, and Nicholas said "You excited for the big fight?"

"Us vs. Richtofen? This is going to be so awesome!" Juliet said with a grin as Jess pulled out a Nintendo DS and popped in a game.

"Where'd you find that?" Iva asked curiously, laying down in Joe's lap.

"Grabbed one at Sam's Club a while back. I held onto it. I'm glad it still has a lot of battery left" Jess explained.

Nick grinned and said "What're you playing?"

"Mario Kart"

Nick laughed and dug through his bag, pulling out a pink DSi with a laugh.

"Why the hell is it pink?" Joe asked while the others starred at Nick in amazement.

"Hehehe, I got it because I know if I take it out in public, people are going to be mad. Like, "Why does this asshole have a pink DS?" Nick laughed again and said "It works the same as the other ones, anyway"

Jess and Nick then began to play via wireless communications against one another, and it became apparent that Jess was apparently a master at Mario Kart, as she won three races in a row with little effort on her part. Nick scowled as the others snickered in the background.

Jess simply starred at the screen for a while, and then pulled out a small phone and began to text on it while driving with her other hand.

"_The hell?"_ Nick thought in his head.

Nick's phone started to vibrate in his pocket, so he quickly pulled it out and read a text message sent from an unknown number.

_I'm kicking your ass :3_

"Damn it!" Nick yelled angrily before he drove through another power-up, this time letting out a yell of glee as he got the all-powerful blue shell. Jess frowned a little and slammed on the brakes as Nick fired the shell. As the shell soared towards her, but then shot in another direction as someone passed Jess and blew them up instead. Jess then accelerated her character again, making them shoot forward and cross the finish line.

"I hate everything" Nick sobbed as Marcus held up Jess's hand, signifying her as the winner of the race.

Samantha and Sieger then walked over to them, appearing tired but satisfied, as the last few survivors walked away drinking bottles of Stamin-Up.

"That's everyone…you guys, rest up. We have until dawn to relax…and then…" Samantha trailed off.

"War" Jess said as she notched an arrow with her now Pack-A-Punched Bow and Arrow, deemed Artemis's Judgment, and fired a shot arrow. It flew across the snowy field and slammed into a tree, which exploded violently in a shower of blue light, leaving a considerable crater in the ground and leaving a tree nonexistent.

"That was badass" Marcus said with a laugh, high-fiving Jess.

"Yeah, we should upgrade a few of our new guns too" Joe suggested, and the others got up and walked over to the Pack-A-Punch machine. Samantha sighed weakly and rested her head on his shoulder.

"You OK?" Sieger asked softly.

"I'm a little tired, don't worry, I'll be fine by tomorrow" Samantha murmured as she removed her head from Sieger's shoulder.

"Wanna ditch them and go somewhere we can get some peace and quiet?" Sieger asked Samantha.

Samantha grinned, nodded, and then followed Sieger, who smiled at her before turning around, heading towards the other end of the field Sieger looked up at the sky and sighed, his white breath pouring from his mouth. Samantha followed him and the two simply walked for a time, simply enjoying each other's company.

Sieger then walked over to a large rock and sat down on it. Samantha silently sat down next to him. For a while, they just sat there, in the middle of the snowstorm. Sieger conjured up a ring of Hellfire around them to protect them from the cold, and Samantha had to admit it was really nice just sitting there with him.

"_Samantha…what are you doing?"_ Dr. Maxis hissed in Samantha's head.

"_Enjoying myself"_ Samantha replied coolly.

"_With him? He is the son of the man that did all of this!"_ Maxis snapped.

"_And you're the man who raped his mother!" _Samantha snapped back. Dr. Maxis growled in annoyance and said _"Samantha, I beg of you, think about this…"_

"_Why should I?"_ Samantha snapped back.

"_Because I'm your father!"_ Maxis barked angrily.

"Sam?"

"_I real father wouldn't have ignored me! I real father would've seen the signs! You let him hurt me!" Samantha shouted at her father, her remained silent at that._

"…_Samantha…"_

"Samantha?"

"_You've done nothing but hurt me, in this timeline and the other one. Daddy, I love you, but you're selfish and bitter man who cares about himself and what you want.. I'm done listening to you" _Samantha said coldly to Dr. Maxis.

"SAM!"

Samantha was brought to her senses as cold hand was placed on her forehead. Samantha realized this hand belonged to Sieger and blushed pink, hoping the cold covered it up.

"What's up? You've been spacing out for the past minute" Sieger asked, concerned.

"Arguing with my father"

"Ah. You have my sympathy then…I'm sorry about how I acted towards him, but growing up, no one really had anything good to say about him. Plus…what he did to my mother…" Sieger stopped there, and Samantha whispered "I'm so sorry Sieger…"

Sieger sighed and said "Don't be…he got what he deserved in the end. It's a horrible thing to say, but…"

Samantha nodded and said "How is she, by the way? I haven't seen her since we left Babylon"

"Babylon?"

"I'll explain latter"

"Erm…well, I don't know. I haven't seen her in a while…I hope she's OK. She's probably worried sick about me" Sieger admitted.

"_Probably…I hope she can stay safe during this, if only for your sake…" _Samantha herself didn't care for Sophia, as she distracted her father and kept him from paying attention to her and caring about her. She was planning on killing her herself, but now that she had met Sieger…she would settle for just Richtofen. Though if she got in the way…

"Sam, you're getting that look again. Stop starring off into space" Sieger said with a grin.

"Sorry…so, what're you going to do when this is all over and done with?" Samantha asked Sieger.

Sieger shrugged and said "No idea…"

"Me too…I might just stay with Uncle Dempsey, Takeo, and Nikolai for a while, oor just keep wandering around the world. I like travelling…meeting new people"

Sieger smiled and said "You wouldn't mind some company, would you?"

Samantha flushed and said "Not at all Sieger…"

Sieger closed his eyes for a moment and said "Thank you, Samantha"

"For what?" Samantha asked.

"For giving me a chance…I was so scared that you'd all judge me based on who my parents were, that I had to wear those glasses…I wish I had known how accepting you were. I'm forever in your debt"

"The others are the reason for that. They accepted me right away into their group and did everything they could to help me…they give me faith in the world, Sieger. It's for them and everyone else that I fight. Because of the kindness they showed me, in my moment of need…in my darkest hour, they helped me see the good in others…" Samantha said softy, watching the snow fall around them with a smile.

"Plus, you're just so damn likable" Sieger said with a laugh.

"Please…what's to like about me?" Samantha said, realizing after she said that that they may have been talking about two different things.

"Well, you're powerful, have a great personality, completely lethal in a hundred ways, and adorable as hell" Sieger listed off.

Samantha blushed and said "Please…I'm _not_ adorable"

Sieger rolled his eyes and said "Whatever you say Sam"

The two continued to talk, and as night fell completely and moon was high into the air, Sieger finally let the flames around them die.

"Tomorrow's the big day…we should go get some rest" Sieger said as he hopped off of the rock. Samantha hopped off of the rock as well and said "I think there was some spare room in one of the back storage rooms. It should be warmer in there"

"Isn't that a bit isolated?" Sieger asked.

Samantha smiled shyly said "Yes…but, I'd rather just you keep me company for tonight. The others…don't quite understand me like you do"

Sieger shrugged and said "Not much to understand"

Samantha smacked Sieger in the shoulder, laughing a little, and Sieger scowled and reached towards the ground, scooping up a ball of snow and hurling it at Samantha, who yelped as it smashed into her face. Samantha shivered and said "Hey!"

Sieger laughed and began running back to the complex, Samantha close behind. Dr. Maxis thought about speaking up again, but decided not to after a few moments. His daughter had been through enough already…who was he to tell her who to care for and not to care for?

And so he remained silent as they gathered up a pillow each and a large blanket and crept into an isolated room and huddled close, talking about their lives in the relative warmth of the storage room. Sieger spoke of his days growing up with 935, talking with Yena, sparing with Illuzio and his father, learning how to read and wonder, and dream…

"I never really had any friends but Izzy growing up…" Sieger said in a soft voice, his blue eyes closing slightly as exhaustion, both physical and mental, finally caught up with him.

Samantha smiled and said "You do now"

Sieger smiled and said "Yeah…I do now"

Samantha yawned and rested her head on Sieger's shoulder. For a minute he looked confused, but after a moment he smiled and rested his head on hers. The two quickly fell asleep, safe and tucked away from the world, at least until morn.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Several Hours Later:

* * *

><p>Edward Richtofen looked out from his tower, seeing the battlefield below. On the far edge of the city was where those who defied him lay sleeping…resting.<p>

He hadn't thought they'd get that far. He supposed that he had considered them of little importance.

Richtofen smiled as the sun slowly began to rise. Dawn was approaching…he would allow them to fight. He could have ended this so long ago…but he didn't.

He owed it to his son to at least fight for his ideals. He would simply incapacitate him…he would not lose his only child…yes…they would be allowed to fight. But he would not make it easy for them…no…

Richtofen scowled and said "It is nearly time…Kraken, Saem, Oswald, Jackson, Steiner!"

Five men suddenly appeared in five bursts of different colored flames, blue, silver, crimson, green, and purple respectively. Each of them were wearing full body armor and armed to the teeth with weapons.

"Yes Master, how can we serve you?" the five men said as they knelt to one knee.

"It is time…I will prepare myself for the ceremony…I will need to concentrate on opening the pathway to Agartha…it will require a great deal of time, and you're destroy everything you see…except for Sieger. Bring him to me, understand?" Richtofen ordered the men, who nodded.

"Sophia will be monitoring your radios and the fight below. She will interfere if she must…do not fail me" Richtofen said in a soft voice before turning back around.

"Give them hell" Richtofen said to the men, who saluted their leader and vanished on the spot, except for Oswald. Oswald stood at about six feet tall, with spikey black hair that was shoulder length. He remained still for a moment before saying "Sir…"

"Oswald, I will activate the killswitch in just a few hours, do not worry. Now go…they will be readying themselves for the fight…we must be ready" Richtofen murmured.

"Of course" Oswald said with a nod.

"Oh, and Oswald?"

"Yes? Master Richtofen?"

Richtofen looked at him over his shoulder, smiled, and said "If you need to, transform. Give them a show"

Oswald smiled widely, his electric blue eyes gleaming with malice and said "Of course"

"Now go"

Oswald vanished in a burst of crimson flames, and Richtofen looked back towards the city, looking out at the encampment so far away.

"Now…let's see what kind of fight you and your followers can kick up…shall we Samanzha?" Richtofen said softly as he reached under his armor and pulled out his locket, opening up the trinket with a sad smile. Inside of it was a picture of Sophia, holding Sieger and Izzy, the three of them grinning at him. Izzy was in the left side while Sieger and Sophia were in the left. Richtofen looked at the left picture and tapped it with his finger.

"Soon, little one…soon I will make everything all better…this world will pay for what it did to you…to us…" Richtofen murmured before he closed the locket. He turned around and faced the M.P.D.

The world would pay.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Nicholas woke up to Samantha saying "GET UP! NOW!"<p>

"Jeez, keep your panties on Sam" Nicholas mumbled as he got to his feet. Juliet was draped around his neck, and Nicholas detached her, to her supreme disappointment.

Nicholas got to his feet, picking up his Speakeasy and his M27. He clipped the Porter's Mark II Ray Gun to his belt, admiring the black on red color scheme for a moment before turning to Juliet, who sat up sleepily. Nicholas helped Juliet to her feet, and she stretched before saying "Today's the day"

Ten minutes later, everyone was assembled.

Samantha, Sieger, and Captain Maxwell stood in front of a giant mass of people. Behind them was the entrance to the city, blocked off by a massive gate. Similar gates were up at every entrance into the city. Samantha turned to the gate and said "Get back"

Sieger smiled and took a few steps back while Maxwell silently stepped back two spaces, but no more than that. Samantha closed her eyes tightly and held her hands to the sky. Both arms began to surge with blue and green energy before her eyes snapped open.

"_**KABOOM!"**_ Samantha yelled as she flung her arms downwards.

'Alright men…this bunch of fools dare defy our master! He who shall cleanse this world of evil and corruption! He who shall end all war and death! All suffering! WE FIGHT FOR OUR KINGDOM! For Master Richtofen!" Oswald roared to crowd of Reclaimers in the streets, who cheered and shouted in approval.

A series of wicked explosions tore through the gate, tearing it to pieces and creating a massive plume of smoke. Oswald smirked and said "Alright Sam…let's see what you can do"

Samantha smiled at the survivors behind her, her flowing black hair blowing behind her as the cold wind picked up and said "Today…we will fight. Today…we will kill…today…we shall win...This is the dawn of the dead, and we will rise above and SURVIVE!"

The crowd behind her burst into cheers, thrusting their weapons into the air. Samantha turned around and summoned the Staff of Magnus in her hand in an impressive flash of white light. She looked to Sieger, who nodded at her with a small smile on her face as Fatum and Lux flashed into existence in his hands.

"Alright Uncle Edward…" Samantha said as the glowing blue eyes of Zombies and Reclaimers emerged in the smoke. The group behind her gripped their weapons tightly as Sieger, Samantha, and Maxwell raised their weapons at the first wave coming at them.

"Time to play" Samantha said before she swung her staff at smoke launching the first attack in the fight for mankind's survival.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>And so the fight for mankind begins.<em>

_What sort of surprises does Richtofen have in store for Samantha and the others? What sort of incredible fight are the survivors in for?_

_STAY TUNED._

_Follow the trail of carnage on twitter. Follow me at FlygonNick!_

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	43. Dawn of the Dead

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_I'm so sorry for the delay guys._

_This chapter was delayed by me getting back into school mode, as well as a bit of writer's block. It lasted for a while, but I'm over it and back in action!_

_I am taking a short break from Zombies online, due to me losing my shotguns for an unprecedented 3__rd__ time…I'm just done with it for now. Maybe in a week or two I'll start taking cracks at Easter Eggs again. I'm open to play on Mondays and Wednesdays now. Now, I may not always want to play Zombies when you message me, but I'll usually be fine with chatting and all that on Xbox Live. I do have reserve the right to just not talk to someone, but usually I'm fine with anyone just hitting me up._

_I've also been playing Dead Space 2 like a mofo, and AM LOVING IT. So…good…I wish I had a capture card so I could record me and Joe playing Dead Space 3 down the road, but alas…I am poor._

_I'm also getting into Minecraft as well, and I'm currently just catching up on what I've missed! :3_

_I'm also realizing these AN's are either me ranting or a blog for me to tell you guys any updates since my last chapter update…huh._

_ANYWAY!_

_I've decided to not make the next few chapters drag out, since the they are mostly fight scenes. They will be as long as they'll have to, since they're not entirely plot heavy, it's the group fighting their way to the Tower._

_So, I'll take this realization with a grain of salt. And kindly press on._

_Shoutout to those who reviewed last chapter, which includes CarriedCoin, Knightmare Frame Razgriz,_ _Justsomeperson7734, Princess Shahnaz, Amy Bachemin, Trapinchh, Robert Aaron M. Obong, Dunka99, Killz718, Lord Rage quit, a guest reviewer, Dustchu, Trapinchh again, Justsomeperson7734, Dogsled shepherd, DigDugDiamond, hellfire lord, killz718, a Guest reviewer, StaticBomb324, Unkillable, eel3234, PROMinecrafter, and doomforzombies16._

_If the shoutout thing seems off, it probably is. Not sure why but I think I might have messed something up here…oh well, I'll deal with that tomorrow. You guys freaking rock!_

_We're getting close to our goal guys. Top reviewed story in the COD archive! Keep up the reviews and support! :D_

_Now without further ado, here we go._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

><p>Chapter 43: Dawn of the Dead<p>

"_We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender"-_ Winston Churchill

* * *

><p>1991:<p>

* * *

><p>"Incredible! Absolutely astounding!" Porter proclaimed as he admired the massive site before him.<p>

"It's so…big" Sophia said with a smile.

"And hard. See, look at that bone there. Talk about rock solid" Izzy said in a cheerful tone.

"Wait…are we still talking about the skeleton?" Yena asked in a curious tone. Izzy giggled at the accusation and Sophia flushed pink. Richtofen and Porter simply scowled while Illuzio cackled and said "My friends! I insist that we test out my hypothesis posthaste!"

"Agh, zhee time is not yet right mine Illuzio! While finding zhee remains of zhis creature is impressive, I just find the idea of giving life to a skeleton impossible!" Richtofen said, gesturing to the massive creature's skeletal structure in front of them.

Before them was the massive skeletal of a sort of reptilian creature with thick massive bones and a huge set of wings. Illuzio floated over the skeleton and said "The Dragons of old are a challenge, yes, but I know that resurrecting one is possible! With magic and science, anything is possible!"

Illuzio flung out his hands with a wide grin and a series of sparks shot out from his hands. Izzy laughed and said "Uncle Illuzio, don't you think that we should try working on some of the more…pressing, experiments first?"

Illuzio sighed and said "Yes...perhaps that's best"

"But we can try and think of a way to bring the dragon back to life later!" Izzy added after a moment, and Illuzio burst into a wide smile again and said "Haha! See! My desires are not so easily dismissed!"

"Enough! Illuzio, go back to finding more Soul Gems. If my hypothesis is correct, zhan the connection between zhem and the M.P.D…well"

"I understand" Illuzio said with a bow of respect before banishing on the sight.

"Yena, Porter, keep working on the plans for zhee Tower. I want construction of the Tower to begin shortly" Richtofen said in a low voice.

"Of course, Dr. Richtofen" Porter nodded.

"Edward, this tower…what is it?" Yena asked, a hint of worry in his tone for once.

Richtofen smiled and said "A failsafe, mine friend. While we are an organization of science and progress…we must always contend with those who stand in zhee vay of progress"

Yena smiled and nodded, understanding on his face now, and said "I see…"

"Now, back to work. I vill retire to zhee study" Richtofen said as he turned around, lab coat whipping behind him, and strode into the next room. Sophia and Izzy glanced at each other and began to converse in low tones.

Richtofen sat down in his chair, annoyed that Yena had left the television on once again.

"Mass shooting in Florida, where 32 students were killed, along with four teachers. The gunman has been taken into custody. His motive for causing such a horrific event is still unclear, and we'll bring you the latest developments in this tragic shooting as we get them" the newscaster said.

"How can people do things like that…some consider me a monster…yet the death of children in a manner like that…" Richtofen murmured as he turned the TV off.

Richtofen scowled and said "We should push ahead the production schedule…"

"Eddie, we're fine…calm down" Sophia murmured to Richtofen, who sat down in a chair with a sigh.

"This world…its so…twisted. Now zhat I can see zhee truth, I no longer wish to accept it. Zhis world is evil, my dear…" Richtofen murmured as he ran a hand through his hair. Sophia bent down and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"That just means that we have to try harder…the world can't change overnight" Sophia murmured.

Richtofen sighed and sank further into his chair, and Sophia sighed angrily and hopped into the chair with him. Richtofen blinked in surprise and Sophia said "You need to forget about the future, just for a little bit"

"How?" Richtofen asked, a little amused.

Sophia grinned and said "Oh…I can think of a few ways"

Sophia got up and pulled Richtofen to his feet, leading them into the closest room. The door locked behind them and Izzy waltzed into the room they had just vacated, confused.

"They were just here a second ago…oh well" Izzy shrugged, blissfully unaware of what her adoptive parents were currently doing. She walked out of the room with a shrug/

* * *

><p>Present:<p>

Los Angles:

* * *

><p>Samantha swung the Staff of Magnus in an arc, unleashing of a wave of pure black energy that slammed into the undead and tore them to pieces, filling the air with carrion. Samantha let out a mad laugh and dove into the smoke. Sieger smirked and dove into it with her, Fatum and Glorious in hand.<p>

"ATTACK!" Maxwell roared, charging into the smoke as well.

"TOGETHER!" Nicholas yelled as he sprinted into the smoke, the others close behind.

"FOR YOUR FAMILIES! FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN!" Zero shouted, his flaming sword known as Lucifer raised high into the air.

The survivors charged into the smoke as Samantha burst out of it, eyeing the sea of blue eyes before her with a sadistic grin. Samantha held out her hand a blue wall of energy formed, reinforced with green sparks.

"_Illuzio…Jason"_ Samantha thought as the she flipped the Staff of Magnus in her grip.

"Sieger!" Samantha called.

"I'm on it!" Sieger yelled as he exploded in a burst of flames. The son of Richtofen reappeared on the other side of the barrier, floating above the Reclaimers, and let loose a torrent of fire from above. The men and women screamed as fire engulfed them from above and those who could opened fire on Sieger, who vanished again in a burst of fire. With the Reclaimers distracted, Samantha closed her eyes and allowed the field protecting them to dissipate as the survivors broke them the smoke.

"OPEN FIRE!" Maxwell roared, and the survivors began to fire at the distracted Reclaimers. The initial wave of Richtofen's followers fell under the onslaught of gunfire, while those more intelligent took cover or dodge the blast initially.

Zero darted forward and stabbed the closest Reclaimer in the throat with his sword, ripping the blade away and beheading a Zombie in one move. Zero darted down the street, a stream of survivors close behind him. Nicholas nodded to Vice as he ran by and said "We'll meet up with you guys later!"

"Can do" Vice replied before ducking into an alleyway after Zero.

Nicholas looked out at the battlefield as more and more and more Zombies burst from the earth by the dozens, groaning and snarling as they ripped themselves free by the dozens every second. They were quickly put down by the survivors, but then a massive roar pierced the morning atmosphere. The survivors collective turned and saw thirty Juggernaut Zombies charging down the streets, causing the ground to tremble and shake.

"Heavy Artillery! OPEN FIRE!" Maxwell roared, and those with rocket launchers, HMG's, and LMG's opened fire as well.

Jess grinned and took aim with Artemis's Wrath, notching an arrow and letting it fly. The shimmering blue arrow slammed into the skull of the lead Juggernaut howled as it crashed onto the ground, but the others pressed on. A literally barrage of gunfire soared towards the Juggernaut Zombies, and while each one fell, four of them made it to the survivors.

Jess let out a yell of dismay as one of the Juggernaut's broke through the wall of gunfire and lashed out wildly, its thick and powerful arm slammed into the skull of a teenage girl with a Galil. She crashed onto the ground with a yell and didn't back up, a trail of blood leaking out from her skull.

"RAAAAH!" the Juggernaut bellowed before a flash of gold slammed into its skull. The Juggernaut stumbled backwards and crashed onto the ground, and as Nick strode over to the corpse and yanked C.N. out from the Zombie's skull and said in a low voice "Damn it…"

"Come on then, let's get this over with" Nick said in a resigned way, starring at the dead girl's body. Judith walked over to her and closed her eyes gently before turning around and aiming her rifle down the street and firing a shot.

The Reclaimers were regrouping, as instead of piling in the streets they were taking cover in the streets behind barricades and destroyed cars, though some were resorting to melee weapons.

"Alright, time for a bit of strategy" John said to Nick as he took aim with his Winter's Fury and fired five shots. The bursts of icy energy slammed into the ground and froze it instantly, with the five shots freezing the entire street. The Reclaimers fell to the ground, only for Captain Maxwell to make quick work of them with a few shots of his Ray Gun.

"Come on!" Nicholas yelled to Juliet as he took cover behind a mailbox and fired off a few shots with his Speakeasy, shooting the heads off a pair of Nazi Zombies running towards two teenage girls with M14's. Juliet nodded and pulled out her SCAR-H, taking aim and firing an entire clip into a Reclaimer who was lunging at the two girls from before. The man yelped in midair before crashing down onto the ground, a pool of crimson quickly forming on the pavement.

"Nice shot!" Nicholas said with a grin before a loud scream came at them from above. Juliet gasped, throwing her SCAR-H on the ground and pulling out her chainsaw, and looked up before thrusting her chainsaw upwards. A Screecher Zombie, an unusually smart one, had jumped from one of the buildings and tried to attack them from above.

"UGH! GOT TO HELL!" Juliet screamed as her chainsaw tore the Screecher Zombie in half. Nicholas watched in mild awe as Juliet lowered her chainsaw, wiping the blood of her face. He offered her his jacket, which she wiped said blood on.

"Yuck" Juliet said as she spun around and brought her chainsaw down on the neck of a nearby Nazi Zombie, beheading it with a savage yell. This drew the attention of a Reclaimer on a balcony with an SVU-AS, who began to fire at the couple. Nicholas yelled out and grabbed Juliet by the waist, pulling her behind a chunk of rubble. As he did though bullet clipped his left shoulder, causing him to yell out in pain.

"You OK?" Juliet asked worriedly. Nicholas nodded and jammed a Quick Revive syringe in his shoulder. The wound and pain subsided after a few moments.

Judith noticed a sniper giving Juliet and Nicholas trouble and took aim. After aligning the sight with the Reclaimer's chest, she fired a shot. Judith smirked as the Reclaimer jerked back and fell backwards with a yell, crashing into the street. Judith grinned and took aim again, firing off another shot, this one blasting two Nazi Zombie's skull's off at once.

"Good shooting" Joe's dad said to the girl, who nodded and took aim again. Joe's father noticed she was sitting back specifically choosing to kill anything that tried to harm any of the others. Joe's father then pulled out his Pack-A-Punched Glock, the G115 Liberator and said "Well, I better go find Joe. He just leapt right into the thick of that mess"

"He does that. He was with Iva if I remember right" Judith said as she entire the remainder of her clip into the Reclaimer's she could see before reloading.

Joe yelled out with a grin as he fired a shot of the Wunderwaffe DG-7, sending a ball of lightning at the group of Reclaimer's, who screamed as the ball of lightning slammed into them. The group disintegrated on the spot. As he did this, two Reclaimer's with Galil opened fire on Joe, who grinned as a blur appeared in front of him holding up a large metal shield made of a grey alloy that seemed much lighter than it should be.

"Zombie shield?" Joe said with a smirk as Iva blocked the gunfire.

"Shut It. We all know you're hopeless without me" Iva said with a grin as the gunfire stopped, the Reclaimer's reloading.

Joe then stepped out from the side of the shield and let loose the Wunderwaffe on the Reclaimers. "Well, we do work well together."

As the Reclaimer's howled in agony from being electrocuted to death, a group of Zombies and two Reclaimer's burst out of the alleyway. Iva put down her shield as Joe pulled out his M115 Cauterizer and opened fire on the remaining Zombies.

"This gun is awesome' Joe laughed as he lowered his gun. Iva grinned at him and said "Come on, let's go see what kind of trouble we can get into"

"I'm a bad influence on you" Joe laughed.

"Nah, that's my Dad's genes in me" Iva laughed as the two ran down the road, shooting and taking cover all the while.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>John put away his Winter's Fury and pulled out his Colt Commando, firing an entire clip at he Zombies rushing forward. John winced as he was too late to stop the Zombies from overwhelming and killing two old men with assault rifles who went down. John sighed as he finished off the remaining Zombies and went forward.<p>

"Alright, let's see what we've got here?" Andrew said with a smirk as he looked out into the street, admiring the massive firefight going on.

Andrew fired a grenade from the under-barrel of Skullcrusher underneath a faraway car four Reclaimer's were hiding behind. As the explosion went off, so did the car, engulfing all of the Reclaimer's near it in a fierce blast that killed them instantly. Andrew put away his gun and drew Gutripper with a yell of excitement. Chan sprinted by him before he could do anything and spun around, beheading three Zombies in a single slash.

"Wow…I have the weirdest boner right now" Andrew said in a low voice before shaking his head and charging into the horde, sword at the ready.

Kara smirked as John took cover behind a trash can, pausing for a second as four Reclaimer's ran by, guns a blazing. John jumped out from cover and fired two shots at the ground in front of them, causing the group to fall onto the ground.

"Now!" John yelled to Kara, who pulled two Symtex from her belt and hurled them at Reclaimer's who were engulfed in an explosion on the spot.

Kara jogged over to John and high-fived him, which John returned. That was short-lived as a storm of gunfire engulfed both of them and both teenagers fell to the ground, drenched in blood. Then they began to glow with a strange whitish light/

"KARA! JOHN!" Andrew and Chan yelled. Andrew pulled Skullcrusher back out and fired a grenade at the Reclaimer's who had attacked them, causing them to scream as the explosion ripped through their bodies and kill them instantly. Chan looked up in surprise as two duplicates of John and Kara ran over to them and injected them with a syringe, causing both of them to be able to stand up fine just a few moments later.

"Who's Who…man that's useful" Kara said breathlessly as she admired her arms, free of bullets.

"Let's get out of the open-" Andrew began to say before a group of twenty Reclaimer's burst out of the nearest alleyway, guns drew and aimed at them.

"GO!" Andrew yelled as he fired a grenade towards them. The others jumped to the side, taking cover behind the nearest car, Andrew followed them a second later as a wave of gunfire soared towards them.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>A lone girl peeked her head out from an alleyway, glancing around. Her dark red eyes shimmered with excitement as she saw the battle rage on a few hundred meters away.<p>

She had long black hair, tied in a ponytail, with a blue streak in it. She had dark blue eyes and a mouth that had a mischievous smirk on it. She wore a simple black tank top and ripped blue jeans, a pair of black sneakers on her feet. She looked a bit out of place from the others in the city, as she didn't have glowing eyes and she wasn't armed to the teeth. In fact that only thing she had on her person was three small balls clipped to her waist and a violin and bow strapped to her back. She didn't see at all troubled by how cold it was outside, and walked out into the open and said "Astounding…"

"Mankind continues, even in this realm, to fight amongst themselves. It's sad…maybe we're just doomed as a race in general…" the girl said with a sigh.

"HEY!"

The girl slowly turned around and saw a teenage boy, no more than a year older than herself, pointing an AK-47 at her. His finger was on the trigger and he wore a malicious grin on his face.

"Hello there. My name is Vivian. What's yours?" the girl said with a small smile as she looked at the teen with the bright blue glowing eyes.

"Heh, why do you care? You'll be dead in five seconds. Any last words?" the boy grinned.

"Yes actually. Arpeggio…use Hyper Voice" Vivian said with a coy smile. The boy cocked his head in confusion before a massive burst of sound shot out from above the boy, causing him to scream in agony as he slammed onto the ground, his skull slamming into the concrete. His began to bleed and his vision blurred for a moment as Vivian smirked and placed a boot on his gun, which was currently on the ground and out of reach now..

"Trying to shoot a defenseless little girl? How rude…Decres, can you teach this guy some manners for me?" Vivian said with a small smile.

"_Of course, my Lady"_ a cool voice spoke in the boy's mind before he was slowly lifted into the air. The boy shivered as a new figure materialized out of thin air in front of him. It was a really humanoid figure with an impressive mustache. It stood at about four feet tall and had a silver spoon in each hand.

"W-w-w-what the hell!? What is this thing!?" the boy yelled.

"You don't know? You're childhood sucked" Vivian said as she pulled out her violin once more.

"From shadows, the demons shall rise. From light the angels descend…" Vivian murmured as she gently placed her bow on the string of her violin. A blue and white bird with a long pink beak landed on the girl's shoulder and sang a small doleful note.

"Decres…use Psychic and break his neck" Vivian said in a cool tone.

"_As you wish, Lady Vivian"_ the voice said again.

The boy gasped as a massive pressure crushed down on him from all sides. Then, all of a sudden his neck jutted to the side with a horrible snap and the boy fell to the ground, lifeless. The strange girl chuckled at the sight of the body and said "Well, that's the way the cookie crumbles"

"_**Alright Vivian, playtime's over"**_ a stern voice told her from within the depths of the alleyway.

"Aw, already?"

"_**Yes…you don't belong here. Besides, Zoe and Noah have been looking all over for you"**_ the voice said to her. Vivian sighed and pulled out two red and white balls and shot a beam of red light from both of them at the two creatures behind her. Both of them vanished inside of the balls, which she minimized and put onto her belt. Vivian began to walk towards the darker part of the alleyway, glancing behind her once more with a smile.

"Another side, another story…all worlds are connected, just as fate connects us…As life connects us…" Vivian murmured as she drew her bow once more.

"_**Indeed…come"**_

"Yeah…OK" Vivian replied as she began to masterfully play her violin. She stepped into the darkness and vanished, leaving behind the ravaged city and the survivors fighting for their freedom and lives against the hosts of hell.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Nicholas ducked under a slash from a Reclaimer and quickly shot him in the back with his Speakeasy, Juliet sprinted by him and swung her Chainsaw upwards, slicing a Nazi Zombie from hip to shoulder. As her chainsaw tore through the Zombie, Juliet spun around and aimed her chainsaw the horde running towards them and flipped a switch on her chainsaw, causing it to shudder and morph.<p>

"Chainsaw Blaster!" Juliet yelled, firing ten powerful blasts at the nearby Zombies and destroying them.

Nicholas ran forward and slashed at the nearest Zombie with his Golden Spork, killing it instantly. He swiftly put away his M27 and pulled out the Porter's Mark II Ray Gun and began to fire a stream of shots at the massive horde now in front of them. Nicholas could only watch as Zombies fell like pins under the power of the new Ray Gun, which made the old one obsolete by a long shot.

Marcus took cover as someone hurled a grenade in his direction. After jumping out of the explosion range, he pulled out his AUG and took aim, shooting the offender in the throat and killing the instantly. Marcus heard the sound of many Zombies groaning close by, and pulled out one of his few remaining Molotov's and lit it with the lighter in his pocket as he heard the screams of two kids trying to keep the Zombies at bay.

"Just keep moving, and keep as many people safe as you can" Marcus muttered to himself as he ran forward, vaulting over the barricade and hurled the Molotov towards an approaching horde that was threatening two teenage boys. The two kids watched in awe as the Zombies before them went up in flames, and Marcus nodded at them and turned his attention to the path leading to the tower.

The group had been separated numerous times, with Samantha and Sieger being at the front of the charge close by, and some of the others trailing behind. Marcus felt a pang of worry for his friends and said "Alright…I need to find Jess"

Jess yelped as a Reclaimer with a Galil opened fire on her, only for Marcus to hurl a Symtex grenade at the offender, which latched into his head and exploded, killing him instantly. Marcus ran over to where Jess was and earned a wide smile at his arrival.

"You OK?" Marcus asked Jess, who nodded and glanced out from her cover, peeking out from over the car. Jess notched an arrow and fired it, catching a Reclaimer women in the shoulder. Jess grinned at her success and fired another shot a faraway Blade Zombie, this time scoring a beautiful headshot that kill the powerful Zombie instantly.

"Jess, be care-" Marcus began to say before a shot rang out.

Marcus felt a an ice cold wave of horror as a bullet slammed into Jess's skull, passing through the other side cleanly, sending out a spray of blood. Jess's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell lifelessly to the ground, a rasp of air escaping her throat. Marcus could only blink as his mind tried to process just what had happened…

"JESS!" Marcus screamed as he fell to his knees, hugging Jess's body as the life left her eyes.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Sieger grinned as two Blade Zombies charged at him, only for him to blast both of them in the face with Fatum and Lux. He turned his attention to the Reclaimers ahead of him, causing trouble for the survivors. Sieger nodded and summoned Glorious to his hands after dispelling his guns.<p>

Sieger vanished and reappeared behind a man with an RPD. He spun in the air and a delivered a powerful kick to the man's temple, killing him before he was even aware of what happened. Sieger landed on the ground and ducked under a slashed from a Reclaimer, and then stabbed upwards and killed him with a thrust through the heart. Siege pulled his sword free and then summoned Fatum and took aim, firing the entire clip of his pistol and killing several Zombies and Reclaimer's with the enchanted gun.

"We're making progress…but there's so many" Sieger muttered.

Samantha ducked under the slash of a Reclaimer and spun around, kicking him in the back of the skull and killing him instantly in a manner similar to Sieger. Samantha then held her hands to the sky and charged them with a surging green energy. She then flung them downwards, causing a series of wicked explosions to rip through the street, killing hundreds of Zombies and dozens of Reclaimers.

"Can't keep doing that…it'll wear me out" Samantha said with a small pant.

"JESS!"

Samantha whirled at the sound of the scream. She saw Marcus clutching Jess's lifeless body, a hole in her head. Samantha had barely processed this horrifying information before a new and rather loud voice spoke to the survivors.

"THINK FAST!" the new voice yelled at Samantha, oddly ethereal, from above. Samantha barely had time to look up before something slammed into her back and sent her hurtling into the air. She slammed into a light post and crashed onto the ground. Other survivors screamed as they were flung to the side of the street or into the air, breaking arms and legs. Two even died from the fall.

"Samantha!" Jax yelled helplessly, pinned down by the three DSR snipers and unable to help her or Marcus.

"NO! N-No…DAMN YOU!" Marcus screamed as he spun around and glared at the sniper, who grinned back at him and reloaded. Marcus leapt over the cover and ran at the man, who took aim and shot Marcus in the shoulder. Marcus flung himself at the man, slamming a sickle into the man's head, splattering blood everywhere. The man fell to the ground as Marcus slammed his head into the ground with his hand before doing it again and again. After the seventh time the man was surely dead, but that didn't deter Marcus from making him _pay…_

"You…EVIL…SON OF A-!" Marcus growled before a hand grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it gently.

"That'll do Marcus…" a familiar voice said with a small laugh.

"W-what?" Marcus looked up and saw the grinning face of Jess looking down at him. Her weapons were gone, a simple M1911 was held in her hands. Marcus scrambled to his feet and threw his arms around her tightly.

"H-how…I saw you…you got shot in the head" Marcus murmured weakly.

"Tombstone. It's like an extra life! Though I still have to go grab my Tombstone if I want to get my weapons back" Jess said, pointing to the floating grave marker a few feet away. Jess broke the hug and walked through it, smiling now as she had her weapons back, and said "There we go"

"We should be more careful. We're nowhere close to the Tower yet, and we're already having close calls" Marcus said with a worn out expression.

"Y-yeah" Jess agreed, pulling out her Artemis's Judgment.

"GUYS! GET DOWN!" Jax warned the couple, who nodded and took cover. Jax let out a yell as he jumped from cover and aimed his Zeus Cannon down the street. Jax fired the massive Wonder Weapon one, two, three, four times, clearing the street of hostiles with ruthless aggression. Jax walked over to Samantha as he reloaded.

"You OK?" Jax asked his friend quietly.

"I'm fine…" Samantha replied with a wince as she staggered to her feet, her back throbbing. She looked up to the sky to see a truly disturbing sight.

"…Dafaq?" Jax replied, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Floating above her was a man in his late twenties, with electric blues eyes and light blond hair. He had a rather plain face, a jagged scar on his nose the only interesting feature about it. The man wore a pair of black cargo pants and a simple bulletproof vest stamped with the 935 emblem. Since he wore no shirt, Samantha noticed this man had a rather muscular build despite having a medium size to him.

She also noticed that purple flames flickered around him and ten 30 foot long tentacles were sticking out of his back.

"So, if it isn't the brat herself, Samantha Maxis! The Doctor has told me quite a bit about you, Sammy!" the man said with a cold grin.

"Who are you?" Samantha asked, her fists glowing green.

"You can call me Steiner, Chief Engineer for Group 935, and your executioner" the man said as he suddenly dropped down to the ground, now grinning widely. Samantha got into a stance while Steiner cocked his head.

"Where is Sieger?" Steiner asked, glancing around the street.

As if on cue, Sieger appeared in a burst of flames and landed next to Samantha, looking distinctly rustled. Samantha glanced at him in surprise, and Sieger sighed and said "This one Reclaimer had a Thundergun, and got way too into it. He's currently on fire while a few sixth graders shoot him with his own weapon…guy was a freaking asshole"

"There we go! Now when I kill her, I can bring you right to your father!" Steiner said cheerfully before thrusting his hands forward. Sieger and Samantha both jumped back as the tentacles shot towards them. The Zombies around them seemed to ignore the two 115 Conduits and went straight for the survivors.

Samantha jumped to the side with a burst of energy at her feet, propelling her forward. Sieger simply lashed out with Glorious. The tentacles snaked around the blade and latched onto Sieger, who yelled out as the tentacles hurled him down the street.

"Sieger!" Samantha yelled out. Steiner grinned and flung a tentacle at Samantha, who yelled out as it slammed into her and sent her crashing down the street. As Steiner made a move to run forward, he was cut off by a wall of black flames. Steiner let out a snarl of rage and confusion before he looked up and saw Sieger with his palms flung out.

"Grr…little brat!" Steiner growled as he flung three tentacles at Sieger, who vanished in a burst of fire and reappeared underneath him. Sieger aimed a flaming punch at Steiner's midsection, sending him flying into the air as the fist connected. Sieger kicked off the ground, shooting upwards with an arc of fire and an insane burst of speed, and slammed the heel of his foot into the skull of Steiner, who went hurtling back to Earth. Samantha, quick as a flash, grabbed Steiner out of the air and hurled him into the nearest building with a laugh.

"That was fun!" Samantha said with a giggle as Steiner slammed into the side of the "Spray Tan Party" building,. Sieger offered her a smile before Steiner growled and got to his feet, crackling with purple flames around his body. Steiner smirked then, which threw Samantha off.

"Heh…alright…have to remain cool…" Steiner said as he cracked his neck. The tentacles writhing out of his back coiled for a moment before Steiner grinned at them.

"Alright then, time to die!" Steiner said cheerfully as a surge of purple energy burst from his body.

"Get ready!" Sieger growled as he pulled out Fatum and Lux. Samantha nodded and formed two balls of energy in her palms as Steiner lunged forward.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Zero burst out of the alleyway hurling a flashbang and a Symtex into the street as he did so. The flashbang went off, blinding the dozen or so Reclaimers in the street at that moment, and the grenade killed the closest one and injured the two next to the first one. Red came next, as did Starch and Jordan, who opened fire on the Reclaimer's and killed them all.<p>

"Nice work. Let's move ahead" Zero said coolly to the group of survivors behind him.

"You know, I'm legitimately surprised you kids made it this far" a oily voice said to them, his voice echoing down the street.

"Who's there?" Serenity said, glancing around.

"Show yourself!" Starch yelled out.

There was a sudden flash of blue light and a man burst forth in a flash of blue flames. He wore a pair of ripped jeans and had an a loose black t-shirt that seemed a bit too big for him. He had pale blond hair that went down halfway to his head and had electric blue eyes. He seemed a bit nervous, but the Pack-A-Punched Death Machine on his back and the two Galvaknuckles on his hands made the others feel the same.

"Greetings. My name is Sean, but you can call me Kraken. Doesn't make much sense considering I don't have the tentacle power, but then again, the writer has his head up his own ass, so…what can you do?" the man said with a grin.

"…wat?" Serenity said with a confused look.

"Oh god, another Nick. Just what this story needs" Starch said with a sigh.

"Hey, it's only for a few more chapters! Lighten up!" Kraken said with a laugh.

Red sighed, took aim and fired a shot at the man, who yelped and vanished on the spot with a burst of fire, and then reappeared in the same second next to Red, grabbing him by the arm and flipping him over his shoulder with an inhuman display of strength. Kraken then quickly stomped hard on Red's stomach, causing the young man to gag and choke in pain as the air was driven out of him

"Rude much?" Kraken laughed before vanishing again, this time to avoid a strike in the skull from Vice. Vice spun around, glancing at their surroundings before spotting the man standing a hundred feta way from them.

"Sorry kids, but I'm not dying that easily. You're consolation prize is Zombies" the man said with a grin, snapping his fingers.

All of a sudden the ground all around the group began to tear itself apart as Zombies burst free from the earth by the dozens. Even more streamed in from the side alley's, and within moments the group was surrounded.

"I've got other fish to fry. Toodles!" Kraken laughed before vanishing again.

"What a bitch" Zero commented dryly as the Zombies edged closer, as though waiting for the group to react.

"So…who wants to fire the first shot?" Jared asked, gripping his Tagger Rifle tightly.

"I'll do it" Clutch Odd said as he pulled out his B34R and pulled the trigger. The bullets soared towards a Nazi Zombie's skull, blowing it to bits and causing the Zombie to go limp and crash onto the ground.

"Leeeeeeeeeet's PLAY!" Starch yelled cheerfully, a mad grin on his face and he switched to his ARC's flamethrower and let loose a jet of liquid fire. Several Zombies dropped to the ground with a groan while the others lunged towards them.

"So, wanna go next Princess?" Vice asked Serenity, who scowled angrily and ran forward with her Pack-A-Punched AK-47, Reznov's Revenge.

"I IS A ROYAL PRINCESS!"Serenity shouted as she unleashed her own barrage of gunfire on the undead horde now coming at the group from all directions. Red smoothly drew his rifle and began to fire it repeatedly to the point where he was pressing the trigger as quickly as possible, though with every gunshot that rang out from his SVU, at least one Zombie fell each time.

Vice grinned and spun his Arbiter's Staff in a circle before dashing forward, smashing the tip of the staff on a Zombie's skull and crushing it. He then spun it around in a quick circle before beheading the closest two Zombies with the blades in his staff. As a Screecher Zombie lunged at him, Vice umped back and pulled out one of his Berretta handguns and shot the Zombie point-blank in the face, killing it instant.

"Boom. Headshot" Vice said before putting the Arbiter's Staff on his back and pulling out his second handgun and firing at the undead around them.

Clutch Odd grinned and ran forward, spinning around and slamming his Pack-A-Punched Tonfa into the skull of the nearest Zombie, who's skull caved in and went flying off of its body from the force of the impact. Clutch pulled out his B23R and fired a few clips into the Zombies around him before dropping to the ground and rolling grenade on the ground, underneath the undead charging at them. Clutch took aim and shot the grenade, causing it to explode and kill several of the Zombies running at them.

Red took aim and simply fired with his SVU-AS, alongside Emmanuel and Jordan, and then three snipers stood in a line and imply fired shots at the heads of the Zombies, each shot ringing a gong of death for each of the undead minions. Red noticed a Zombie spawning next to his leg and as the undead flesh-eater grabbed onto it, he simply pulled out his Tac-40 and unloaded the clip into the Zombies skull.

Zero stood at the front of the horde, smirking slightly. He nodded to Jameson Morris, who was next to him holding a Pack-A-Punched KABAR in one hand and a Refitted-870 Mechanical Cranium Splitter in his other, and said "Well, might as well go down swinging"

"Yep" was all Morris said before he ran forward. Zero clutched his sword and dashed after him. Jameson spun around and jammed the KABAR into the nearest Zombie's skull before aiming his Pack-A-Punched Remington at another two nearby Zombies and blasting a hole through them. He then ducked under the swing of a Screecher Zombie and slammed the blade of his KABAR into its neck.

Zero, not to be outdone, unleashed a series of wild yet savage blows on the undead attacking them, each one of the slashes of the flaming sword he carried a deathblow. Zero jumped to the side as a Screecher Zombie slashed at him, only for him to dodge it and crouch down on the ground next to the Zombie.

"Just how I like my Zombies-" Zero said before slamming the blade into the face of the Screecher Zombie, which howled in agony.

"Within face-stabbing range" Zero finished cheerfully.

Tyler let out a growl as he stabbed the closest Zombie with his Katana, only to be hit in the face by a Nazi Zombie. As he stumbled backwards, Alec and Kris jumped in and killed the few Zombies by him. Tyler nodded at the two survivors in thanks and pull out his double-barreled shot gun, firing two shots before retreating a few steps.

As the remaining Zombies charged forward, Zero saw a shift in movement on the ground and then, all of a sudden, all of the Zombies in front of them exploded in a shower of gore.

"Whoa…" Vice said in surprise.

Zero head the soft sound of laughter and looked off to the side of the street. A familiar women with short blond hair and red eyes looked at him.

"Eris!" Zero said with a tone of relief in his voice. The others simply watched the exchange from afar.

"Hey. You guys OK?" Eris asked Zero.

"We're alive. So, you going to join us?" Zero asked the women, who shook her head.

"I told you, I'm helping in different ways. I'm going to the tower to see what I can find there. I'll keep an eye on you guy though…oh, and expect some backup. Soon" Eris said before she quickly sank into her own shadow.

"She's odd…but at least she's on our side" Zero murmured with a small smile.

"Wow…that was something" Kris said in surprise. The group was broke out of their musings by several louds roars overhead.

"What the hell!?" Starch yelled as he pointed upwards.

Zero looked skyward and saw several grey figures shooting towards them like rockets. One of them landed on the ground and roared at them while the others circled overhead, moving too quickly to shoot.

The creature before them had a body like a dragon, standing on four legs but able to stand on two, with clawed hands and feet capable of ripping easily through human flash. The monster had thick grey skin that seemed to be decaying, like a regular Zombie. It had massive grey skeletal wings and had a snout-like jaw with razor sharp teeth.

"I dub this guy the Wyvern Zombie!" Serenity proclaimed.

"That works. Open fire" Zero replied casually.

The group quickly took aim and fired at the creature, who kicked off of the ground and shot into the air once more, joining its brethren.

"These things are fast" Alec muttered as he pulled out his M8A1 and fired off a few shots.

One of the Wyvern Zombie's broke off from the circle and shot towards the group like a bullet. Red jumped to the side as the Zombie hurtled towards him, causing the Zombie to instead crash into Clutch Odd.

Clutch howled pain as he went soaring backwards as the Wyvern Zombie tackled him in the middle. As the two went rolling the other Wyvern Zombies descended from the sky. The group opened fire on the remaining Wyvern Zombies, taking down two of them. The others soared down on the ground, aiming their bodies towards Zero and Jameson Morris. Jameson clipped the KABAR to his belt and grabbed his Remington with both hands, grinning a little. As the Wyvern Zombie came close, he dropped to the ground, rolling on his back on he did so, and fired a shot upwards as the Wyvern Zombie flew right above him. The shot sent the Wyvern Zombie hurtling off course and caused it to slam into a far off wall, killing it instantly.

Zero smiled sadistically as the Wyvern Zombie raced towards him, and flipped Lucifer in his grasp, the flaming sword now in a backhanded grip. Zero got into a stance as the Zombie got closer and closer. As the Zombie got within thirty feet of Zero, he sidestepped, and slashed as hard as he could over he space he had just occupied. The Wyvern Zombie let out a scream of pain as it's wing was severed and slammed into the ground, breaking its neck and killing it instantly.

"Aim for the wings! Either that or make it go off course! The speed they use to attack is their weakness!" Zero yelled to the others.

Serenity nodded and glanced at Starch, who nodded at her as a Wyvern Zombie hurtled towards them. Serenity pulled out a Shock Charge and Starch let loose a jet of flames at the flying Zombie as it soared towards them. The Zombie howled as the flames burned it, but all of a sudden an electric charge burst through it, seizing up its body and causing it to go flying off in another direction.

"Guys! The other Zombies!" Starch yelled as more and more Zombies began to spawn.

"Jared! Keep them off of us! Emmanuel, Kris, Tyler Alec, kill what comes near us!" Zero ordered.

The group continued to open fire on the strange Zombies and refused to let up, even as more of the undead began making their way towards them.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Nick yelped as a bullet slammed into the wall where his head had been a millisecond before.<p>

"Careful kid…you've already used Who's Who. You've got a Tombstone left, and after that the death will be permanent" C.N. warned Nick, who pulled out his Calamity and Jane.

"OK…" Nick replied softly, ducking into an alleyway as two more Reclaimer's charged by with RPD's. They both took aim and opened fire on any survivors they could see, causing several to scream in pain. Nick felt a surge of anger as he pulled out his pistols and pulled the trigger of both pistols, unleashing a barrage of Pack-A-Punched gunfire. The two men turned around at the sound of the gunfire, but were too late to stop the bullets from tearing them to pieces. Nick winced as at the sound of the two men's bodies hitting the ground.

"I…I just killed two men…" Nick said in a low voice.

"Yeah…it's a bit different than killing a Zombie" C.N. replied in an equally low and serious tone.

Nick sighed before being thrown to the ground by something that roared into his ear. Nick crashed onto the ground and looked into the face of a Screecher Zombie with its clawed arm ready to strike.

"HEY!"

The Screecher Zombie howled in agony as a series of gunshots filled the air. The Screecher toppled backwards and crashed onto the ground, twitching. Nick looked over at his saviors, revealing three teenage girls who were grinning down at him.

"Hey there, short stuff" Kara said with a grin as she helped Nick to his feet.

"T-thanks for assist" Nick said with a small smile.

"What's with you? You were zoning out there for a bit" Iva asked in a tone that showed she was a bit worried.

"It's…" Nick sighed angrily and said "This is the first time I've really had to kill real live people. I mean, Zombies are one thing, but I've never had to kill someone before now"

"It is not an easy thing to take a life" Chan said in a soft voice, nodding at Nick. "One must rmember why they fight…we fight so that this world will continue to shine on…so that our ancestors can look down on us with a smile on their faces and their fists over their hearts"

"Honor, right?" Nick asked Chan.

"And for honor" Chan admitted before she spun around decapitated a Zombie with a slash of her katana. Chan remained in that stance, with her blade sticking out, before she said "Let us go show Richtofen what we're made of, shall we?"

"Y-yeah…come on!" Nick said with a grin.

The four burst out onto the street in time for them to see Joe fall to the ground, riddled with bullet holes. Joe's father cried out in horror before he too fell under the onslaught of bullets.

The culprit was a man with flowing white hair and electric blue eyes. He had a muscular sort of build and wore a plain black shirt and white cargo pants, with an Pack-A-Punched RPD in his hands.

"My name is Saem, Chief Weapons Officer of Group 935" the man said in a rough tone before pulling out a Rocket Propelled Grievance with a grin. Chan gasped and jumped to the side as the man suddenly took aim and fired at her. The Asian girl dove to the side and pulled out her China Beach, firing a shot at the man. Seam took the shot head-on, but didn't seem fazed by the blow at all as the smoke cleared. The man cracked a smile at them and said "I hope you weren't trying to kill me there, otherwise you're going to have to try a lot harder than that"

Chan growled in annoyance as Saem straightened up and said "I'm needed elsewhere"

"What's wrong? Are you scared!?" Nick yelled as Joe made his way over to his body and revived himself, thanks to Who's Who. Joe's father grabbed his Tombstone a few moments later.

"I'll be seeing you again….don't you worry" Saem said with a small smirk.

Nick sighed angrily and said "OK…now what?"

"We secure the area and figure out a specific plan of attack" a cool voice said from an alleyway. Captain Maxwell strode out of the alleyway with a smile smirk, though he himself was coated in ichor and blood.

"Alright, where's Samantha and Sieger?" Maxwell asked the kids.

"DIE MOTHER*FUCKERS!" came a voice from a nearby warehouse.

"I'm thinking they're up there" Joe said breathlessly.

"Guys, look" Joe's father said pointing forward. The group looked in his direction and saw their path to the Tower blocked by a massive horde of Zombies, hundreds of undead thick.

"Oh boy…" Joe said with a sigh.

Samantha snarled as Steiner hurled a tentacle at her, only for Sieger to aim a flaming kick as it and send it retreating back to its owner. Sieger landed on the ground and fired three shots, each of them blasting a whole through Steiner, who howled in pain as purple static flickered around the wound. A few moments later, and the wound healed.

"You two…you've been a pain in the Doctor's side for far too long!" Steiner snarled.

"Give it up Steiner. You were always second best to me" Sieger laughed, causing the man to let out a roar of rage and charge at him. Samantha grinned in response to that and Steiner howled with fury before hurling a tentacle at Samantha. Sieger dashed in front of her and slice through the tentacle with an expert slash, flames racing behind the enchanted sword.

"Agh! Damn you both!" Steiner howled as he fell to one knee, looking exhausted and worn out. The two teenagers were far too powerful…he should've had one of the others help him. Too late for that now…

Samantha smiled in a sadistic manner and said "Sorry, but it's time to say goodbye"

Samantha pulled out a single pistol and fired a shot that slammed into Steiner's skull. The bullet exploded on impact and splattered blood and gore all along the floor as Steiner's body collapsed onto the ground, his head now gone.

Samantha lowered Mustang as she pulled out Sally and said "Boom…headshot"

Sieger gave her a thumbs up before they heard the sound of someone scream loudly before being cut off. Samantha and Sieger ran over to the hole in the wall and saw several survivors being torn to bits by the undead masses that were now pushing the survivors back. Jess, Judith, Nicholas, Juliet, and Marcus joined the fray once more, but even with their assistance the group was slowly pressed back due to the sheer numbers being thrown at them,

"They just keep spawning!" Joe yelled frantically as he charged yet up another shot of the Wunderwaffe DG-7. Joe fired the white-hot ball of lightning towards the horde, where the ball exploded and sent an arc of lightning forward, electrocuting the 30 Zombies at the front of the horde who fell to the ground. The Zombies behind them trampled their slain brethren and continued to push back the survivors.

"We're losing" Samantha said in a soft voice.

"Dad's using his entire army at this point. He won't make this easy for us, that's for sure" Sieger said as he took a step forward. Samantha ran forward and jumped into the street, landing in front of the others. Sieger landed by her side as well.

"Ready?" Samantha said to the young man by her side.

"Ready" Sieger said as he dispelled his weapons. Sieger pulled both of his hands back and took a deep breath while Samantha summoned the Staff of Magnus and twirled it a few times, her eyes flashing bright green as she did so. Sieger let out a yell and thrust his hands forward as Samantha suddenly swung the Staff towards the Zombie horde.

"TOGETHER!" Samantha and Sieger shouted.

Then words seemed to echo through the city as a massive wave of fire burst forth from Sieger's palms. As Samantha's swung ended, a wicked wind kicked up, laced with green sparks, and seemed to carry the flames down the street, giving the flames life and more fuel. The raging magical fire tore down the street, disintegrating Zombies within seconds and clearing the path for the survivors, who cheered loudly.

Samantha grinned widely at the success of the move and glanced at Sieger, who looked a bit tired but was smiling. Samantha then saw hundreds of dirt clouds in the distance, Zombies ripping themselves free from the ground by the hundreds.

"There's so many" Jess said in a quiet voice as the group reloaded.

"We have to _kill_ all of them?" John said in an annoyed tone as even more Zombies stumbled out from the alleyways.

"Get ready guys!" Samantha warned as several Wyvern Zombies burst out of the clouds from above and lunged towards them. Sieger summoned Fatum and Lux and fired several shots into the sky, killing two of the winged Zombies. Samantha dispelled the Staff of Magnus and pulled out Mustang and Sally, and the others behind her opened fire in the sky. Despite the gunfire, a few of the Wyvern Zombies broke through and managed to savagely attack eight of the survivors, killing them instantly by ripping their throats out or ripping a limp of with their powerful limbs.

"DIE!" Samantha yelled as she finished off the rest of the Wyvern's, killing them with explosions courtesy of the pistols in her hands.

"Now even more are spawning!" Joe's dad yelled as he fired a few times with his G115 Liberator (Pack-A-Punched Glock), blasting the skulls of the few Zombies that had closed the gap between them.

"Wait…what's that sound?" Judith said suddenly. The others suddenly went quiet as the sound of buzzing filled the air. It grew louder every second…

"It sounds like…" Jax trailed off…

"Planes?" Juliet said in surprise.

"Not just any planes…oh crap!" Joe said in excitement as he pointed to the sky.

The clouds overhead shifted, providing the fighter below with a spectacular aerial view of about thirty planes, armed with massive guns and outfitted with rocket launchers, soaring towards Los Angles. The US Marine Corps emblem was proudly displayed on the sides.

"Holy crap…he wasn't kidding when he said he'd bring some backup" Joe's dad said in surprise.

"Who Dad?" Joe asked his father before a familiar voice roared over a loudspeaker loud enough for the entire city to hear him.

"OORAAAH!" a fierce roar filled the skies as the lead pilot soared forward.

"Oh wow…that's so freaking awesome" Kara said with a grin.

"That's right you damn Kraut! Tank Dempsey's back!" a familiar voice yelled over the speakers, glee and excitement in his voice.

"You have not seen the last of Nikolai either!" a drunken voice of Nikolai yelled over the intercom from the plane behind Dempsey.

"Your time has come. It is time to face your Judgment, Edward Richtofen" came the smooth voice of Takeo to the plane next to Nikolai.

"_**YOU FOOLS! I HAVE NO YET BEGUN TO FIGHT!"**_ Richtofen's voice bellowed as the cavalry began to open fire from above, specifically targeting Richtofen's forces deeper into the city. A utterly massive rainstorm of bullets crashed down onto the wall of Zombies ahead of them, tearing them to pieces and leaving their path clear.

"Leave it to Daddy" Kara said, shaking her head but grinning widely.

"_**RAAAH! I vill destroy you! ALL OF YOU!"**_ Richtofen howled.

"Come on Doc! You should know by now! DON'T F*CK WITH A MARINE!" the jeering voice of Tank Dempsey cackled as the lead plane fired a single rocket at the top of the MPD Tower. Richtofen let out a howl of rage, and with this act the desire to continue fighting and the urge to live was restored in the fighters, who surged forward as the Reclaimer's regrouped and as new Zombies burst free from the earth.

And they fought on.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>Alright guys, now the Original Crew is back and ready to kick ass!<em>

_What will happen next!?_

_SO EXCITING!_

_Make sure to review and show your support. We're so close!_

_Follow the trail of carnage on Twitter. Follow me at FlygonNick._

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	44. Heroes Never Die

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Sorry for the delays everyone, this past month was to put it bluntly, a total bitch._

_I'm back in the game now with this hot new chapter! Woot woot!_

_Also, if you have a problem with me putting the character from Black Ops that I did into the story, which will become apparent soon, then just accept it and move on. I don't care, and you shouldn't either because it's not as though he's essential to the plot. I even got requests for this guy, so deal with it. _

_Joe even complained about it. _

_Did I care? _

_Nah._

_Shoutout to those who reviewed last chapter, which includes Trapinchh, Dustchu, lolperson2, DigDugDiamond, THE Jess,_ _Justsomeperson7734, eel3234, doomforzombies16, YouHadMeAtCOD, Lord rage quit, MetaKnight0011, Killz718, PROMinecrafter, Dunka99, JC785 (thanks for the favorite and follow 43 chapters into the story asshole), Satin666, PROMinecrafter, Amy Bachemin, a guest reviewer, Trappinchh again, and xNewWorld, as well as 4 new reviewers known as PTG Syphon, Tigger600, SILVERBRO13,_ _HaloSniper1338._

_Special shoutout to HaloSniper1338 who's review brought Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead to the Number 2 most-reviewed spot in the COD Archive (the first story finally updated and its review count changed, otherwise DOTD would have the top spot)._

_We're close to getting that spot guys, we're so close! Thank you for the love and support! :D_

_This chapter is dedicated to the armed forces. I have always had the utmost respect for those who protect my country, and I will always admire them. I even aspire to join them some day._

_Enjoy._

* * *

><p>Chapter 44: Heroes Never Die<p>

"_Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows what we have become"-_ Brooke Foss Westcott

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>1995:<p>

Group 935 HQ: Florida

* * *

><p>"Very good, Oswald. All is going as planned" Richtofen said to the young man, who grinned and bowed to the Doctor.<p>

"Thank you Master Richtofen" Oswald said, head bowed.

"Now, return your attention to the procedure. If Harvey wishes to be the lab rat for zhis experiment, zhen we vill finally test it. I want it to be ready by the end of the week" Richtofen said to Oswald, who nodded and walked out of the room.

"Papa!" a cheerful voice called.

Richtofen turned around as Izzy bounded into the room, a cheerful grin on her face. Richtofen smiled and said "Ah, Izzy. How vas the testing with Sieger? I trust everything went vell?"

"Great! Sieger took the Serum and he's totally fine. He's with Mom now" Izzy said to the Doctor, who nodded. Richtofen turned around and gestured for Izzy to walk with him. Izzy began to walk alongside the Doctor as they went into a nearby hallway. Izzy could sense that her adoptive father wanted to talk to her about something important…she wondered what it was.

"Izzy…you've come a long way as a member of Group 935" Richtofen said softly.

Izzy nodded and Richtofen said "I haff not be entirely truthful about the history behind it though…I wish to tell you the whole story. Everything…nothing held back"

"Papa? Are you sure? You're always saying that you don't want the shadows from the past to cloud the light of the future" Izzy replied in a low voice, curious but apprehensive. Richtofen stopped and glanced at his adoptive daughter with a small smile.

"It's heartening to know someone pays so much attention to mien words" Richtofen said to the young woman, who smiled bashfully at the praise. Richtofen turned back around and continued to walk, Izzy following, until they reached a large room that Izzy knew was Richtofen's personal lab.

There were books upon books filled with notes, journals, sketches, and so on, as well as zombie test subjects locked in soundproof cages. Wonder Weapons rested in specially designed cases and Richtofen sat down in a comfortable leather chair. Izzy sat down on the stool in front of the chair.

"It is a long story, but one you must know. Even Sophia does not know all of zhis…but you I believe are ready for the entire story…this is a sign of how much I trust you, my little one" Richtofen said in a soft voice.

"Tell me everything Papa. If you trust me enough with this, then I'll keep this between you and me" Izzy promised with a whisper.

Richtofen began to explain his life story, of how he was orphaned at a very young age and went to school alone, where he excelled in his studies. He eventually went to Heidelberg University where he met Doctor Ludvig Maxis, and the two become very close. Maxis and Richtofen became good friends, to the point where Maxis had become a father-figure to Richtofen.

Richtofen recounted joining Group 935 and studying and learning and discovering so many things with Maxis. Izzy was amazed at the stories her adoptive father was telling her, the findings and the wonder of it all.

Richtofen explained the backstory of the Project itself, of Maxis, Sophia, Richtofen's discovery of the M.P.D. and his brush with madness, and of the plot against Maxis. Izzy shuddered when Richtofen described what Maxis did to Sophia and of the Hellhound incident with Maxis and Samantha. Richtofen went on to explain Samantha's rise to power and the adventure that took place as a result.

Richtofen then explained the history of Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki, who would become very important in the fight to stay alive against Samantha's undead minions. The fight to obtain the Golden Rod and the Focusing Stone and their journey to the moon. The struggle for power and switching back to his original body, the discovery of Richtofen's true powers. How he managed to save the members of Group 935 with Illuzio's magic and how they swore to work to create a better existence for humanity.

Everything.

Richtofen told her everything he knew, and held nothing back.

"And now I am here with you, my child. And that is it" Richtofen ended with a sigh.

"Papa…I don't know what to say…I mean that's a lot to take in" Izzy murmured, closing her blue eyes. Eyes that had changed colors due to her wanting to have the same eyes as her adoptive father, the same eyes Sieger shared with her. The murder and death and evil that had enveloped her father was a side of him she had never seen…it scared her, to think that the man who saved her was indeed a cold killer at heart.

She then remembered how he had murdered the boys who had bullied her all those years ago.

And she had told him to do it too…

"Do not judge me solely on when I was at my weakest, Izzy…judge me on how I am now. Forgive an old man and his mistakes…I vas foolish and angry at the world…at Maxis…at Samantha…at myself" Richtofen murmured as he closed his eyes. Richtofen felt a pair of arms tighten around him and he gasped in surprise as he realized Izzy had hugged him.

"I might not like all the details, but you're still my Papa and you'll always be my hero, got it? The past is rarely straightforward and pretty, but you've got to learn from it and move on, right? Let go of it and focus on the future! Let go and begin again!" Izzy said to Richtofen as she broke her hug, smiling at him.

Richtofen closed his eyes once more and said "Izzy…how you have grown wise beyond your years"

"Nah, I just picked up a few things from you and Mama!" Izzy chirped.

"From who now?" Sophia said with a smile, holding a small child by the hand as she walked into the room.

"Hiya Sieger!" Izzy said as she ran over to the young boy, who laughed and hugged his adoptive sister with a grin. The black haired boy with bright blue eyes smiled at the girl who said "I'm going to take Sieger to the playroom where Sean-I mean, uh, Kraken is!"

"Alright, just be careful. He's been getting annoying with his new ability" Sophia said to Izzy, who nodded.

Izzy walked the young boy out of the room while Sophia walked over to Richtofen and rested her hands on his shoulders, massaging them. Richtofen murmured a thanks and said "Sophia…we are blessed, my dear, with two children to fill our lives with light and hope"

"A lovely change from the darkness of our past, I think" Sophia said softly, a small smile on her face.

"Yes…those two…they keep me sane, my dear, despite the dark work we do. Despite the bloodshed, the death, and terror…they give me hope for the future"

"And what do I give you?" Sophia asked Richtofen, who smirked at her.

"The strength to keep going, no matter what happens" Richtofen replied as he rose from the chair, turned around and kissed his wife on the lips.

* * *

><p>Present:<p>

Los Angles:

* * *

><p>"ALRIGHT GUYS! GIVE THEM HELL!" Dempsey roared as the plane's guns opened fire.<p>

A hailstorm of bullets crashed down from the sky, spraying the ground all around the enemy lines. Zombie dropped to the ground by the thousands as the marines began their aerial assault.

"That's my dad!" Kara yelled with a grin as she ducked under a Zombie's swipe and blasted it in the skull with her Actuated Neutralizer 94000.

"Alright! Now we've got a chance!" Iva said to Joe with a savage grin.

"Come on! Press forward!" Chan yelled loudly to the others, who roared back in approval and surged forward, shooting the scrambling Reclaimers as they fled for cover.

"_**Fools! Zhis changes nothing!"**_ Richtofen barked as the remaining Reclaimer's eyes glowed brighter blue. More and more Zombie erupted from the ground, but the survivors pressed forward, taking down the Zombies as soon as they popped up.

"KEEP GOING!" Joe's father yelled as he unloaded his G115 Liberator into the nearest four Zombies, blasting their skulls open and spraying the ground with gore. Jess laughed as she pulled out the Siliquifer and sprayed the strange liquid into the air, drenching the nearby wave of undead in the substance and causing them all to explode a few moments later.

"COME ON! YOU CALL THAT SHOOTING!?" Dempsey bellowed as the planes turned around for a second attack, tearing apart Richtofen's ranks once more.

"_**DIE!"**_ Richtofen howled as a massive surge of lightning soared out from the tower. Dempsey swore audibly and the lead plane dove out of the sky, doing a sharp corkscrew and barely avoiding the blast. As the plane righted itself Dempsey yelled " I guess your aim hasn't improved with age, eh Doc?"

"_**Ugh, you're still zhee annoying kleine schlampe I remember, mein Dempsey. I vill do vhat I should have done years ago!"**_ Richtofen roared.

Nicholas looked towards the tower and felt a thrill of horror as a floating green figure rose from the tower. Richtofen looked to the skies, eyeing the planes overhead with a snarl before flinging his hands towards them.

A massive surge of lightning soared through the air, and the plane containing Nikolai barely dodged the shot and retaliated with a barrage of gunfire. Richtofen snarled as the shots slammed into the roof of the tower, and downright roared as Takeo fired a missile at him, causing him to fall out of the air from the force of the attack, only to float back up.

"Keep it up! We can't let him finish the process!" Dempsey yelled to the others.

"Dempsey, we'll take care of the ground forces. You think you can take care of the German?" a rough voice asked over the radios.

"Yeah. Woods, keep the team in synch! Me, Tak, and Nikolai will take the Kraut head-on!" Dempsey yelled back, his voice audible over the battle going on.

"Woods!? You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Joe yelled at Nicholas.

"What?" Nicholas said in an innocent tone.

"You brought a crippled marine into the story? I said not to do it!" Joe yelled as a bullet nearly slammed into his head.

"Yeah, and I said you're a punk bitch. Your point?" Nicholas asked as he threw his Hell's Redeemer which slammed into a faraway Zombie's skull, then tore itself free and slammed into the heads of seven more Zombies before returning to his own hand.

Juliet sprinted by Nicholas and swung her chainsaw, cleaving a Nazi Zombie in two. She then yelled out as a sniper shot rang through the air, barely missing her but killing man with a Galil behind her. As he fell to the ground dead, his wife screamed in horror before she too was killed.

"You! You A-HOLE!" Juliet yelled, raw fury in her voice before the attacking man's head exploded in a shower of gore, a sniper round going through it. Juliet glanced over at Judith, who was currently crouching next to her and sniping at anything that was giving people trouble, and the young black girl gave Juliet a small smile before continuing to shoot.

"You put a crippled Black Ops character into the story? Why?" Joe said to Nicholas in a sour tone before Maxwell walked over to the group. He looked skyward with a small smile on his face.

"Just because he's crippled doesn't mean he can't help in his own way, kid. Someone who has the strength to keep fighting, not matter what…well, that's part of being a soldier. And those guys…they're heroes. Woods demonstrates the dedication one has to their country, their love for protecting those who can't protect themselves" Maxwell said in a rough voice, filled with pride.

"Alright boys, circle back around and let the north side of the city get some too!" Woods ordered the planes, which obeyed the old marine's orders.

"Still, an 81 year old man doesn't belong in a war zone" Joe protested.

Nicholas sighed and clapped his hands.

Suddenly everything froze around them, and Joe looked around in confusion before Nicholas scowled and said "Joe, let's get something straight. I write this damn thing, I can do whatever the heck I want. I wanted Woods in here because one, it was requested, and two, he's an awesome character"

"True, he is" Joe admitted.

"Besides, I've done more crazy things than that. Just accept it and move on" Nicholas said in an annoyed tone.

"…Can I have the lemon scene with Iva?" Joe asked hopefully.

"No. This is T. Otherwise I would've banged Juliet and like, five other band girls from my class by now" Nicholas replied.

"And I'M the perverted one" Joe snickered.

Nicholas chuckled and clapped his hands, returning time to normal.

Time sped up to catch up with the present and the two jumped to the side to dodge a stray rocket that slammed into the ground next to them.

Nicholas pulled back his arm and hurled his Hell's Redeemer across the way, throwing the tomahawk into the chest of a Reclaimer with an M16. He quickly went down as the tomahawk came flying back to Nicholas. Nicholas quickly put away the tomahawk and pulled out his Speakeasy, quickly shooting at a horde of Zombies overwhelming two kids with pistols. The two kids fell to the ground as the undead closed in, but Nicholas managed to kill them before they could kill them with a quick burst of his Pack-A-Punched Tommy Gun. The two kids offered Nicholas a glance before running away, putting some distance between them and the undead.

Nicholas turned his attention to the wall of undead charging at them, taking note that the Reclaimer's were hiding now, taking cover. The braver one's shot at the survivors in the street before being brought down with little effort. Nicholas shuddered at the sight of all of the blood and felt a hand clamp on his shoulder.

"It'll all be over soon" Juliet murmured in his ear, resting her head on his shoulders.

"_**ENOUGH OF THIS!"**_ Richtofen screamed, unleashing a bolt of lightning that slammed into Dempsey's plane, tearing the left wing off completely.

"DADDY NO!" Kara screamed as Dempsey's plane went down, flaming billowing from the wing.

"_**AHAHAHA! How do you like zhat, Dempsey!"**_ Richtofen cackled while Dempsey swore loudly.

"No! Dempsey!" Nicholas yelled helplessly. Juliet swore and said "We've got to help him!"

"You can't kill me that easily ya freaking Nazi!" Dempsey yelled as he grabbed a small pack behind him and strapped it on. He slammed a switch on the front of the plane and Dempsey flew out of the plane and out into the sky, a few thousand feet above the battlefield. Dempsey pulled out his Lamentation and soared like a bullet towards the ground, a smug grin on his face.

"He ejected!" Joe yelled as he glanced upwards, paying for his lapse in concentration a moment later by getting shot in the foot.

Dempsey growled in annoyance as his plane soared towards the ground and flung out his hands to slow his descent.

"_**Get him! KILL DEMPSHEY!"**_ Richtofen cackled as he turned his attention to Nikolai and Takeo, who were blasting away at Richtofen.

"AGH! MY PINKY TOE!" Joe sobbed as he hobbled into an alley. Iva looked down at him as he fell to the ground, clutching his shoe. He pulled off his grimy shoe and looked at the shot toe in horror, as it was bleeding freely.

"Rest in peace pinky toe…" Joe sobbed as Iva injected it with Quick Revive, which sealed up the wound but didn't save Joe's shot off toe. Joe hopped to his feet, holding the Wunderwaffe DG-7 and charging it up with an evil look on his face.

"**YOU SHALL BE AVENGED!"** Joe said in a deep dark voice before leaping out from the alleyway and firing the Wonder Weapon, sending a ball of lightning hurtling towards the offender, electrocuting him and the entire line of Reclaimers and Zombies with a vengeance.

Iva shook her head as Joe cackled evilly and said in a deep voice **"YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU ARE IN…MUAHAHA…"**

"Stop reciting Tex lines and shoot already!" Nick yelled as he hurled a grenade , only for a sniper to shoot it in midair about eight feet from Nick, sending him flying backwards into a trash can where he remained motionless.

"Uh…Nick?" Iva asked.

Nick gave her a thumbs up, lying on his back and lying in a pile of trash, and said "I'm OK!"

Iva shook her head before an explosion went off by her, sending her back into fighting-mode and running forward to join the others.

"Dafaq have you been?" Andrew yelled as a Screecher Zombie slashed at him, only for him to block the slash and aim a kick at its legs, causing it to stumble and allowing Andrew to follow up by a horizontal slash with Gutripper that beheaded the Zombie.

"Comic relief!" Iva called as he opened fire with her Afterburner, blasting the heads off of several nearby Nazi Zombies. Joe joined in with his Pack-A-Punched M4 Carbine but was forced to back off as a grenade landed by them.

"GRENADE!" Joe yelled, but Iva scooped it up and hurled it at the Reclaimer who threw it, causing the explosive to blow up in his face and send him crashing to the ground dead and charred.

"Nice one!" Joe grinned at Iva, who laughed in response.

A shot went through her stomach, sending her to one knee as she cried out in pain and shock.

"IVA!" Joe screamed as a laser dot sight lined up with her head. Joe jumped into her and tackled her to the ground, taking the shot in the shoulder for her. The two rolled on the ground as Iva clutched her stomach.

"Damn it! Cover them!" Andrew yelled to Jax and Nick, who nodded and fired at the Reclaimers aiming at the wounded duo and any Zombies coming near them. Jax spotted two Wyvern Zombies diving towards them and blew them out of the sky with a well-aimed shot of his Zeus Cannon.

"That was a breeze!" Nick laughed as he jumped out and stabbed a Zombie in the chest, killing it instantly, before pulling out his Calamity and Jane and opening fire. As he began to shoot, a Reclaimer fired an RPG at him, causing him to scream and duck to dodge it. Andrew sighed and pulled out Skullcrusher, fired a grenade at the Reclaimer who shot at Nick, and then opened fire with his PAP'ed M16, keeping several Reclaimers at bay.

"Ah…J-joe..." Iva panted as blood seeped through her shirt. Joe knelt down and gently injected it with quick revive, causing the bullet to pop out of her stomach and roll onto the ground. Iva sighed with relief and then injected Joe with Quick Revive serum.

"We've got to be more careful" Joe muttered, picking up his M115 Cauterizer.

Iva nodded and the two, now joined by Andrew, Nick, and Jax, jumped back into the fray.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Damn it…thought I'd last a little longer" Dempsey muttered as he free-fell towards the ground. Dempsey flung out his hands to slow his descent after a few moments while Richtofen howled in victory as another one of the planes exploded.<p>

"_**Ta-ta Nikolai!"**_ Richtofen laughed.

"PAPA!" Dempsey heard Iva scream from below. Dempsey scowled.

"Damn Nazi…those poor kids shouldn't be here…especially the girls…But I guess they've been training for their entire lives for today…I guess I should be glad that they're here and fighting to save this world, it wouldn't be right if they weren't here I guess" Dempsey said after a few moments.

Dempsey heard a roar in the distance and saw three grey blurs hurtling towards him. Dempsey smirked and righted himself and said "Bring it!"

The lead Wyvern Zombie lunged at Dempsey who activated the pack on his back which shot a small burst of fire out of the back, moving him out of the way. Dempsey expertly took aim and blasted the creature in the spine with his Lamentation, killing it instantly. The Zombie tumbled in the other direction and Dempsey turned his direction the other two Wyvern Zombies, who were circling him.

Dempsey let out a yell and said "Come on! Who's next!?"

"Gangway!"

Dempsey looked up to see a grey blur slam into the nearest Wyvern Zombie, which screeched in pain as a sickle slammed into its skull. Nikolai let out a laugh as he pressed the tip of his SPAZ-24 into the Zombie's mouth and blew its skull apart, causing it to go flying off in the other direction with a howl.

"Nikolai? How the hell did you get over to me?" Dempsey asked.

"I used shiny American backpack. Very fancy" Nikolai said, jerking a thumb towards the thruster pack on his back.

"That's experimental stuff, Nikolai, designed for Black Ops and infiltration missions-" Dempsey said before another explosion rocked the skies.

"_**Ahahahaha! Where is your honor now, Takeo!?" **_Richtofen cackled gleefully, lowering himself back to the M.P.D. Tower now that the Original Crew had been downed.

"FATHER! NO!" Chan yelled to the skies, her voice able to be heard up above.

"Damn! Guys, split off and keep the Nazi distracted! Alpha engage, Bravo continue to assist ground troops" Woods barked over the radio's.

Takeo put his arms to his sides and rocketed through the air and flew towards the ground. As the third and final Wyvern Zombie soared towards them, Takeo simply drew his Kanata and sliced it in half as he flew by. Dempsey and Nikolai grinned and flew after him.

"What is the plan?" Takeo asked Dempsey and Nikolai.

"Kick ass. Help whoever we can. Regroup at the base of the tower. Kick ass. In that order" Dempsey said with a laugh.

"Sounds good to me!" Nikolai said cheerfully, taking a swig of vodka. Takeo sighed and said "Very well. We will find honor in this fight"

"Damn straight…hey, if this thing goes to hell…Then I wanna admit something" Dempsey said with a nervous laugh. Takeo and Nikolai looked at him expectantly.

"You see…"

"Yes?"

"…I wanna say…"

"Out with it, puny American!"

"…that you guys are total assholes" Dempsey said before bursting out laughing. Nikolai laughed while Takeo simply smirked in amusement. The trio looked down and saw that they were about to land right in the middle of enemy territory.

"Let's do this!" Dempsey yelled as the three flipped in midair and smashed into the ground, creating an large explosion that killed all of the Zombies within twenty yards of them. The three heroes slowly got up from the crater they had made and eyed the sea of undead around them.

"Alright guys..." Dempsey said as he shouldered his Lamentation. Takeo pulled out an AK74fu2 and his Katana while Nikolai pulled out his SPAZ-24, smirking slightly.

"Let's kill some freakbags. For the world" Dempsey said before jumping into the fray with a yell.

Dempsey wasted no time and pulled the trigger, unleashing an entire clip into the undead surrounding him and mowing down an entire wave effortlessly. As a Nazi Zombie swiped at him, he ducked and kicked it in the chest before bashing it in the face with his elbow, using enough force to kill it instantly. Dempsey ripped out his empty magazine and slammed in a fresh one before opening fire once more.

"Get some you undead maggot bags!" Dempsey yelled as Zombie after Zombie fell to his gunfire.

"Nikolai joins the fight!" the Russian proclaimed with a yell as he ran forward, shooting the shotgun again and again with a yell of fury and spraying the air with carrion. A Screecher Zombie broke through the horde and tackled Nikolai around the middle, but the Russian dug his heels into the street and let out a roar of fury, stopping the Zombie dead in its tracks.

Nikolai grabbed the Zombie by the throat and squeezed as hard as he could, applying as much pressure as he could muster. The Zombie's throat caved in and it dropped to the ground dead. Nikolai had time to smirk before he pulled out a grenade and hurled it at the horde coming towards them and yelled "Nikolai cannot die!"

"Are you sure about that, Nikki?" a cool voice said from behind them before a black blur darted past Nikolai. Takeo dove into the horde, sword swinging expertly and mowing down the undead with precise and deadly force. Takeo's sword cut through the flesh of the undead like butter and soon a circle of slain undead surrounded him.

"Your ancestors cry at your dishonor!" Takeo growled as he eyed the undead horde approaching them.

Dempsey ducked under a Screecher's swipe and pulled out a Remington Model Army pistol and blew its brains out before unloading the rest of the pistol into the nearby Zombies. Five Nazi Zombies ran at the marine, who simply grinned and pulled out two massive Bowie Knives.

"Time to slice and dice!" Dempsey yelled with a rough laugh, twirling both knives in his grips expertly.

Dempsey ran forward and slammed the knives into the heads of two Zombies, tearing off their skulls a moment later and kicking the third Zombie's stomach hard enough to send it crashing onto the ground where its skull was crushed a few moments later by falling debris. Dempsey then stabbed the remaining two within the throat, beheading them a moment later with a mad grin on his face.

Nikolai growled and slammed his sickle into the head of a nearby Nazi Zombie, ripping its head off with a yell and sending a spray of crimson into the air. He then pulled his SPAZ-24 back out and ran forward, pulling the trigger again and again, creating a wave of blood and gore that filled the air. Takeo smiled slightly and said "After all this time, he is still a fool…with some honor, I suppose"

Takeo whirled around and beheaded a Zombie with a yell before dashing forward, ducking under a Screecher's slash and stabbing it in the spine. Takeo let the Katana hanging for a moment to stand up tall and pull out his Famas. Takeo pulled the trigger and unleashed and quick burst of gunfire that splattered the heads off of the nearby Zombies trying to overrun the trio. Takeo kicked the Screecher to the ground, put away his Famas (after reloading it) and yanked out his katana.

"We have much work to do" Takeo murmured.

Tank walked up to the Japanese soldier, clapping him on the shoulder and pointing forward, where Nikolai was standing before a literal wave of the undead, hundreds of Zombies thick.

"That we do, Tak. Let's show 'em how it's done!" Dempsey yelled as he charged into the fight, Lamentation firing at the closest Zombies. Nikolai reloaded and opened fire as well. Takeo pulled out his AK74fu2 and said "Very well. We shall show them our might."

Takeo jumped into the fight as well, standing back to back with the two other soldiers, each one of them now sharing a similar grin.

The fun was just starting.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>John ducked and fired a clip from his Colt Commando at a horde of Zombies that had surrounded him, Chan, and Kara, killing seven of them by blasting their heads. Chan smirked at John and said "You fight well"<p>

Chan followed this up by dashing forward like lightning and stabbing a Zombie in the chest with her Katana. She ripped the blade free, cleaving the Zombie in half before bring it down on the neck of a Screecher running at her, beheading it. As two Zombies ran at her, she silenced them with two shots from her Python.

"Chan!" Kara called, aiming her HK21 and firing at her. Chan leaned back to dodge the shots, causing a Screecher to be obliterated by Kara mid-slash.

"I totally had that" Chan said with a grin as she spun around and jabbed a Zombie in the face before pulling the blade free and pressing the sword against another Zombie's throat, slashing its head from its body effortlessly. Chan weaved in and out of the horde with an inhuman quickness, killing Zombies with a horrifying level of skill.

"Must be the super-solder serum…I wonder if since her dad was injected with it and she's his daughter, there are increased effects in her" John wondered aloud.

"Probably!" Kara said with a roguish grin before opening fire on the horde in front of them. The wave of Zombies in front of them fell, only for a cluster of Reclaimers to pop out from a barricade and open fire on them. John jumped in front of the girls and fired three shots at the ground, creating a large chunk of ice to protect them from the gunfire. John scowled and said "Now what?"

"Don't you have a plan?" Chan asked.

"I know I'm the smart one, but for the love of God, someone else come up with something!" John yelled to the heavens.

"Alright" Chan shrugged, pulling out a China Beach. Chan darted out from behind the icicle and fired a shot, blasting the barricade to pieces and sending the Reclaimers crashing onto the ground. Before they got a chance to attack, John froze them with the Winter's Fury and Chan fired at them again with the China Beach and finished them off.

"Nice work. Come on, there's a lull now that your dads are attacking. We should move up" John suggested. The two girls nodded and walked forward, only for an explosion to envelop them all and send them all crashing onto the ground, not quite downing them but still injuring them. A woman with bright blue glowing eyes walked out from behind a nearby building, holding a switch.

"C4, you've got to love it" the woman said as she pulled out a Remington shotgun, aiming it at the downed teens. John glanced at the two girls next to him, tightening his grip on his Winter's Fury.

"When I say go…kill her with your Python…" John muttered to Chan, who gave the smallest of nods.

John's arm shot forward to shot the woman, who blasted him in the chest with the Remington. John fell to the ground, yelling out in pain as blood soaked his shirt.

"John!" Kara screamed. Chan pulled out her Python and shot the woman in the throat, killing her instantly. John slowly stopped moving and after a few moments his body disintegrated in a series of green sparks.

"What the heck?" Kara muttered as a grave marker Perk appeared.

"Tombstone. It's like Who's Who in a way" John said as he appeared from behind a car across the street. He walked through the Tombstone to get his stuff back.

"You knew you'd come back, so you used that Tombstone thing so we wouldn't get hurt?" Kara asked John, who nodded.

Kara an Chan exchanged looks and said "Nice"

John raised an eyebrow and said "Maybe we should just keep moving" John said, and the two girls nodded. The group made their way down the deserted street, realizing that the Reclaimer's were driven back into the city and into cover due to the onslaught from the Marines. Woods yelling was audible despite whatever gunfire filled the air.

Zombies spawned in the street, only for Kara and Chan to put them down. A few survivors trailed behind them, shooting the odd Zombie here and there that ran towards them. Richtofen seemed to be trying to replenish his numbers after the assault.

John smirked and said "Maybe we have a chance after all"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Jess laughed cheerfully as she bounced off of the hood of a car, firing another arrow that slammed into the shoulder of a Screecher Zombie, sending it crashing to the ground. Marcus followed up by blowing its brains out with his Cobra.<p>

"Come on, use that cool gun!" Jess said to Marcus as she notched another arrow. Marcus relented and pulled out his Petrifier as dozens of Zombies broke out of the ground and charged at them.

"Die you undead assholes!" Marcus yelled as he pulled the trigger. A huge beam of energy shot forth from the strange Wonder Weapon, stopping the horde of 13 in its tracks. Marcus smirked as the Zombie's disintegrated before his eyes after a few moments.

"Cool beans!" Jess laughed before she less loose another arrow, this one slamming into a Blade Zombie's heart, killing it instantly.

"These arrows are the best! All hail Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt!" Jess proclaimed with a yell of joy.

"I can't keep up with this chick" Marcus panted as he stumbled along after her.

Juliet slammed her boot into a Reclaimer's jaw, causing him to go flying into the wall and slump onto the ground, unconscious. A gunshot ran out and Juliet jumped back, dodging it, and did a handstand. Nicholas hurled his Hell's Redeemer and it tore through the shooter's skull, killing him instantly.

"Thanks!" Juliet chirped as she got back on her feet, holding out her SCAR-H.

"Don't thank me, thank the powers of evil" Nicholas laughed as he twirled the evil tomahawk in his hands.

"…right"

"Come on, Samantha and Sieger are clearing a path" Nicholas said as he began to walking forward, only for a Reclaimer in full body armor to burst out of a window with a Rocket Propelled Grievance and begin firing into the street. Survivors fell to the rockets while Juliet and Nicholas fired at the man, who simply shrugged off their bullets. Nicholas drew back his Hell's Redeemer and hurled it into the air, catching the man in the neck and beheading him. As the tomahawk flew through the air though, a rocket flew out the end of the launch and slammed in to the ground next to Nicholas, sending him flying through the air.

"Nicholas!" Juliet yelled. Nicholas slammed into the sign of an art studio building, hitting the back of his head on the sign. He fell to the ground and knew no more.

* * *

><p>Sometime Later:<p>

* * *

><p>"…sy…easy…there ya go"<p>

Nicholas groaned as he slowly sat up, only for horrible spiking pain to shoot through his skull that caused him to fall back down. Nicholas looked up and saw Jess and Marcus standing over him, while a marine was crouched down next to the window of the room, sniping Zombies from afar with his sniper rifle.

"You alright?" Marcus asked in a low voice as Nicholas, who blinked.

"Y-yeah...where am I?" Nicholas asked.

"Temp-HQ 8. This where we keep the wounded and rest for a bit before jumping back into the fight. You've been out for a few hours, it's nearly noon now" the sniper in the room answered as he reloaded and continued to shoot.

"NOON!? I've been out for four hours?" Nicholas asked weakly.

"Yep. We've made a good deal of progress towards Richtofen's towers, but he's got some of his bigger and badder Zombies coming at us now, and it's getting read hard to stop them. It's a slow fight" Marcus replied.

"He brought back the Leviathan Zombie, this time twice as big and really angry" Jess said in a soft voice. Nicholas recalled the Zombie from the Lakeside Cave and how hard it was to take down and shuddered.

"What happened to the Original Crew?" Nicholas asked Jess, who shook her head.

"They went down…we haven't seen them. I think they survived though, otherwise Richtofen would've been rubbing their deaths in our faces" Jess pointed out. Nicholas nodded, then stopped as that made his head hurt.

"What about Samantha and Sieger?" Nicholas asked.

Jess rolled her eyes and Marcus said "Those two are having the time of their lives"

"How?" Nicholas asked.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Sam! Go for it!" Sieger called as he flipped through the air, weaving in and out of the gunfire while blasting away with Fatum and Lux. Samantha grinned and held her hands out to her side. Sieger ducked into an apartment and looked down below at her.<p>

"I wonder what she'll come up with" Sieger asked himself.

_**"Zombie Blood"** _Samantha muttered as she vanished on the spot. Samantha grinned as she slunk through the ranks of the Reclaimers, who nervously looked around for her.

"I can't see her man…not even through my target-finder…" a Reclaimer muttered.

"Y-yeah…just what the hell is she?" another one said in an annoyed tone. Samantha grinned and she slammed her palms into the chests of both of the men, gripping their hearts and crushing them with a hearty laugh. Samantha drew out her bloodstained hands and ducked under a wild slash from another Reclaimer, spinning around and slamming the heel of her boot into the base of his skull, killing him instantly. Samantha jumped back and made herself visible, grinning widely as the Reclaimers aimed their guns at her. Samantha looked back at the approaching survivors, far in the distance and said "Alright…time to play"

Samantha vanished on the spot and reappeared behind a nearby sniper, smashing her elbow into his skull. Samantha grabbed the rifle from his hands and kicked off of the ground as a hail of gunfire blasted at her, only for Samantha to duck into her shadow.

"Incredible! What is she?" another Reclaimer asked.

A shot rang out, killing the Reclaimer who asked the question. The group heard a giggle and another shot rang out.

"UP THERE!" a female Reclaimer yelled. The group looked up and saw Samantha standing upright on the side of a building, shooting down at them with her rifle. Samantha laughed and threw the rifle into the air and kicked off of the building, soaring downwards with her arms spread out wide. Samantha dove into the circle of Reclaimers as her arms burst into a surging green aura that made the eyes of every single Reclaimer go wide in horror. Samantha flung her arms downwards, creating a massive chain of explosions that ripped through the area.

"_**KABOOM!"**_ Samantha yelled as the Reclaimer's burned to death or were killed in the blast. Sieger smirked and jumped down, landing beside her. Samantha fell to her knees, panting but looking satisfied. Sieger offered her a worried look and asked "You OK Sam?"

"Never better" Samantha panted as she pulled out Mustang and Sally.

"Pace yourself. We don't need you exhausting yourself before the big fight" Sieger said with a laugh.

Samantha smirked and said "Don't worry about me, worry about the poor souls in front of us who are about to live their last day!"

Samantha ran forward as the Reclaimer's in front of them opened fire, creating a literal hailstorm of gunfire. Samantha suddenly began to glow bright green and the bullets simply bounced off like it was nothing. Samantha opened fire with Mustang and Sally, causing the Reclaimer's to scream as the explosions tore through them.

Sieger, not to be outdone, vanished and reappeared above the Reclaimer's, shooting down each one with his magical pistols. Sieger landed on the ground and glanced around, the street now being clear, and said "Nice work Sam"

"You weren't too bad yourself there Victor" Samantha grinned as she fell to one knee again. Sieger extended a hand down to her with a small laugh. Samantha grabbed his hand and he pulled her up. Samantha bumped into him rather roughly as he put a bit more strength than necessary to pull her up. Samantha blushed and muttered an apology as she separated from him before looking around. The fight had separated the groups, who were fighting and killing down different streets and areas. The direct line to the Tower was several miles away, and there were large barricades up and thousands of Zombies spawning a good two hundred feet in front of them.

Samantha grinned tiredly and said "Time for round seven!"

"I thought it was eight?"

"Nope, seven"

"Your call Sam"

Sieger vanished on the spot and reappeared behind a barricade, releasing a torrent of black flames that incinerated the Reclaimer's hiding behind it. Sieger vanished again before the other could retaliate, and Samantha continued to mow down those in her path with the Mustang and Sally. She had even summoned Fluffy to attack who she wanted, and the Hellhound obeyed, mercilessly slaughtering any Reclaimer unlucky enough to wander into her path.

Sieger summoned Glorious and slashed downwards, unleashing an arc of flames that slammed into four Reclaimers firing Afterburners at him, killing them instantly. Sieger shuddered and said "So far so good…but why do I feel that this is too easy?"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Come back here and die!" Starch yelled at Kraken, who cackled and hurled a grenade behind him. Starch yelped and kicked the grenade away from him, sending it skittering down the street where it exploded.<p>

The 935 member had reappeared after a few hours, and was slowing their progress by attacking them in short bursts, surprising them and injuring them. Zero was slowly getting more and more pissed as time went on, and eventually said "Hey, you wanna fight like a man or keep hiding like a bitch!?"

"Fine! Don't say I didn't warn you!" Kraken said with a laugh.

The large group had split up along the way, losing Alec, Tyler, Kris, and Emmanuel who went to go support struggling survivors and help get the wounded to safety. The rest of them continued to fight their way to the Tower, and here they were stuck dealing with Kraken.

The 935 member ran a hand through his short blond hair and said "This'll be interesting. I'll start things off!"

Kraken dove off the side of the building his was standing on and shot towards the ground, landing on it lightly and pulling out his Death Machine. As a stream of bullets slammed into him from he survivors, the group found the any mark made on him healed almost instantly. Kraken opened fire with his Death Machine, a mad laugh escaping his throat.

Starch, Serenity, and Jared jumped behind a nearby car for cover. The car immediately began to get torn apart by the stream of bullets and Kraken smirked as Serenity let out a yell as a bullet clipped her arm.

Kraken then turned his attention to Red and Jordan, who jumped took cover as well and began to snipe at the 935 Scientist, which did little to hurt him. Jared scowled, knowing his rifle was useless at the moment and pulled out a Type-25 and opened fire with that, causing Kraken to glance at them again.

"It's no fair…I've got a dumb power while the others go cool stuff" Kraken pouted.

"What's your power?" Vice asked curiously, getting into a fighting stance.

Kraken held out his arms and suddenly dropped through the ground like it was water. The group was instantly on alert, and Vice suddenly howled in agony as Kraken shot out of the road and slammed a Galvaknuckled fist into Vice's spine. Vice fell to the ground as Kraken pulled his Death Machine back out, opening fire on the group with a mad laugh as he floated into the air.

"EAT FIRE!" Starch yelled, letting loose another burst of fire, earning himself a quick burst of gunfire from Kraken. Zero scowled and pulled out a Symtex grenade from his belt and hurled it into the air, with it catching onto the Kraken's boot.

"What the-!?" Kraken yelped before the explosion engulfed him. Kraken fell to the ground, hissing in pain as he clutched his leg in agony before sinking into the ground once more.

"Where'd he go now?" Zero muttered before something slammed into his back, sending him crashing onto the ground and slamming into the concrete sidewalk. Kraken flipped onto the road and slammed a fist into Clutch Odd's stomach before jumping over him and sinking into the road once more. Jordan suddenly yelled out as Kraken grabbed him by the neck and slammed his head repeatedly into the car he was hiding behind, coating the man's face crimson. Red lunged at the 935 member and put him in the headlock. Kraken growled in annoyance until he sank into the ground, leaving Red standing there emotionlessly at the spot where Kraken had vanished.

"This guy just keeps hiding and then taking us out" Starch muttered.

"He's playing a crafty game, that's for sure" Serenity said softly. Serenity saw Kraken leap out of the nearby wall at Starch and screamed "STARCH DUCK!"

Starch hit the ground as Serenity opened fire with her AK-47, blasting Kraken in the face. Kraken howled in pain as blood spurt from his face and arms and dove into the ground, sinking through it. Starch looked up in surprise and said "You hurt him!?"

"Y-yeah…I guess I did. My little AK is pretty great you know" Serenity said with a smug grin, holding her gun of choice tightly.

"Yeah yeah, whatever Princess" Starch scoffed.

"You're welcome!" Serenity said in an annoyed tone.

"…thanks"

Kraken shot back out of the earth, his face and arm wounds healed. Zero got to his feet while Red took aim and fired a stream of shots at Kraken, who weaved in and out of the gunfire with a smug look on his face.

"Guys! Try and hit him when he's coming out of something! I think he's vulnerable then!" Serenity yelled.

"Nuh uh. My weakness is a mashed potatoes! Get it right you British twit!" Kraken said with a fake pout on his face.

"I'M ENGLISH!"

"Blah, blahl blah" Kraken said before Jameson Morris slammed his KABAR into Kraken's skull from behind. The 935 member spun around and slammed both of his fists into Morris's chest, sending him flying onto the ground and convulsing wildly. Kraken yanked out the KABAR and threw it onto the ground with a laugh.

"How do you like me now!?" Kraken asked before a piece of wood slammed into his face, sending him stumbling backwards with a yelp. Kraken regained his footing in time for a sniper round to slam into his face, courtesy of the resident sniping mute Red. Vice, Clutch Odd, and Zero all stepped forward, melee weapons ready.

"So, that's how you're going to play? Alright then!" Kraken said, dispelling his Death Machine with a burst of blue flames. He slammed the two Galvaknuckles on his fists together and said "Come at me bros!"

"Oh my god, shut up already!" Starch bellowed from behind their ruined cover.

"Yeah!" Serenity yelled.

"My brains cell commit suicide one by one when you speak!" Jared added.

"Ouch, tough crowd" Kraken said with a wince before vanishing on the spot. He reappeared next to Zero, swing a kick at his head and catching him in the face. Kraken dropped to the ground and swung a fist upwards to block a strike from Vice's Arbiter's Staff, quickly jabbing him in the chest with his other Galvaknuckled fist, causing the teen to stumble backward in pain.

Clutch Odd dashed forward, spinning around and bashing Kraken with his Tonfa, but Kraken simply slammed a Galvaknuckled fist into Clutch Odd's stomach and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying backwards and crashing into a pile of upturned concrete.

"Damn…this guy's tough" Clutch muttered as he tried to get up.

"Red! Starch! Serenity! Jared! Lay down some fire for us!" Zero yelled.

"How about some fire, asshole!?" Starch added, jumping out from his cover and shooting a tongue of flames at Kraken with his ACR. Kraken dove through the flames with a laugh and swung a fist at Starch, who yelped and ducked under it. Vice ran at Kraken who swung both fists at Vice, who swung his staff and winced as the two forces connected. Kraken then grinned and bright up his foot and kicked Vice in the fork between the legs.

"Ouch" Starch muttered as Vice fell to the ground.

"Really? What the heck man?" Vice whimpered.

Zero growled in annoyance and stabbed at Kraken, only for the man to vanish again and slam his fist into Zero's back. He followed up with a series of quick and precise strikes that made Zero fall to the ground with a groan, unable to move.

Kraken had time to grin before two guns opened fire on him, with a third one joining in a second later. Kraken hissed as the repeated gunfire from Starch, Serenity and Jared slammed into him, and he vanished once more into the ground and reappeared behind Starch, grabbing him by the arm and throwing him into Serenity, sending them both crashing onto the ground while Kraken lunged at Jared and slammed a fist into stomach, followed up by a kick to the head that knocked him unconscious and caused the back of his skull to bleed.

"Jared!" Vice yelled, getting to his feet.

"We need to end this" Zero muttered as Clutch Odd limped over to them.

"How?" Starch said with a groan, appearing behind Zero with Serenity. Red suddenly fell to the ground as Kraken took him out with a series of blows with his two Galvaknuckles. Jameson Morris was downed as well as Kraken slammed his foot into Morris's face as he shot out of the ground before diving into the ground once more.

"Wait…he's vulnerable when he just comes out of the ground…I've got it. Guys, I'll attack him head-on. Shoot right behind me when he dives into the ground to stun him" Zero said to the others, who nodded.

Kraken dove into the ground once more and said "You guys are disappointing me. So sad…I guess you all are doomed to die before even getting a chance to see the main event"

"You talk too much" Zero said with a sigh, stepping forward.

Kraken sighed and rose from the ground again, fists raised to fight. Zero lunged forward and stabbed at him, only for the man to dodge it and punch Zero in the arm, jarring his shoulder with the electrical blow. Zero spun around, delivering a backhanded slash to Kraken who barely dodged it and dove into the ground once more.

"Come on! Stop hiding and hit me with everything you've got, coward!" Zero barked.

"If you insist!"

"NOW!" Zero yelled.

Serenity fired with her AK-47, Starch fired with his ACR, Vice blasted away with his Dual-Berretta's while Clutch Odd blasted away with his B23R. Kraken jumped out of the ground, only to be engulfed in a stream of gunfire that ripped through him before his natural defense against injury reformed, splattering the ground with blood.

Zero spun around, a gleam of triumph in his eyes, as he thrust his flaming sword towards the injured 935 member who gasped in surprise.

Zero drove the flaming sword through Kraken's heart with a yell of fury, causing the blue-eyed man to scream in agony as blue flames immersed his entire body. Zero yanked the blade out and spun in it his grip as Kraken fell backward and collapsed onto the ground, sobbing in agony before finally falling silent. He soon burned away to a pile of ashes, only to be blown away by the icy wind.

Oswald observed the fight from afar with a scowl before placing a finger on the headset he wore, turning it on.

"Damn it…Master Richtofen, this is Oswald. Kraken is down, I repeat, Kraken is down. Throw the killswitch" Oswald muttered through his radio.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Sophia! Activate zhee Killswitch!" Richtofen yelled to Sophia, who nodded and vanished in a flash of fire.<p>

Richtofen smirked as he returned his attention to the M.P.D. once more and said "They vill all fall…one by one…zhey shall fall"

All of a sudden the top of the tower began to surge with a crimson energy that began pulsating and surged erratically. Richtofen laughed as the pulse began to build more and more until an enormous shockwave blasted out from the tower's tip, washing over the entire city. The pulse then surged again after about ten seconds.

"Zhere. Your edge is gone, and so are you" Richtofen laughed as he looked to the skies, where half of the planes were now gone and the few that remained were retreating from the pulse.

Meanwhile:

"What the hell is that!?" Joe yelled as the surge crashed through the city. Joe shivered as the energy rushed by him, causing his Wonder Weapon to give off a small red discharge of electricity.

"Don't know! Keep shooting!" Nicholas yelled as he finally caught up with Joe, panting slightly, firing short bursts with his M27. Joe took aim with his M115 Cauterizer and pulled the trigger. The gun shuddered and the gun gave of a surge of red electricity before the trigger clicked uselessly as though the gun was out of ammo.

"What the heck?" Joe muttered, pressing the trigger again and again, but to no avail. Joe then took cover as a Reclaimer with a RPD opened fire on them.

"My gun's messed up!" Joe muttered. Iva was having the same problem with her Afterburner, as was Nick with his Calamity and Jane and Jax with his Zeus Cannon.

Marcus howled in pain as several gunshots rang out, riddling him with bullet holes. Jess screamed as he fell to the ground, only for him to vanish on the spot and leave a tombstone in his place. Jess notched an arrow and fired it at the man who had done that to Marcus, but the arrow fell short and simply clattered in the street.

"Uh oh!" Jess yelped as she ran for cover. Marcus, snagging his Tombstone, did the same.

"Looks like that pulse did something" Nicholas growled, looking up.

"It looks like it disabled all of our Pack-A-Punched weapons" Iva growled in annoyance, putting away her Afterburner with a sigh of annoyance.

"No way, that's insane...I'm going for my Wonderwaffe!" Joe said as he took aim with his Wonder Weapon.

"Joe! No wait!" Iva yelled worriedly, but the deed was done.

"DIE MOFOS!" Joe yelled, pulling the trigger of the Wunderwaffe. The trigger was pulled and the Wunderwaffe sparked and shuddered. Nothing.

"Damn!" Joe yelled as he jumped out of the Reclaimer's line of fire. The group watched in horror as the hundreds of Survivors with Pack-A-Punched weapons could no longer use them and fell victim to the undead or the Reclaimers.

"That's the beauty of the 115 Wave!" a new voice laughed. A man with long black hair and bright blue eyes appeared in the street and glanced over at them, grinning.

"So, this is something…How's it feel to get your asses kicked?" the man said to the group. Nicholas pulled out his M27 and pulled the trigger, shooting a stream of bullets at the man who simply glowed bright blue, deflecting the shots like they were nothing.

"Heh…you all won't last long. A lot of you guys Pack-A-Punched your weapons, and Richtofen made it so only weapons touching the hands of a Reclaimer can be used within the fields of the device making the pulse" the man said with a grin, throwing back his long black hair with a small chuckle.

"Who are you?" Juliet asked the man, who bowed to her.

"My name is Oswald McFarland, Chief Overseer of the M.P.D. Tower and supervisor of Los Angles since the takeover. It's my job to make sure none of you make it to the tower, which of course none of you will now" Oswald laughed.

"OSWALD!"

The man turned around in surprise and a flaming fist slammed into the man's skull. Oswald hurtled towards the nearest building, only to right himself in midair and land on the side of the building, grinning as he wiped the blood off his mouth.

"Sieger…and Samantha. How quaint" Oswald said as he pulled out a dark red pistol with black designs on it. Sieger gripped Glorious and said "Make my day…"

Oswald's finger twitched for the trigger, but her lowered the gun and said "I'll deal with you later. Looks like some of the other survivors took out Kraken. Talk about embarrassing…I'll guess I'll go deal with them then, since they can't really fight with Pack-A-Punched weapons anymore"

"No! Get back here!" Samantha yelled, dashing forward and stabbing at Oswald with the Staff of Magnus, only for him to vanish at the last second.

"Now what?" Joe asked as Samantha and Sieger frantically looked for Oswald, who was long gone now. The survivors were now being pushed back due to now being horribly outgunned. Many of the survivors were down to either 1 or no guns at all, and those without weapons to fight back ran for cover or were killed quickly by the Reclaimers or overwhelmed by the Zombies. Maxwell suddenly burst out of a nearby alleyway, panting heavily and holding a wounded and unconscious teenage girl over his shoulders.

"FALL BACK!" Maxwell roared as he ran down the street, carrying a wounded teenage girl over his shoulders fireman style. Two Reclaimers burst out of the alleyway, taking aim at Maxwell, but Juliet took care of them with her Chainsaw Blaster.

"Damn it, we just can't do anything!" Judith sighed angrily as she ran past Nicholas, who opened fire with his M27, catching a few of the advancing Reclaimer's off guard. Juliet ran over to Nicholas and joined in with his SCAR-H, helping knock off a few more of the follower of Richtofen before ducking into an alleyway.

"Retreat and regroup!" Maxwell yelled to the survivors, who fell back as the onslaught continued. Nicolas watched in horror as survivors fell like pins, unable to fight back any longer due to their available weaponry being cut in half or being rendered completely useless.

"We've got to fight back and shut that thing off" Nicholas growled as he reloaded his gun. Juliet covered him by shooting at a Reclaimer with a sniper rifle and said "But how?"

"I…I don't know" Nicholas murmured.

"No!"

Nicholas looked to the side to see a mother screaming as her son fell to the ground, riddled with bullets and bleeding horribly. She had time to hold his body close, sobbing loudly, before a sniper round put her out of her misery. Nicholas growled in fury and pulled put a Frag grenade, pulling the pin out. He cooked it for a few moments before hurling it down the street, following it up by throwing his Hell's Redeemer. The grenade killed the sniper while the Redeemer killed one with an AK-47. Nicholas and Juliet sprinted down the street, activating Aegis and blocking the gunfire as he and Juliet retreated, firing back all the while.

Meanwhile, Takeo, Nikolai, and Dempsey were mowing down Zombies ,despite the handicap of not using Pack-A-Punched ammo, each of them wearing a scowl. After clearing the street, and three men looked at each other.

"We need a plan of action" Takeo murmured.

"I agree. The situation has changed" Nikolai agreed with a nod.

"Alright…here's what I'm thinking…Tak, get who you can to safety. Nikolai, you come with me. Things are about to get rough" Dempsey growled as he pulled out his RMA (Remington Model Army). Nikolai nodded, reloading his Scorpion EVO.

"I will assist those who cannot fight and protect who I can. Stay safe…both of you" Takeo said to both of them before dashing back where they had come. Ten marines joined the two Super-Soldiers and said "Sirs. We're ready for orders"

"Jack, Cole, Richards, and Philips, go help Takeo with the civilians. There's a lot of hurt people who need to get medical attention, keep them safe and get them to a Temp HQ. The rest of you, stick with us. Kill any freakbags and traitors that you see. If you see any survivors or civilians, get them to safety. Watch your backs and stay alert" Dempsey growled as he reloaded his pistol and clutched his Bowie Knife tightly.

"Things are about to get rough…" Dempsey muttered under his breath as dozens of undead began to spawn in front of them.

"Then we get rougher, and show them what we are made of, eh?" Nikolai chuckled.

"Yeah…good point" Dempsey said after a moment.

"Guys! Open fire! Let's show Nikolai here how we do it here in America!" Dempsey roared, a fierce grin on his face.

"Sir, yes sir!" the marines yelled as they opened fire.

As the survivors tried to hold their ground, more and more of them dying by the minute than ever before, a group of four men watched the battle from a nearby clifftop at the edge of the city. The view offered them an interesting viewpoint of the battle taking place. Several small groups were making progress towards the tower despite the pulse rendering Pack-A-Punched and Wonder Weapons useless.

For the most part though, the survivors were being pushed back with dozens dying every minute. The four men watched on for another minute before one of them spoke.

"Man…looks like things are going to hell real quick" a man with a hat and a coat said with a sigh.

"They don't stand a chance. They're outnumbered, outgunned…thing's don't look good for them, that's for sure" another man in a plain stained white shirt said with a growl.

"Well then…I say we get started boys" a man said as he stepped forward, shouldering a Speakeasy on his shoulder while lifting a lit cigar to his mouth.

"Sounds like a plan. Besides, we're on borrowed time" another man with slicked back hair said as he looked down at the Galvaknuckle on his fist.

"We don't have to redeem ourselves. We just got to buy them enough time to get to the Tower" the man with a hat said as he gripped his Acid Gat with a grim smile.

"Come on…let's spill some _blood_" the last man in the group said as he stepped in front of all of them, a Cobra in his hands already slick with his own blood.

The group looked down at the city before looking behind them at a disturbance. A few moments later, a whirlpool of shadows wreathed into existence, revealing four battered looking Zombie Slayers holding Pack-A-Punched guns. A blond haired women wearing a black hat and a cloak walked out of a nearby shadow, looking harried.

"There's not much time! The others have been briefed on the situation. You've only got a few hours, so make them count!" Eris said as she stepped out of the shadows, addressing the eight of them.

"Thank you...for everything" a nervous man with glasses and said to the blond haired woman, who grinned at him.

"What can I say? The least I could do for the jester is help you guys out. Now get going…all of you. I have stop that device somehow, it's the only way the survivors can keep moving forward" Eris said before tilting backwards and falling to the ground, sinking into her own shadow. The two groups looked at each other for a moment before the man with the hat broke the silence.

"So, you too?" the man said as he helped a young woman to her feet.

"Yeah. This fight…just _how_ bad is it?" the woman asked.

"Huge. Fate of the world stuff" the man with the cigar said to the group, who nodded.

"Well then…let's do our part in eliminating our adversaries and provide assistance where needed!" a rather geeky man said as he shouldered his Shadowy Veil Utilizer.

The old man of the new group nodded and said "Let's go then…we can save this world, before we save our own"

The two groups turned around and looked down at the city below, the cries of the dying and the sound of gunshots echoing through the battlefield. Some of the men exchanged grins while others sighed, resigned to their fate.

Abigail "Misty" Briarton, Marlton Johnson, Samuel Stuhlinger, Russman, Sal Deluca, Finn O' Leary, Billy Handsome, and Albert "The Weasel" Arlington all took a deep breath and sprinted down the hill, ready to jump into the depths of hell and fight to save this world, despite not knowing what fate lay ahead of them.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>AHAHAHAHAHA!<em>

_Let the carnage, mayhem, and awesomeness begin._

_What will happen now that all three Zombie crews are at the same place? Will the arrival of the Mobsters and Green Run Crew be enough to tip the scales? _

_How the hell are both groups even HERE in the first place!? HAS THE SLEEP DEPRIVATION FINALLY GOTTEN TO ME!?_

_STAY TUNED FOR ANSWERS!_

_EXCLAMATION POINTS!_

_Make sure to drop a review in the section below! Let me know what you thought and show your support!_

_Follow the trail of carnage on twitter, follow me at FlygonNick!_

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	45. Long Live the Phantom

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_Well…_

_We did it._

_Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead is the top-reviewed story in the entire Call of Duty Archive. Standing in at 672 reviews, this story has officially hit its peak._

_And there's still the final five chapters left to go after this one. _

_So what does this mean?_

_Well it means that the fun doesn't stop just here. My "deleted scenes" post-story simply known as "Fragments" will officially happen after the stories completion. These post-chapters will simply be added onto what exists already, so chapter 51 will simply be Fragments chapter 1. _

_Also, I will be revising the entire story, adding in a few scenes here and there just improving the quality of the story itself along the way. I know I haven't been on the ball about that, but trust me. Good things come in time, and I just simply can't do it at the moment. Once school ends for me, I'll have time to finish this thing and get chapter revisions done._

_Shoutout to those who reviewed last chapter, which includes Tigger300, DigDugDiamond, Dustchu, lolperson2, RandomName3064, xNewWorld, Trapinchh, MetaKnight0011, HaloSniper1338, Killz718, CariedCoin, eel3234, a guest reviewer known as Batman, a guest reviewer known as Shadow67100, Mooman1706, PTG Syphon, Justsomeperson7734, doomforzombies16, PROMinecrafter, Justplainawesome, hellfire lord, and five new reviewers known as Shadow67100, Dragondude666, Alliance of Blood, Vibrava of Wind, and dettmcl._

_Also…special shoutout to Shadow67100, who was the final reviewer who put this story into the top spot._

_Thank you…_

_This story has come such a long way, and while some of you have been supporting me for over two years now, and some are just joining in, the fact of the matter is that we all share one thing in common. _

_We all love Zombies, and we share a love of a story that deserves expansion and appreciation. _

_So I thank you. All of you. Your feedback may seem trivial, but it means so much to me. It's your reviews that keep stories like this going. I've done entire chapters purely based on the feedback from one or two people. It's because of you that this was possible, and I thank all you for everything. You're the best damn readers a guy can ask for._

_Now then, since this AN is too long already, I'll end it and get on with this very delayed chapter. School, work, and depression were the cause for this delay._

_The song "Carrion" does not belong to me, and is composed by Kevin Sherwood and performed by Clark. S. Nova. It's part of the Black Ops II Soundtrack. Pop open a tab with that song in the window and when you get to the part in the chapter where I say to play it, hit play and enjoy the awesomeness._

_The following chapter contains __**extreme gore and serious amounts of blood.**_

_I think you guys know what's coming next._

_Enjoy._

_And thank you for everything._

* * *

><p>Chapter 45: Long Live the Phantom<p>

_"I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing...I was born with the Evil One standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since."_ -H. H. Holmes.

* * *

><p>Group 935 Tennessee HQ:<p>

1994:

* * *

><p>"Harvey, are you sure you want to go through with this?" Sophia asked quietly.<p>

Yena grinned, even from inside of the containment chamber, and said "Of course Sophia! Shadow Manipulation would be such an incredible thing to have at my disposal! Porter gets to be the guinea pig from telekinesis, you're getting pyrokinesis, and Edward can manipulate raw energy with horrifyingly incredible results, as well as super strength, near immortality, as well as-"

"Harvey!"

Both scientists turned towards Richtofen, who was striding towards them both with a wide grin. It was an excited grin like that that made Sophia smile. It was the pure smile of someone who was eager to experiment in the name of knowledge, something she had found that she fell in love with.

"This will be dangerous Harvey" Richtofen said quietly, a smile on his face.

"There are risks we have to take Edward. I am willing to take this risk. We've been searching for the exact process for a long, long time. Now we are finally on the cusp of achieving a glorious victory in the name of science!" Harvey said with a confident smirk.

Richtofen smiled a little and said "As you vish, Harvey."

Richtofen turned around, facing his followers.

"Assume your position's" Richtofen said as he strode over to the main console and placed his hand on the lever. He locked eyes with Harvey, who nodded at him.

"Activating 115 Generator…Shadow Manipulation Serum Injection Process…Begin now" Richtofen muttered, slowly pulling down on the switch.

"Good luck Harvey" Sophia said with a small nervous smile.

"We know you can do it Uncle Yena!" Izzy chirped, throwing a fist into the air.

Yena chuckled, giving the young girl a thumbs up and said "Come on Edward, crank it up!"

Black liquid streamed through the tubes and flowed into Yena's chest, causing him to hiss on pain. Blood red fluid followed a few seconds later.

"Agh…hah…my insides…they're on fire…AGH!" Yena snarled in pain.

"Papa?" Izzy questioned, her cheer vanishing on the spot and her true worry about this whole thing now evident on her face.

Richtofen looked alarmed and said "Harvey, hang in there... It will pass momentarily."

"Ah…OK…It's…it's gone…not feeling too hot Edward…hey, is this normal?" Yena asked, a hint of nervousness in his tone. More liquid streamed into Yena's bloodstream and his eyes flashed red. Yena shuddered and gasped in pain as the liquid burned his insides.

"As long as the process is not interrupted, all will be well. Remain still, we are administering the final injection…and then we will inject you with pure 115 energies" Richtofen said, nodding to Porter, who activated the next step in the process. Seem and Oswald were on standby, ready to throw the failsafe if Yena went unconscious.

"_It is a good thing Steiner is watching over Sieger. This may not go as smoothly as we thought" _Richtofen thought with an internal sigh.

"Binding Fluid…released. Injection Process is now underway" Porter murmured.

"Hey…that feels…really good" Yena said with a smile as the shimmering green fluid flowed into him. Yena's eyes flashed red for a moment, but returned to their blue tone almost immediately.

"I feel…stronger. As though my very blood…was like oil in vehicle. Thrumming through my body and giving me strength!" Yena laughed.

All of a sudden a very cold voice yelled _"I found you Uncle Edward!"_

Richtofen spun around and let out a gasp of surprise as the front doors to the room were kicked open. An entire squad of marines equipped with full body armor and armed to the teeth streamed into the room, aiming their weapons at the group, who slowly backed away. Richtofen stepped forward, growling as a familiar ghost floated into the room.

"_Hello Uncle Edward…I've come to stop you. To make you pay for what you did to me and my daddy"_ Samantha hissed with loathing in her voice.

"You stupid little girl! Do you think that I will bow so easily to your whims!?" Richtofen roared, shaking the room with the force of his rage.

"Hey, personally I think Sammy here will be a much bigger threat to us now than her stupid father ever was" Yena chuckled as he flexed his hands, grinning as the fluid continued to stream into his arms.

Samantha's eyes snapped over to Yena at that. Samantha clenched her fists and said _"No one talks about daddy like that"_

Samantha regarded her soldiers for a moment before saying _"Kill the one in the chamber"_

"Vait! Samantha no!" Richtofen yelled as Yena tried to fight his way free of the chamber.

"Gotcha Sam" the Lead soldier said as he aimed his Galil and opened fire on Yena, who cried out as his chest exploded from the gunfire ripping through him. The others joined in, shooting Yena apart and heavily damaging the Containment Chamber that was still active and now going haywire.

"AGH! SOMEONE! ANYONE! HELP!" Yena screamed as blood and glass filled the chamber.

Sophia screamed as machine gunfire blasted apart the containment unit, blasting Yena to pieces and leaving him a broken mess. Yena weakly pounded against the glass that still trapped him, but was ignored as the gunfire tore the laboratory apart. Richtofen sent an arc of energy through the lab, killing a man with a Commando but destroying several machines. Richtofen felt a surge of anger at the loss of the technology and realized he couldn't risk vaporizing his work. His powers could do far more damage than simple gunfire…

"_Destroy it! All of it! All of them!"_ Samantha yelled as the sound of breaking glass and malfunctioning machines filled the room. Oswald and Saem hit the deck and pulled out Mauser's, firing at the squad of marines. They were quickly forced to find cover due to the superiority of the marine's weapons.

"Damn it, where's Steiner and Kraken when you need them!?" Oswald yelled furiously.

"Uncle Yena!" Izzy screamed before a sniper shot slammed into the wall next to her, causing her to yell out in fear.

"Harvey's not moving!" Seem yelled over the cacophony in the room.

"Damn it! Return fire! Return fire damn it!" Oswald yelled as he pulled out a MP5 from under his desk and opened fire with it, killing a man with a sniper rifle. Oswald was quickly shot in the arm with a pistol, sending him crashing to the ground with a yell of pain. The wound began to slowly seal up after a moment or two, but Oswald continued to hiss in pain.

"YOU DAMNED GIRL!" Richtofen roared as the machines began to spark wildly. Sophia grabbed Izzy and forced her to the ground.

"Uncle Yena!" Izzy screamed again as Yena regained consciousness, while groaning in agony. Harvey pounded against the glass of the chamber, sobbing tears of blood as crimson flowed from his body. His cries slowly lowered in volume until he stopped beating against the glass. Suddenly, a massive surge of blue, green, and red energies filled the chamber and charged up, surging into Yena, who fell to the ground lifeless.

Richtofen howled as the machines he worked so hard on were being destroyed by the gunfire. He could hardly attack them with his own powers, lest he hurt Sophia and Izzy and risk destroying the machines entirely.

"_You did this! You killed my daddy! You've done nothing hurt me!" _Samantha yelled back. Richtofen winced as the bullets slammed into him, causing him to jump to the side to dodge the remainder of them. Richtofen picked up an M1911 and fired several shots, killing a soldier and sending him falling to the ground as two bullets went through his throat. Richtofen glanced around in horror and beheld what little of his lab remained get annihilated by Samantha's forces.

"AGH! NOOOOO! NOooo…" Yena suddenly screamed, writhing in the tube on the ground. Yena got to his knees, only to let out a long scream of agony. Richtofen felt a thrill of horror in his heart as he watched his friend fall to the ground once more, unmoving.

"UNCLE YENA! Please, get up!" Izzy screamed, tears rolling down her face.

"God knows what that malfunction did to him…" Porter murmured as he took aim with his Mauser and fired a shot at the another soldier, avoided the bullet shot back at Porter, causing him to retreat.

"You vill all pay for zhis!" Richtofen bellowed, massive waves of energy rolling off of him. To hell with his lab, he would crush these fools for even daring to come here with Samantha-

And then he heard the panting.

"What…what's going on?" Seem asked in a low voice. Oswald got into a sitting position and said "I dunno…do you feel that?"

Richtofen slowly turned around to face the testing tube that Yena was in. Samantha's soldiers slowly lowered their weapons as a sort of crimson light filled the chamber, the bottom of which was coated in so much blood that it was impossible to see inside of. A mad sort of giggle escaped into the air as a hand shot up from within the depths of the blood and glass that filled the containment tube. Black coils of smoke began to spill out from the chamber…

"Harvey…are….are you OK?" Sophia whispered. Everyone fell silent, and the sound of Yena's harsh breathing filled the room. The smoke then was sucked back into the chamber and flowed into the hand sticking out from the bottom of the chamber.

"Uncle Yena?" Izzy whispered.

"Ugh…I…b-bl…d…" a horrible voice panted.

"What did he say?" Sophia murmured, gripping Richtofen sleeve tightly as she finally crawled over to him.

All of the marines aimed their guns at Yena, who was slowly rising from the floor of the containment pod. He was hunched over an all fours, but his face was slowly looking up at him a terrible smile playing at his lips. His wounds were slowly healing before their eyes and the soldiers took a step back as a feral growl escaped Yena's throat, a monstrous gleam in his eyes.

"Blood…I…NEED…**BLOOOOOOOOOOOD!"** Yena roared as he glared at the men and women, his eyes glowing crimson. The glass chamber suddenly shattered, spraying glass and blood everywhere and freeing the newly created monster.

Yena flung himself at the closest soldier, a young woman with blond hair, and plunged his hand through her chest, crushing her heart in his hands while it was still inside of her chest. The girl screamed in agony before collapsing onto the ground in a heap. Blood splashed on Yena's face as a maniacal smile appeared on his face. He admired his bloodstained hand and stuck his tongue out before licking it.

"Yes…blood…" Yena whispered as he licked his hand again.

"_NO! Sarah!"_ Samantha screamed, horrified at what just happened.

"OPEN FIRE!" the lead soldier yelled, shooting an MP40 at Yena, who snarled in pain as the bullets slammed into him. Yena fell to the ground back-first with a feral roar of pain, where he sank into his own shadow like water.

"Wh-where did he go?" another soldier growled. The other soldiers shrugged before turning their guns to Izzy, who took a step back in horror.

"Any of you move, and we kill the girl" the lead soldier said coldly.

"You dare lay one finger on her and I'll rip out your sphleen!" Richtofen roared.

"_You're not getting away this time, Uncle Edward!"_ Samantha said to the Doctor.

"None of you are…" a chilling voice growled.

Another soldier let out a scream of agony as Yena burst out from the ground, through the man's shadow, and grabbed him by his arms, breaking both of them with a grip of iron. Yena reared his head back and clamped his razor sharp teeth on the man's throat, savoring the salty sweet taste of human crimson rushing down his throat. Yena tore open the man's neck, tearing away a horrifying huge chunk of it and killing the man instantly.

"AHAHAHAHAHA! BLOOD! SWEET BLOOD!" Yena howled as the soldier's body crumpled to the ground.

"_NO! Alex!"_ Samantha screamed helplessly.

"STAY BACK! Uh...UH…kill the girl!" the one of the soldier's suggested weakly, aiming his gun at Sophia now. Yena stood in front of her, growling evilly and holding his hands out.

"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk…threatening a woman at gunpoint, just to kill little old me…PATHETIC!" Yena growled as he advanced towards the soldier.

"Edward, why aren't you doing anything now that he's distracted him?" Porter asked as he walked out from cover. Izzy ran over to him and Porter gestured for her to take cover next to her mother, which she did.

"Because, as easily as I could kill them…I want to see what this new Harvey can do" Richtofen muttered as Yena lunged forward, shadows writhing behind him and blood dripping from his body. Yena grabbed the young man by the skull and tore it from his body, even as he unloaded an entire clip into Yena. Yena screamed in pain, but his screams ceased as the wounds sealed up.

"His strength has increased enormously…Sophia, quick, write down everything" Richtofen muttered to Sophia, who nodded silently and grabbed her data-pad off of the table.

"Good…now take careful notes, I'm sure how much longer this battle will drag on" Richtofen said as he watched Yena laugh manically as he kicked a man so hard in the chest that his foot went through his rib cage and out of his back. Samantha screamed in horror as the man fell to the ground dead.

Yena ducked under a slash from a machete and punched a man in the skull, caving it in and sending him crashing onto the ground will blood trailing from his skull. As the others opened fire on Yena, he tore into the downed man's chest with his own machete, drenching the floor with blood, which seemed to float upwards and flow into Yena's pores.

"BLOOD!" Yena cried ravenously as he dashed over to the next soldier and clamped his razor sharp teeth on the man's throat, tearing through it like paper. Yena thirstily drank the man's blood while the other's simply watched in horror. Richtofen at first was fascinated by the proceedings…

And then he remembered that this was the same the man who would talk to him in the break room at Der Riese, discussing the intricacies of the war and of the Nazi party.

The man who had convinced him to propose to Sophia…

The man who had devoted his life to the sole purpose of leading the world to better things. The betterment of humanity…

The man who had sworn to always protect Sieger and Izzy…

That same man was the monster before them…

"Vhat…vhat haff I done?" Richtofen whispered, dread finally gripping him.

"Blood…blood…" Yena whined pitifully before thrusting a hand towards a nearby man with an AK-47, who was aimed down the sights at him. Yena's shadow shuddered and a long black tentacle shot free from Yena's shadow and impaled the man in the stomach, tearing through his body armor like it was tissue paper and tearing through his lungs and guts. The man screamed in agony before Yena began to absorb the blood through his tentacle. Yena disposed of the man by simply removing the tentacle, letting the body fall limp to the ground.

"Shadows…blood…shadows and blood…shadows and blood…shadows and blood…shadows and blood…" Yena chanted in a whisper as his once blue eyes glowed a bright crimson. The crimson coloring didn't fade, and never would fade from his eyes again.

"Harvey! Behind you!" Sophia yelled suddenly.

Yena spun around and grabbed a young woman with a knife and a pistol by the throat. She grinned and blasted Yena in the face with her pistol, causing him to drop her as bullets embedded themselves in his skull.

"Ha! Take that ya-" the girl said before Yena spun around and kicked her in the kneecap, sending her crashing onto the ground with a scream of pain at her broken knee.

"RAAAAH!" Yena roared as his shadow writhed behind him, deflected all of the bullets that the soldiers were firing at him. Yena's face slowly began to heal from the point-blank gunshot wound, but now the grin he had on his face was gone, replaced by a scowl of anger.

Yena slammed his foot down on the woman's other kneecap, effectively crippling her, and picked up her own pistol before emptying the entire clip into her chest, causing him to laugh manically as the blood splashed around them and the woman's screams filled the room.

"_Rosie! NO!"_ Samantha screamed.

"Ahahaha! See Samantha? This is what you get, you wretched little girl!" Richtofen laughed as Yena continued to slaughter the soldiers.

All of a sudden a massive green flash burst into the room and when it faded, Illuzio stood tall with two hands surging with magic, a fierce scowl on his face.

"Edward! I'm sorry I'm late!" Illuzio yelled as the few remaining soldiers fired at him. Illuzio blocked the gunfire with a spell and said "I've managed to convert a few more people to our cause!"

"Excellent mien Illuzio! Now, finish them off Harvey!" Richtofen said with a grim smile, content to watch the others slaughter his foes for now.

"_No…no…NO!"_ Samantha screamed in horror as her allies were quickly cut down by Yena, who slowly turned to face her with a sadistic and bloody smile.

"Hi Sam…remember Uncle Yena?" Harvey said as blood dripped down his mouth, a horrifying smile drawing across his lips.

"_You…You…"_ Samantha gasped in raw terror.

"Illuzio! Erase her memories! Quickly!" Richtofen ordered.

"_What!? No!"_ Samantha yelled before a blinding flash sent her flying backwards and crashing onto the ground. Illuzio lowered his glowing green hand with a smirk.

"Sophia, Porter, Izzy, Oswald, Saem. Hide now! Yena, you-" Richtofen began to say before Yena collapsed onto the ground, shaking uncontrollably and panting heavily. Richtofen threw a white sheet over him and looked over at Samantha, who was stirring. Illuzio vanished on the spot as well.

"_What…what…what's going on…oh my god, NO!" _Samantha screamed as she beheld her slaughtered friends.

"I killed them all, my dear Samantha" Richtofen purred.

"Now…leave this place…I have only just begun…go!" Richtofen snarled at the girl, who gave her fallen friends one last look of misery before flying up the stairway and out of sight. Richtofen could hear her sobbing as she fled.

"That was…too close" Illuzio murmured as he reappeared with a flash of light.

"She cannot know who survived out of Group 935…better for her to think that I am acting alone" Richtofen said with a smirk.

"Shadows…and blood…" Yena mumbled as he fell to his knees.

"Harvey!" Illuzio yelled, running over to Yena.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Yena bellowed, fling a shadow tendril at Illuzio, who deflected it with a barrier of energy. Illuzio looked shocked and a bit hurt at that.

"Harvey, calm down! It's us!" Sophia cried out.

"I…" Yena shuddered violently and fell to his knees, panting heavily. He opened his crimson eyes and said in a weak voice "Wha…I…I'm sorry…its…what…what happened?"

"**Your true potential was awakened, that's what happened"** Yena spoke in a darker tone.

"What…agh…what was that?" Yena asked the others in his own voice, who were equally confused.

"Vhat was that?" Richtofen asked softly.

"Uncle Yena? You OK? I was worried" Izzy murmured. Yena's expression softened for a moment before he stiffened once more, his eyes turning a darker shade of red.

"H-harvey…are…are you OK?" Sophia asked as Yena began to shiver uncontrollably.

Yena then laughed, in a deeper and dark tone than usual, and said **"Ah…how true darkness manifests itself…to answer your question, Sophia…I'm more than fine. I'm excellent in fact. I am better than ever…**"

"You are not Harvey…who are you?" Illuzio asked in a cold tone.

"**Me? I'm am simply the evil in Harvey Yena given shape. The…**_**changes**_** that his body and mind underwent allowed me to finally come forth. Me and him are the one in the same. Same mind…same body…Harvey Yena…Hmm…you may simply call me…Hyena"** the deep evil voice said in a mocking tone as Yena's eyes reverted to their original color.

"NO! NO! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Yena howled as a raging aura of red engulfed him. He sank into his own shadow and vanished into the darkness with a scream.

"Well…zhat happened" Richtofen said dryly.

"Where do you think he is?" Sophia asked Richtofen.

"There's a small town somewhere that is about to be slaughtered, is my guess" Richtofen said with a small sigh.

"Illuzio. Try to track him down…we need to keep tabs on him. H's no doubt very confused…try to explain things to him. Calm him down a little…Oswald, Seem…get a broom...zhis is going to be a very, very, long day" Richtofen said with a sigh as he began to rub his temples.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Present:

* * *

><p>"FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" Maxwell roared as the bullets continued to sail by them. The Captain watched as two women fell to the ground, bleeding horribly, and he grabbed a grenade from his belt and hurled it behind him. It clattered on the ground and went off, injuring three of the Reclaimers charging forward.<p>

"Just die already you assholes!" Nicholas yelled as he took aim and shot at a Reclaimer in the head with his M27, killing him instantly.

"Agh! This sucks! I can't shoot or fight anymore!" Joe whined as he took cover behind a dumpster, glancing down at his sparking Fists of Thor. Iva growled in annoyance and said "We'll just have to improvise!"

"OK, and what should we do?" Joe asked.

Iva pulled out her M8A1 and handed Joe a C275. Joe accepted the gun while Judith ran by, yelling out as a Screecher sprinted after her.

"Judith!" Joe yelled, firing a few shots at the Screecher. The sniper suddenly spun around and stabbed forward with a massive Bowie Knife and jammed it into the face of the Screecher Zombie, which stumbled backwards with a yell and crashed onto the ground. Judith let out a sigh of relief and pulled out the blade before looking at Joe and saying "I had it under control"

"Sure…sure…" Joe said with a roll of the eyes.

"Come on! Let's go!" Iva yelled as she jumped out from her cover and pulled the trigger of her M8A1 several times, blasting two Zombies lunging towards an old woman with a shotgun. The woman smiled at Iva in thanks before a bullet slammed into her skull. Iva felt a thrill of horror go through her as the woman slumped onto the ground, dead, and let out a yell of rage as she opened fire on the man who killed her, a Reclaimer with a bright red Mohawk who dodged the gunfire.

"Aw, she was one day away from retirement too!" the Reclaimer laughed as he hurled a Symtex grenade towards Iva, who jumped back to avoid the explosion. Joe sprinted through the explosion and dove at the Reclaimer, catching him off guard with a punch to the face. The man's face rocketed backwards as Joe's metal-covered fist slammed into his nose, breaking it and sending him crashing onto the ground senseless. Joe scowled and fired a shot into the man's throat for good measure.

"Thanks" Iva said gratefully as Judith walked over to them. Joe looked down sadly at the woman and checked her pulse, despite knowing she was dead. Joe sighed angrily and got to his feet, gripping the C275 tightly.

"Come on" Joe muttered as he walked down the street, shooting at some nearby Zombies.

"We're losing ground almost three times faster than we gained it. We've got to find a way to halt their advancement" Maxwell growled as he pulled out both of his KAP-40's and fired at the oncoming wave of Zombies bursting out of the ground.

"There's got to be something we can do!" Juliet protested as she opened fire with her SCAR-H. As she reloaded, she cried out as a bullet flew by her, clipping her shoulder. Juliet fell to one knee, clutching the wound while Nicholas killed the assailant with a stream of bullets to the chest.

"Ah…that…that hurts a bit" Juliet grunted as she tried to inspect it. Nicholas crouched next to her as Maxwell covered them to inject the wound with Quick Revive.

"There. Better?" Nicholas asked Juliet, who responded with a nod.

"OK…we need a plan" Nicholas muttered.

"The plan didn't involve getting more than half of our weapons turned into paperweights. We've got to shot that thing off" Maxwell scowled.

"NOOOOOO!"

"That was Iva" Juliet said as she ran out of the alleyway.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT YOU BASTARDS!" Iva screamed as she fired streams of bullets at a squad of Reclaimers. A small group of kids, no more than 12, lay dead behind her armed with mere pistols. Joe had one of the kids, the only survivor it seemed, was slung over his shoulder and was getting him to cover.

"They we're just little kids! Why did they do to deserve this!?" Iva howled furiously, tears streaming down her face. The Reclaimers, surprised by the ferocity of the woman attacking them, never stood a chance and fell like pins to the Russian girl's assault.

Nicholas and Juliet ran out and then stopped at the sight before them. Iva stood before the corpses, panting heavily and gripping her gun tightly. She glanced down the street where the fighting was still going on and glared down the street.

"Come on…we should move up" Nicholas muttered, glancing at Iva.

"You…sure?" Juliet asked softly.

"You ever watch a bunch of kids get slaughtered like pigs? Seriously…just leave her be. Come on" Nicholas said as ran forward to confront the oncoming wave of Reclaimers, backed by several survivors.

"Iva…?" a voice said to the unmoving Russian girl.

Iva felt a hand grasp her's and grip it tightly. Iva allowed herself to be pulled behind a wrecked car, providing them cover, and let Joe pull her into a hug.

"Damn it Joe…just…they didn't deserve this…" Iva whispered, burying her face in Joe's chest and sobbing quietly at the image of the little kids lying dead before her. Joe murmured "I know…I know…but we'll get the assholes who did this and make them pay…"

"Do you need a minute?" Joe asked Iva, who nodded. The two stood there for a minute before the sound of increased gunfire caused them to break the embrace and go forward.

"No! Get back!" Nicholas yelled to Joe and Iva as a man with a China Beach fired at the group, protected by a fortified Zombie Shield. The crowd of Reclaimer's behind him added gunfire to the equation and halted any sort of counterattack or advancement.

"Agh! Fall back, fall back!" Juliet yelled as she jumped over a car and ducked behind it. Nicholas sprinted by them only to get thrown backward by a large explosion.

Nicholas was hurled into the air by the force of the blast and landed hard on his back with a wince. Grateful he had P.H.D Flopper, he got to his feet and ducked behind the car with Iva.

"Where's Sam and Sieger!?" Nicholas asked Iva and Joe.

"They're up ahead. We got cut off from them!" Joe yelled as he tried to aim a shot but ended up getting his pistol shot out of his hand. The Reclaimers seemed to have the entire group pinned down by a literal wall of never-ending gunfire, which was tearing through their ranks quickly. The Zombie surged forward again and even more people fell to the undead.

"They weaken us with gunfire then take us out with the Zombies. Smart" Juliet thought as she reloaded her SCAR-H. She noticed she was running low on ammo, and decided to make sure her bullets counted from here on in.

"Damn it. Now what!?" Nicholas growled as he tried to take aim at a Reclaimer with his M27, only for the gun to be shot out of his hand by a sniper round. Nicholas yelped in pain and ducked behind a destroyed car.

"ALRIGHT BOYS! LET'S GO!"

All of a sudden a rocket flew from a nearby alleyway and slammed into the wall of Zombies, killing fifteen of them at once. The Reclaimer's were slow to react and the crowd that was attacking was blow away by the stream of Pack-A-Punched rockets that flew towards them, exploding violently on impact. This was repeated again and again as a stream of rockets flew from the alleyway and reduced the massive group to a few crawling Reclaimers who were quickly put out of their misery.

"What the hell? Was that a Rocket Propelled Grievance?" Juliet said with an awed look as the Reclaimer's scrambled for cover.

"Yeah…how is it working though? That pulse is rendering all Pack-A-Punched weapons useless" Nicholas muttered as he grabbed his M27.

"That's right! You can kiss my Irish ass!" a familiar voice jeered at the Reclaimers joining the fight, apparently reinforcements for the last group. As the Reclaimers began to fire at the figure standing in the alleyway, another figure began to fire down green pods into the group, which scattered as acid filled the air. Two more figures took turns shooting at the Reclaimer's from above.

"Guys! Push forward!" Nicholas yelled, seeing the Reclaimer's distracted.

Juliet grinned and took aim, opening fire with her SCAR-H. Nicholas did the same with his M27, letting the bullets fly free. The survivors, utilizing the moment of confusion, managed to suppress the initial wave and killed all but a few of the Reclaimers', who fled deeper into the city. Nicholas glanced back at the slain survivors behind him and sighed.

"You OK?" Juliet murmured.

"No…come on, let's go forward while we can" Nicholas said as he took a step forward.

"Hey! Guys! It's the kid!" a familiar voice said with a laugh.

"Wait…I know that voice" Nicholas muttered as he looked over to the nearest rooftop. A figure dropped down from the nearby fire escape and offered the teen a smirk.

"Like I said before…I'm not afraid to die kid" Billy Handsome said as he shouldered his Uncle Gal.

Nicholas blinked in surprise and said "No…no way…"

"Heh, you look like you've seen a ghost" Billy chuckled as he walked towards Juliet and Nicholas.

"Nicholas? Who is this guy?" Juliet asked, raising his SCAR-H at him. Billy smirked and said "Cool it, little lady. I'm a friend of his"

"…B-billy? Is that you?" Nicholas said in a soft voice.

"Yeah….it's me kid. How've you been?" Billy said in a softer and more serious tone.

"H-how are you here? Illuzio killed you guys after I left, he told me" Nicholas said in an confused tone.

"Yeah, he did. Asshole killed each one of us. And guess what, we went to hell" Billy said with a laugh.

"Really?" Nicholas asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Anyway, we can catch up later. Hey Finn! Weasel!" Billy called to the rooftops. One man dropped down from the nearby rooftop and tipped his hat to the duo while the third walked out from the alleyway, smirking slightly.

"Finn! Weasel!" Nicholas yelled with a grin on his face.

"Hey kid" Finn said with a grin.

"How's it going Nicholas?" Weasel said with a small smile, tipping his hat to the two teens.

"Wow…wait, where's Sal?" Nicholas asked.

"Right here" came a cool reply.

A series of explosions rang out from the nearest alleyway and Sal Deluca walked out of the smoke and gore with a smirk on his face.

"Hey Boss!" Billy said as the mobster walked over.

"OK, so the way I see it, you guys need help getting to that Tower, right?" Sal asked Nicholas, who nodded, too surprised to really question how the hell they had gotten here.

"Alright then, we'll keep those goons off of you until we get there. Boys, form a square. Finn, Weasel, watch the front. Me and Billy will watch the back" Sal ordered the men.

"So…who are they?" Joe asked Nicholas.

"Sal Deluca, Finn O' Leary, Albert "Weasel" Arlington, and Bill Handsome. Four of the greatest Mobsters who ever lived, and friends of mine from Zombie Alcatraz" Nicholas explained. Judith, Iva, and Juliet stood next to Nicholas in the center while the Monsters readied their weapons.

"Hey kid, you got your Golden Spork, right?" Finn asked Nicholas, who nodded.

"Your guns may be messed up, but you can still slice and dice. Finn, give the sniper girl your Golden Spork. Weasel, give the tall guy yours" Sal ordered. The mobsters did as they were asked and returned to their positions.

"Those things are really strong, so be careful" Finn warned the teens, who nodded.

"Let's get to it!" Billy grinned ruthlessly.

Zombie's burst out of the ground around them as the group lead the charge, the Mobsters utilizing every trick and tactic they had learned while they were alive and while they were trapped on Alcatraz. Billy jerked a grenade off of his belt, pulled the pin out and then hurled it into the air, blowing a Wyvern Zombie clear out of the air. Finn smirked as he let loose with his Rocket Propelled Grievance, laying waste to whatever come his way. Sal barked out orders the entire time to the survivors and the Bradburn Crew, usually to warn them and tell them how and when to attack.

Nicholas wasted no time and used his reacquired M27 to kill anything that the four mobsters hadn't spotted. Juliet kept lookout for anything, as did Judith.

"Look! The sky!" Judith yelled, pointing skyward. Nicholas and Juliet looked up and saw several planes getting taken down by Richtofen's lightning blasts. The planes, while cutting through the Reclaimer's numbers and taking out a chunk of the Zombies, were prime targets for Richtofen and his Wyvern Zombies.

"They're not going to last much longer. It's already approaching late afternoon" Juliet said in a low voice.

"Alright, time to show these kids these kids how the real gangsters get shit done!" Finn laughed as the four Mobsters opened fire at the same time, clearing the block for the moment. The teens nodded and joined the Mobsters in their assault as another wave of reinforcements came. More Zombies began to spawn and a few Reclaimer's burst into the alleyway, shooting at the Mobsters who easily dodged the shots.

"Ha! I've killed drunks that shoot better than you!" Billy cackled as he shot a man directly in the forehead with his Uncle Gal. He swiftly reloaded and continued his assault.

"Some folks gotta learn the hard way!" Sal chuckled as he sprayed several Nazi Zombies with his Tommy Gun, only to kill the lot of them with a grenade. Billy grinned in approval and said "Hey Boss, check this out"

Billy pulled out an Executioner and jammed it into the face of a Nazi Zombie, which growled for a moment before Billy blew its brains out.

"Just like Louie Vanderbelt in 1925" Sal laughed before he spun around and hurled his Hell's Redeemer. The enchanted tomahawk flew through the air and slammed into no less than eight Zombies, killing them all, before heading back to its owner.

Finn ducked under a swipe from a Zombie and slammed a Galvaknuckled fist in the skull. The Zombie crashed onto the ground as the Mobster whirled around and hurled his Hell's Redeemer through the air, slamming into the skull of the man with the China Beach from before.

"Hahahaha! How'd ya like that, bitch!" Finn cackled as he continued to blast away with his Rocket Propelled Grievance, which he pulled back out.

"These things are easier to kill when there's no round system. I like it" Billy admitted with a bloodthirsty smile, jamming a knife into a Zombie's eye socket before blasting it in the skull with his Executioner.

"So you wanna explain how the hell you're back?" Nicholas asked Sal, who smirked.

"Well, first we went to hell, and then we met the devil. As you can image he was glad to finally get his hands on us, and decided our punishment would be going back to Alcatraz and fight more Zombies! Just when I thought we were done with that shit" Sal muttered as he blasted apart the undead with his WN, scoring several headshots.

"So then, some shadow girl popped up out of nowhere on the Golden Gate Bridge and said that we needed to come with her if we wanted a break from our own personal slice of hell. So, naturally we went with her"

"And boy, is there a lot of crap going on" Weasel said dryly before he let out a yelp, barely dodging a shot from a sniper rifle. Billy shot the attacker with his Uncle Gal, killing him instantly.

"Come on Weasel, I thought you were hot stuff" Billy teased Weasel, who smirked in thanks and took aim with his Acid Gat and fired it into the horde of Zombies heading their way. Weasel held up a thumbs up before pointing it downwards, cueing the explosion of acid in that vaporizes the undead.

"Don't be surprised! It's just another massacre!" Weasel laughed as he flipped open the back of the Acid Gat, reloaded it, and flipped it back open with a grin. The Zombies swarmed to wherever the pods landed, allowing the group to move forward once more. The other survivors, in awe of carnage taking place, felt a fresh wave of hope bloom through them and fought harder than ever. Maxwell grinned and said "Come on! Keep fighting! Don't give up now; we've got them on the ropes!"

"Come on! We can take back these streets!" Sal yelled as more and more Reclaimer's fell to the Mobsters attacks. A sniper round went soaring towards his head, only to be blocked by a black tendril that shot out of the ground. Finn smirked and said "Heh, they can't touch us"

"Looks like Eris is coming through for us after all. Keep going!" Billy growled as he pulled out his Executioner and shot away at a few Nazi Zombies charging at him, downing each one with a shot to the head.

"These guys are awesome" Joe laughed as he fired a few shots at the Zombies, more satisfied with watching the legendary Monsters than killing Zombies.

"Yeah…it's like something out of a movie" Iva murmured.

"Or a story" Juliet said with a grin as she revved her chainsaw, jumping ahead and lunging at a Blade Zombie. Juliet darted forward and slammed the chainsaw into the Blade Zombie's skull. The Zombie stumbled backwards in pain and fell to the ground. Two Reclaimer took aim at Juliet and fired at her, only for Nicholas to jump in front of her and block the gunfire with Aegis.

"Hey! Leave the kid alone!" Finn growled as he shot the two men in the heads, killing them instantly. Nicholas grinned at the mobster who winked at him and said "Gotta say, a guy who'd take a bullet for his gal. Gotta respect that"

"Thanks Mr. O' Leary!" Juliet laughed before pulling out her SCAR-H and opening fire behind him, blasting apart a large man with a machete and killing him.

"…well then" Finn said as he glanced towards the tower, where the crowd of Reclaimers were being forced back. Nicholas went to Juliet's side and she said "I can't believe it…we're forcing them back again"

"Go! They're losing ground guys!" Nicholas laughed as he reloaded his M27 again before shooting at the newest spawning Zombies. More bullets soared towards them, but every shot was blocked by the shadows underneath them.

"Don't give in!" Jess added as she bounded forward, dual-sabers drawn, and slashed the heads of two Nazi Zombies. Marcus sprinted alongside her, shooting anything that came to close with his AUG. Marcus swiftly reloaded and said "Looks like we got some help up ahead"

Jess eyed the mobsters from afar and said "Looks like FlygonNick is breaking the rules of time and space again"

"Again? When did he…nevermind" Marcus said with a smile, shaking his head.

Jax opened fire with his M16, a fierce yell escaping his throat. He then reloaded and turned around, pulling the trigger several times, blasting off a few of the nearest Zombie's skulls. While he had come to rely on the Wonder Weapon lately, he still preferred the usual method of aiming and shooting a gun instead of simply pointing it in the general direction of what you want to destroy. Jax smiled at two young women who ran by him, killing a few Zombies and a Reclaimer who had just arrived.

Nick, John, Kara, and Chan were taking care of anything that tried to attack the group from behind. Several Wyvern Zombie's dropped from the ground, only to be blown out of the air by Nick, John, and Kara. Chan quickly eliminated anything that came near them with a few swift strikes from her deadly Katana.

"GANG WAY!"

The group looked down the street and saw a flaming car barreling towards them. The group jumped out of the way, followed by the others, and watched as someone jumped out of the car with a laugh. The car swerved and slammed into a squad of Reclaimer's, killing them instantly.

"That was badass!" Andrew panted as he got to his feet, panting slightly. Kara nodded before she ducked, avoiding a slash from a Reclaimer's Bowie Knife. Kara spun around and delivered a heel kick to the back of the teen's skull while John threw a knife at him, catching the teen in the throat.

"Nice kick!" John said with a grin.

"Nice throw!" Kara replied.

"LESS FLIRTING MOE FIGHTNG!" Nick bellowed as he started lobbing grenades into the nearest alleyway. A literal torrent of Pack-A-Punched gunfire streamed out of the alleyway and the group prepared for the newest wave of Reclaimers.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Alright maggot bags, time to die!" Dempsey yelled as he blasted apart the remaining Zombies near him. The marine stopped for a moment and caught his breath. He looked up at the sky and said "Damn Nazi…we've got to stop him"<p>

"Help!"

The marine heard a cry for help and spun around, and to his surprise he found a little girl with long blond hair running out from an alleyway, being chased by a Reclaimer with a shotgun.

"Hehehehe, this is-oh crap!" the Reclaimer yelled before Dempsey shot him in the head with his Remington Army Model. Dempsey walked over to the little girl and knelt down to her.

"You OK?" Dempsey asked the girl, who nodded shakily.

"Where're your parents?" Dempsey asked. The girl shook her head and Dempsey swore under his breath. Dempsey glanced around and said "No place is safe right now…hmm…"

The marine turned his back to the girl and said "Damn…I guess I could-"

Dempsey felt something slam into the back of his skull and he fell to the ground unconscious.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Nikolai grinned as he blasted apart a wave of Zombies with his Scorpion EVO. The soviet reloaded his gun and said "Another wave falls to Nikolai!"<p>

Nikolai then glanced around and realized that he was alone. He took a few moments to rest before realizing that this lull in the action was…unnatural. He frowned, thinking the silence in the area was definitely out of place, when he heard crying. It sounded like a little girl.

"A girl? Why would she be at a spot like this?" Nikolai questioned as he turned down an alleyway. A little girl with bright blond hair and wearing a white bloodstained dress sat in an alleyway, sniffling and crying. Nikolai glanced around and said "Strange…there is no one in sight. Where are her parents? How did she survive this long?"

Nikolai backed out of the alleyway and said into his radio "Strange…Dempsey, are you there?"

Nothing.

"Hmm…" Nikolai frowned and said "I do not like this…"

Nikolai switched to Takeo's radio and said "Takeo, something weird is going on-"

Nikolai stopped midsentence as something struck him from behind. Nikolai fell to the ground and rolled to his feet before being flung high into the air. As he reached the height of his fall, a force sent him crashing down onto the ground where he went unconscious.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Death before dishonor!" Takeo cried as he landed on the ground, just before the heads of three Nazi Zombies behind him exploded in a shower of gore. Takeo got to his feet and glanced around him. He had been separated from his ally's and was now all alone.<p>

All of a sudden Takeo heard Nikolai speak to him from his radio.

"Takeo, something weird is going on-" he heard Nikolai say before he was cut off. He heard the sound of Nikolai grunt before a loud crash ended the transmission.

"Nikolai?" Takeo murmured. The warrior tried to radio Dempsey, but got no reply. He stood there for a minute or two, trying to get in contact with either one of them. He didn't know how to get ahold of the soldiers who were with them before, as Dempsey was the one had their frequencies.

"Hmm…" Takeo then heard a noise behind him, causing him to turn around and saw to his surprise, a small little girl with blond hair standing in the middle of the street, sobbing quietly. Takeo stood there for a moment and realized that nothing was coming towards him or near this area, which struck him as off, considering her had spent the past hour fighting nonstop waves of enemies.

Takeo smiled a little and said "Ah…so…you are the source of the mystery…"

"I'm so scared…please…" the girl sobbed.

"You do not fool me child. Reveal your true nature!" Takeo said as he drew his sword. The girl then stopped crying and took a step backwards in fear. Takeo held the blade out for another minute, and neither one spoke.

"…So, you're sharper than I thought" the girl said in a sweet and innocent voice. She looked up at him with her electric blue eyes and said "Master Richtofen said that you were the smart one of the three…I will capture you like the others, and I will earn a special place in Richtofen's world for disposing of you three"

"Very well demon!" Takeo growled as he got into a stance and then lunged forward.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"AGH!" Zero growled as he glanced down at his arm, coated with blood.<p>

Ever since the defeat of Kraken, the forces they were fighting against seemed to grow strong and more deadly. Zero had learned from Maxwell that half of the main attacking force was gone already, while a little more than a third of Richtofen's was down. If they didn't do something to turn the tides soon, this entire battle was going to be a lost cause.

Vice and Clutch Odd waved in and out of the gunfire and worked together to kill a Reclaimer with an R.P.D., ending the fight with Vice caving in the man's head with Arbiter's Staff. The others retrieved weapons from fallen fighters and used those instead of their own weapons, since they no longer worked.

Zero sprinted from cover and slashed downwards with Lucifer, which was no longer on fire, and cleaved a Zombie in two. As he ducked under a Ray Gun blast, the attacker suddenly was shot in the face by a Pack-A-Punched sniper round and fell from atop the building he was standing on.

"Thanks!" Zero replied as he ran forward and stabbed the closest Zombie on the throat.

"Wait…that wasn't us Zero" Serenity said in a confused tone.

"Yeah, we can't use Pack-A-Punched weapons, remember?" Starch added. Zero paused and said "Then how…"

"Hello there!" a cheerful voice yelled from the nearby rooftop, a series of sniper shots ringing out. The remaining Reclaimers fell to the sniper, who he slowly clambered down from the rooftop and approached them a minute later. He wore a bloodstained while button-up dress shirt and had a pair of black glasses on, giving of a nerdy aura. He held the Shadowy Veil Utilizer in his hands and said "It seems as though my arrival was quite fortunate indeed. How are you all faring?"

"…wat?" Starch asked. Serenity sighed at Starch, but looked at the sniper and said "Not so well. Thanks for the help"

"It was nothing. My allies and I are happy to assist you all however we can" the man said with a grin.

"So, who are you? And how do you have a working Pack-A-Punched gun?" Zero asked the man.

"I'm Marlton. Marlton Johnson. I…well, how I got this gun is a really long story that we don't have time for. I-get down!" Marlton suddenly took aim, causing Zero to duck as he fired a shot. A Screecher Zombie that was barreling down the street towards them was shot dead in the skull, sending it reeling backwards onto the ground.

"Wow...good shot" Clutch Odd said with a nod.

"Thank you. Now, where are they? They should be here soon" Marlton said as he looked at the worn-out group before him.

"There you are! Hey Darlington, up here!" a annoyed voice yelled. A chubby man with glasses suddenly popped up on a nearby rooftop, with a woman and an old man behind her.

"Good, you're here!" Marlton said cheerfully.

"Marlton! Down the street!" Misty yelled as she pulled out her gun and took aim. Marlton glanced down the street and saw a horde of Screecher's tearing themselves free from the ground. As the Survivors readied themselves, Marlton stepped in front of them with a confident smile.

"Allow me" Marlton said as he took aim through his rifle's scope.

"Oh, this is going to be good" Starch said before Marlton fired the first shot. The bullet soared 100 yards down the street and slammed into a Screecher's skull, downing it. Marlton fired again, getting the same result from another Zombie. The man's friends seemed content to watch as Marlton took on the horde of Screecher's by himself.

Marlton grin widened as he pulled the trigger again and again, never letting up. The group watched as the entire horde running towards them was reduced to a pile of unmoving corpses in a minute or so, with the last Screecher falling several feet away from his own feet.

"There. All enemies are eliminated. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself" Marlton bragged to the survivors as he swiftly reloaded his Shadowy Veil Utilizer.

"That was cool as hell" Starch said approvingly.

"Yeah, who says nerds can't be badass?" Vice said with a smirk.

"Yeah, too bad it's Marlton, the least cool guy on the team" Stuhlinger chuckled as he walked into the street, followed by Misty and Russman.

"Wait…who are you guys? Marlton never answered the question" Vice asked the new arrivals.

"And how do your weapons work? For whatever reason none of our Pack-A-Punched weapons are firing, so what gives?" Clutch Odd asked the group.

"We were briefed on the situation at hand before we arrived in the city. That red…pulse, I suppose you would call it, is the source of your problems. All weapons that are Pack-A-Punched or are Wonder Weapons are rendered useless under its influence. It needs to be deactivated" Marlton explained as he adjusted his glasses.

"And the reason our weapons work is because…well…" Stuhlinger trailed off.

"It's because we came from another world. I know it sounds crazy, but it's the truth. Our weapons are influenced by powers in a separate…thingy. I can't explain it, but that pulse doesn't affect weapons not from this world" Misty trailed off.

"So what do we call you guys?" Jordan asked the group.

"Well, you know me already. Marlton, resident genius and sniper extraordinaire" the geek said with a grin, puffing his chest out to seem more manly. Misty rolled her eyes and said "I'm Misty. Good to meet ya"

"I'm Samuel Stuhlinger…uh, enough said" Sam said as he eyed the corpses of the undead with a hungry look in his eyes. He hadn't eaten in so long…he was getting that gnawing feeling in his belly again…that craving…

"And I'm Russman!" the old man yelled with a smirk.

"I love it when I get to see old people commit acts of valance. It's always more fun this way" Starch said with a grin.

"Damn skippy" Russman said, holding his Dystopic Demolisher. We should keep on going and meet up with the others. Eris said she was going to meet us all at the Direct Point"

"Direct Point?" Vice asked.

"The main road to the Tower. We're meeting up with Samantha and Sieger there" Misty replied.

"How do you know them? Just…who are you?" Zero asked the group. The group exchanged looks for a moment before Samuel said "Didn't you hear her? We come from another timeline that's just like this one! Another world, another earth! I know this sounds like some sort of conspiratorial bullshit, but it's the truth…We're trying to make sure your timeline doesn't end up like ours"

"Timeline? Time isn't made out of lines. It's made out of circles. That is why clocks are round!" Starch said with a smirk before Serenity kicked him in the shin.

"Anyway, that shadow girl Eris saved us from a gruesome demise and we're doing her a favor in return for rescuing us. Does that satisfy your inquiries for now?" Marlton asked Zero, who nodded.

"I've got an inquiry" a cold voice asked the group.

A figured suddenly materialized out of thin air, surrounded by a wreath of silver flames. He had a muscular build and wore a black shirt and black cargo pants. He had long white hair bellowed in the wind and his electric blue eyes glared down at them from a pile of rubble a short distance away. He held a Relativistic Punishment Device in his hands and was smirking at them with malice.

"Do you really think that you can make it the "Direct Point" when you're outnumbered six to one? And another…" Saem aimed his Relativistic Punishment Device at the group as a wave of Zombie's began to emerge from the ground.

"Do you think that I'll let you get past here with an ounce of life in your bodies?" Saem said as he pulled the trigger. A crowd of Reclaimers burst onto the street and opened fire on the group, but before the bullets could meet their mark a literal wall of blackness intercepted the shots.

"What the-!?" Saem yelled in surprise as the wall dissipated.

"Leave them alone!"

A figure burst out from the shadows like a bullet and slammed into Saem, who went crashing onto the ground with a howl of pain, blood streaming from his skull. Saem rolled to his feet, only for a series of black tentacles to pick him up and hurl him into the nearest building.

"Eris!" Zero and Misty yelled with a grin.

Eris offered the group a wan smile before a surge of silver slammed into her, sending her rocketing backwards. Saem dislodged himself from the building, putting away his Relativistic Punishment Device, and cracked his knuckles. He took a step forward, only to get a sniper round in the face courtesy of Marlton. Saem cracked his neck and plucked the bullet from his face and said "I'll kill you next. After the shadow girl"

"Come on! I don't have all night!" Eris laughed as she shot up from Saem's shadow and uppercutted him in the face. Eris then flung her hand upward, snaring Saem and sent him flying down the road.

"Keep going! I'll keep him busy!" Eris yelled as she dove into her shadow.

"Alright guys! Go!" Misty yelled as she ran towards the wall of Reclaimer's, opening fire with her gun while Russman fired a series of grenades from his Pack-A-Punched War Machine, blasting the crowd of Reclaimers before they could even get a few shots off. Zombies literally streamed into the street from the side alleys by the dozens, swarming the area within seconds.

The group ran forward, with Misty, Stuhlinger, and Russman leading the charge down the street. Red, Marlton, and Jordan got on top of an upturned pile of rubble and took aim before opening fire with their sniper rifles, cutting a hole in the wave of undead surging towards them from the other end of the road.

Russman grinned widely , pulled out a Sassafras, and said "Time to crack some skulls!"

The old man took aim and fired a series of shots down the street, blasting away at a few Nazi Zombies that had ran at a seemingly easy target. The undead fell at the hands of the former Broken Arrow Agent who sneered down at the fallen undead.

"Alright! Time to show these kids how to kick ass!" Misty growled as pulling out an E.M.P grenade and hurling it towards the horde. The device landed in the thick of the horde and exploded, leaving about forty Zombies or so dazed.

"Stuhlinger! GO!" Misty yelled as she opened fire with her Actuated-Neutralizer 94000. Samuel smirked and opened fire with his SLDG-HAMR, and the two made quick work of the massive horde. Russman finished up by clearing the path with his Dystopic Demolisher.

The survivors looked at the display of skill and teamwork shown by the four strange Zombie Slayers, but felt a bit of hope fill their bodies. With a bit of renewed resolve, the group pressed onwards with their new allies leading the charge against the forces of Richtofen.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Sieger!" Samantha yelled as Sieger crashed onto the ground, smoking and bleeding badly. He had jumped in front of a rocket and took the attack for Samantha, who was weakened by the sheer number of enemies she had killed. The two were both exhausted by this point, but had still kept going.<p>

Samantha jumped back and flung up a wall of energy to block the next shot from the Rocket Propelled Grievance that Saem was carrying. Having lost Eris for the moment, the man was halting their progress and had killed dozens of survivors in his attempt to subdue Sieger and Samantha. Sieger got to his feet shakily and fired a shot with Lux at the small of Saem's back, causing him to howl in agony.

"Time to show you my true power!" Saem growled as he tossed his empty RPG to the ground. Saem let out a battle cry and slammed his knuckles together, releasing a massive silver shockwave of raw energy. Saem lunged at Sieger, slamming a fist into his stomach as Samantha screamed in horror. Sieger went hurtling down the street, slamming up and down on the ground before slamming into a parked car, crashing onto the ground. He didn't get back up.

"Super strength. He's got super strength" Samantha muttered darkly as Saem cracked his neck. Samantha was torn between her desire to see if Sieger was OK and her desire to eviscerate this man and feed him to Fluffy.

"Not just super strength. Physical superiority. I'm the ultimate fighter, Miss Maxis. You stand no chance of making it to Master Richtofen" Saem said as he cracked his knuckles.

"See…the clock draws closer to Midnight. Just a bit more time and we will succeed. All filth will be burned away, leaving only those of us faithful to him behind" Saem said with a sadistic smile.

The man then flung his hand skyward and said "TO ME!"

The survivors watched in horror as even more Zombies streamed into the street by the hundreds. Samantha glanced around in horror and grabbed Sieger by the chest and vanished on the spot in a flash of green light. As Reclaimers joined the Zombies ranks, Saem grinned and said "Alright…let's give them a reason to fear our names"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Agh, they just won't stop coming!" Finn growled as another ten more Zombies fell to his bullets. Finn began to reload his LSAT while Nicholas covered him, using his own Golden Spork to take out a nearby Nazi Zombie. Judith lashed out next to him while Joe and Iva worked together to subdue a Wyvern Zombie, which Weasel ended up killing.<p>

"GUYS!"

Samantha suddenly appeared in a flash of green light, holding a badly wounded Sieger. Samantha rested the teen on the ground gently and said "Saem did this. He's stopped all further advancement towards the tower…"

"You OK Sam?" Jess asked quietly. Samantha sighed and said "I'll live…I'm tired though. I've been trying to clear a path to the tower for you guys, but when we go ahead more Zombies replenish the ranks we just destroyed"

"All too true!" Saem said loudly from several hundred yards away. The group realized that the Zombies were now bursting free from the earth by the hundreds while more Reclaimers slunk into the ranks of the undead.

"Move it! Move it! Move it!" a new voice yelled as a series of gunshots rang out from a nearby alleyway. The group readied themselves for more Reclaimers, but it turned out to be the Zero and the other survivors, along with four strange adults that they didn't know.

"We made it…" the woman leading the group breathed with a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, but look…the odds don't look so good" a nervous man with glasses said as he looked over at the teens looking at them.

"Hey…they look like the kids that Eris was talking about" the nerdy man said with a small frown.

"They are" Vice replied.

"Who are they?" Nicholas asked Vice, but to his surprise Finn answered his question.

"Samuel Stuhlinger, Misty Briarton, Marlton Johnson, and Russman. Four Zombie Slayers that got wrapped up in a plot to destroy the world, and got screwed over by Samantha's dad" Finn said with a smirk.

"Wait…my dad…you're from the original timeline!?" Samantha asked the group in surprise. The Green Run Crew exchanged looks and then nodded.

"Now's not the time for 20 questions. Look…" Marlton said as he pointed forward. The mass of enemies before them was swelling to an even greater number, as even more Reclaimer's poured into the streets with the undead at their side.

"How many of them are there?" Jess whispered, grabbing onto Marcus's hand.

"He's got to have at least a third of his remaining fighting force on this street…" Samantha murmured.

"No, he's got a sixth of his fighting force. You guys still managed to underestimate Richtofen's forces" a cool voice said from beneath them. Eris suddenly slunk out of the shadow of a nearby shattered streetlamp and admired the horde of enemies before them.

"There's no way you guys can take them on…especially with Sieger and Samantha hurt…" Eris muttered.

"This must be the Shadow Lady you mentioned" Nicholas asked Zero, who nodded.

"She saved our lives" Finn said with a grin.

"Our too" Marlton added.

"OK…I've got it" Eris said to the group, sighing deeply.

"Got what?" Sal asked the young woman.

"I can clear the way for you. Get ready to move forward once…well, once the way is clear. I'm not sure what sort of state I'll be in, one of you might have to carry me afterwards…" Eris said in a soft tone.

"Eris, what are you planning?" Russman asked the young woman, who stepped forward. The lone woman continued to walk towards the mass of enemies before her, and when she stood no less than a hundred yards from the nearest Zombie, she stopped.

"So…any last words before we obliterate you!?" Saem yelled triumphantly, his entire body glowing silver.

Eris slowly took off her hat and then rested it on the ground. She slowly stripped off the jacket she wore as well and placed it on the ground. She wore a simple black dress with black tights underneath the massive coat had had on, and she smiled at Saem and said "Yes…three in fact"

"Master…it's time" Eris said as she held her hands out to her sides.

"Master?" Judith muttered under her breath, trying to shake off this feeling of horror that was overwhelming her. The others felt it too. Like the air was becoming harder to breathe in. The sky seemed to take on an even darker tint to it while the faint sound of music filled the air.

Eris suddenly screamed in agony and clutched her heart before falling to her knees. All of a sudden she began to glow bright red. A dark crimson color…her shadow began to writhe and grow wildly.

"Hehehe…ah…finally…" a familiar voice said with a horrible chuckle.

"That voice…" Samantha murmured, holding Sieger tightly as she began to heal his wounds with Quick Revive.

"Oh no…" Judith whispered, taking a step back.

The group could only watched as Eris's shadow slowly rose into the air and took a humanlike shape, picking up the hat and coat that were resting on the ground before. Slim, tall, and utterly black, the figure began to gain features until a face became clear. Crimson eyes opened up on the face and a long flowing black mane became visible. Saem took a step back and horror and quickly pressed his radio.

"Oswald! Jackson! We have a Code Black! I repeat, Code Black" Saem said with a quiver of horror to his voice.

"What!? Are you sure?" Oswald barked.

"Yes sir…he's back" Saem muttered as he clenched his hands.

Harvey Yena observed the massive army in front of him and smiled widely, revealing a white set of razor sharp teeth that stood out against the shadows that were his body.

"It's times like this…when I'm about to kill everything in sight…that I just feel like singing…" Yena said with a laugh as Crow and Wolf formed in Yena's hands. A writhing mass of shadows fluctuated around him as Eris fell to the ground, twitching in pain as she panted on all fours. He then began to sing.

_**(Begin Playing "Carrion" by Kevin Sherwood, sung by Clark S. Nova)**_

_Like a dream when I'm falling and calling out…_

_My resistance is silent._

Yena looked at the hunched over form of Eris, looking up at her Master with an expression of pain and hurt. Yena smiled at his apprentice and sang at her, regret in his words.

_I can feel but I still can't control myself,_

_Please forgive me…_

Yena slowly turned to face the army before him, aiming their guns at him. The undead suddenly burst from the ranks and ran towards him. Saem clenched his fists.

_Now…_

Yena smiled as his eyes flashed crimson, the shadowy tendrils behind him writhing wildly. He tipped his hat forward and as Crow and Wolf were picked up by his tendrils as well. Saem tensed and said "Damn it…"

_Now…_

Yena flung his hands out, causing the tendrils around him to jet forward with an insane amount of speed. The Reclaimer opened fire and ran towards Yena, whose mad grin widened.

_Shadow nothing!_

_All I am!_

_Stalking! killing!_

_All I can!_

The shadows slammed into the first wall of Reclaimer's, impaling them in the chests and ripping through their body mercilessly. Yena laughed maniacally as the ground became slick with blood and gore. Judith screamed in horror, as if she were reliving a horrible nightmare.

_I was spawned from eternal night!_

_By infernal rite!_

_And I need your carrion!_

Yena swung his hand downward and flung the now dying Reclaimer's the ground, the shadow absorbing all of the blood split by the attack. Yena continued to sing as more Reclaimer's fell by the dozens by the ruthless shadows that dove and tore through their ranks mercilessly.

_Neurons fire when I violate!_

_Pupils dilate!_

_And I feel your carrion!_

Yena turned his attention to the Zombies and flicked his hands out, causing the shadowy tendrils to dart forward and rip apart the undead in his wake. Saem growled in frustration, but didn't step forward to confront Yena.

_I could scream but I know I won't hear myself,_

_I'm a slave to synapses_

Yena closed his eyes, seemingly oblivious to the sight of his tendrils picking apart the Zombies in the army in front of him like they were made of tissue and horribly murdering the Reclaimers in his wake.

_In my dream is the sound of a lullaby…_

_Calling…me the_

_one…_

_I'm undone…_

Yena slowly opened his eyes, reaching out and grabbing his pistols from the darkness and ignoring the writhing form of his protégé on the ground, shaking in agony. Yena dove into his shadow and shot like a dart towards the horde of Reclaimers, his tendrils attacking everything in sight. The survivors watched on in horror at the bloodbath taking place.

_And they'll all run from_

_the chosen one…1…5!_

Yena shot out of his shot shadow and into the air still connected to the shadow on the ground like it was a lifeline. He spun in the air, silhouetted against the moon with a horrifying grin on his face.

_Vermin martyr,_

_just as planned!_

Yena then plummeted towards the ground like a lead weight, Saem took a step back and yelled "GET OUT OF THERE HE'S GOING TO-!

_Asking,_

_why must I be damned!?_

Yena slammed onto the ground feet first, creating a massive crater in the ground and sending a wave of deadly shadows in every direction. Hundreds of tendrils snaked through the air, ripping through undead flesh and digging its way through the bodies of Richtofen's followers, spraying the air with blood.

_I was spawned from eternal night!_

_By infernal rite!_

_And I need your carrion!_

Yena slammed the Reclaimer's into the nearest building before retracting the tendrils and sending them towards Saem, who warped on the spot, causing the tentacles to impale the Reclaimer's instead.

_Neurons fire when I violate!_

_Pupils dilate_

_And I feel your carrion!_

Yena flung back his hair, his demented singing increasing in volume as he fired away with Crow and Wolf. Saem then reappeared next to Yena, aiming a punch at his skull. Yena fired several shots as he spun around, killing several more Reclaimer's with a gunshot to the skull.

_I bring doom and defile light,_

_your entire life!_

_Will now cease to carry on!_

Harvey ducked under the blow and bashed the man in the back, sending him stumbling forward. Saem whirled around wildly, fist glowing silver.

_I've returned and I'm not alone,_

_never to atone!_

Yena caught Saem's punch and clutched the hand with a unnaturally powerful grip. Saem felt a thrill of horror got through him as Yena suddenly used his shadows to pull Saem to his knees.

_And forever carry_

_on…_

_and on…_

_Until everyone is gone…_

"No…please don't!" Saem begged as Yena drew Wolf, shadows engulfing Saem completely and cutting off any chances of escape.

_Hear their begging…_

"Don't do it, I beg you Harvey!"

_And their pleading…_

"Don't kill me, we were friends once!" Saem begged as Yena placed the tip of Wolf to Saem's forehead.

_And their crying…_

"_Don't do it! Please-!_

BAM!

_See them bleeding…_

Saem's body dropped to the ground as the Reclaimer's backed up, now that one of their leaders was dead. Yena took aim with Wolf and grinned wildly. Yena advanced towards the horde of enemies, now down by half their number and with one of their leaders down.

_And they run…_

_And run…_

_til' they cannot carry on_

The Reclaimer's began to retreat over the bodies of the slain undead and their slain allies. Yena closed his eyes and all of the blood on the ground began to slowly move towards Yena. Yena simply sang as the blood rushed into his "skin". Yena's eyes grew even brighter as his tentacles slaughtered even more of the Reclaimers, who could do nothing against the 935 Scientist.

Richtofen, hearing the song from atop his tower, frowned. He walked over to the rim of the Tower's roof and looked down on the battlefield and said "Harvey...I am sorry that you have become this monster…but I will not let you stop me…Izzy will be avenged…you know this as well as I…I will not stop for anything!"

_Carry on…_

_Carrion…_

_Carry on…_

_Carrion…_

_Carrion…_

Yena opened his eyes and opened fire on the remaining Reclaimer's in front of him, each shot killing at least one of the followers of Richtofen. Yena cackled merrily as he sang, mania and evil laced in the lyrics that bespoke of the murder and evil in the man's thoughts.

Yena, eyeing he thousands of corpses in front of him, looked up into the sky and began to sing even louder still. His shadows snaked through the streets, killing each Reclaimer one by one and with horrifyingly deadly accuracy, not leaving a single one alive or letting any of them escape his grasp. Yena saw several Reclaimers charge at him from a nearby alleyway and lunged at them, shooting two of them in the head with Crow and ducking under a slash from another one. Yena slammed his pistol into the back of another Reclaimer's skull, killing him instantly. Yena's eyed the corpses around him with a sadistic grin, eyeing the corpses of the Reclaimer's and undead with glee. More blood flowed into his skin, like rivers straight out of a painting of hell.

_Carrion!_

_Carrion!_

_Carrion!_

_And I need your carrion!_

Yena's body slowly began to fade away, even as he slaughtered the last of the Reclaimer group. The Zombies lay slain at his feet and the Reclaimers rested on the ground, mutilated beyond belief and drained of blood.

_Carrion!_

_Carrion!_

_And I feel your carrion!_

_Carrion! Carrion!_

_And I need your carrion_

_Carrion! Carrion!_

_And I feel your carrion!_

_Carrion! Carrion!_

Yena continued to sing, even as more of his body faded away. Yena felt himself being drawn back towards Eris, who lay still as a corpse. Yena sung though, as much to his enemies as the people who he was helping.

_I was spawned from eternal night!_

_By infernal rite!_

_and I need your carrion!_

_Neurons fire when I violate!_

_Pupils dilate!_

_And I feel your carrion!_

_I bring doom and defile light!_

_Your entire life!_

_Will now cease to carry on!_

_I've returned and I'm not alone!_

_Never to atone,_

_and forever carry!_

As the music ended Yena slowly began to sink back into Eris. Yena admired his work, the hundreds upon hundreds of slain Reclaimers and Zombies before him, and said "God I love a good musical number. It's nearly as fun as the killing that goes along with it"

Yena then turned his attention to the group behind him, a small smile playing at his lips. His eyes flashed crimson again, and then he spoke.

"You kids better get going. That bought you time, but not that much. You've got another few hours, and he's about to start opening Agartha soon. Midnight is when everyone on this world will start dying, but Richtofen will begin the process long before then…good luck…" Yena said as he vanished into Eris completely, a cackle filling the air as he departed. Eris's eyes fluttered open and the young woman coughed lightly and sat up, dazed.

"Is he done? I don't remember a thing" Eris admitted.

"Yeah. Come on guys, press the attack! GO!" Maxwell yelled, charging forward and letting loose a barrage of bullets. The survivors next to him followed, albeit still dazed from the slaughter they had just witnessed.

Eris regarded the teens around her and said "I do what I can for Master Yena. He's a dark, tortured soul…no one really sees the good in him but me"

"Your Master is a monster" Judith muttered, looking away.

"I never said he wasn't…but sometimes one can't help becoming a monster…" Eris muttered.

"Guess that makes you special" Jax said wisely. Eris smiled bashfully and said "Maybe..."

"_**Ahahaha, not bad Harvey! I still have many tricks up my sleeve. I will not be denied what I deserve to obtain!"**_ Richtofen suddenly shouted from the M.P.D. Tower in the distance.

Eris scowled and said "I'm heading to the tower to see if I can shut off that pulse. You guys go ahead, don't worry about me"

Eris slowly got her feet with a gasp of pain. She took a moment to steady herself before looking at the group. She gestured for them to move on. The teens reluctantly left without so much as another word. Zero looked back at her and said "Thanks…thanks for everything"

Eris nodded and said "It was fun. Good luck"

The other survivors muttered words of thanks as well, and Eris smiled at them. Zero walked ahead with the others, but the Green Run Crew and Mobsters lagged behind.

"You sure you don't want our help?" Weasel asked softly.

"No…I don't want you all to get hurt any more than you have already" Eris said with a smile.

"How much longer do we have?" Billy asked Eris.

"Not much longer. A few hours. You four need to be getting back too" Eris said to the Green Run Crew.

"You still shouldn't go up there alone" Sal said with a frown.

"I can handle it. You all go help the others…they need you" Eris said softly.

"If that's what you want…" Stuhlinger said in a low voice. He then paused for a moment and said "Were you serious about what you said…back when you saved us?"

"Yep…those kids hold the secret to saving your world…time will tell though" Eris said with a small shrug.

"Come on boys, we should move...Thanks for everything" Sal said with a small nod to Eris before turning around and heading after the survivors and the Bradburn Crew. The other Mobsters quietly thanked Eris as well and went on their way.

Misty walked up to Eris and said "Do me one favor"

Eris nodded.

"Stay alive…If that man is half as scary as Stuhlinger said he was in our world, than you're going to have to be careful in his Tower. So stay alive…you made a promise to us after all" Misty muttered.

"And I plan on making good on that promise" Eris replied.

"Alrighty, let's leave the little lady to her work. She's a tough gal and I think she'll be just fine. Thank you for all your help, Eris" Russman said to the young woman before turning around and walking after the Mobsters. Marlton looked to the young woman and said "Good luck, Miss Eris. May our paths cross again soon"

Misty looked at the retreating figure of Marlton before turning back to Eris and saying "Yeah…you stay safe, got it?"

Misty turned around and walked over to Marlton, leaving Stuhlinger alone with her. Stuhlinger sighed and said "You really think we can turn things around?"

"I know we can. My Master thinks we can fix what happened but…we'll have to wait until _this_ mess is dealt with" Eris replied. Stuhlinger nodded in reply.

Eris then extended a hand forward, and after a moment Stuhlinger shook her hand. Eris smiled and said "You guys are strong. Really strong. Just hang in there, OK?"

"Yeah. OK" Stuhlinger replied with a shaky laugh.

"Now get going. And stay sharp…Richtofen's got some more tricks up his sleeves" Eris said to Stuhlinger, who hesitated for a moment before turning around and heading towards the Tower like his teammates.

Eris grabbed her rifle and slung it back over her shoulder. As she readied herself to Shadow-Walk, she asked Yena something….

"Master…will I see them again? Are we going to our deaths?" Eris asked her master softly.

"_Of course not…You made a promise, and you and I are one now…We will win and survive, so long as we stick to the shadows…" _Yena murmured. Eris nodded and sank into her shadow, just as the battle began to take another turn.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>Another one down. <em>

_What will happen next? Five chapters to go! _

_Make sure to review in the section below! We may have reached the top spot, but we can still go even further!_

_Follow the trail of carnage on twitter, follow me at FlygonNick._

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	46. Agartha

Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead

_OK, so…_

…_This is probably going to be the worst AN I've done yet. Purely because I have some bad news. And by bad, I mean __**absolutely horrible. **__Or some of you will simply not care at all. It honestly just depends, I may be overreacting…but I'm assuming everyone cares, hence the announcement._

_Instead of just beating around the bush, I'm just going to give it to you straight._

_The contest for Second Chances has been cancelled. _

_Yes…that's right. Just ONE CHAPTER after I announce the opening of the contest and release more info about it, as well as achieve the top spot in the COD archive, I have to cancel it. The same contest I've been hyping up for ages, and was the reward I offered to the best damn readers on the site for helping this story reach its peak…_

_Its cancelled. _

_It cancelled simply because I found out that I'm not allowed to do it. My hands are tied on this, and I simply can't do the contest because it's just not allowed on this site. This is why all mentions of the contest have been removed._

_Now, I've already been told by some to say "F*CK IT" and do the contest anyway, but…I can't do that. I follow the rules, and I urge others to do as well, lest they be subject to account or story removal or something like that._

_To some people, I'm a role model... I'm actually looked up to as a writer on here, and I'm not going to start knowingly going against FF. net guidelines because it makes my life easier. I am VERY aware that many author's on this site break the rules, but I will not knowingly do this. _

_I have made modifications to this story so everything that was "bad" is now fixed, with more edits on the way this weel. As much as I want to give you guys a chance to be a part of the magic, I just can't…I really wish I had known this a year ago, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten my sights set on this whole thing…_

_So…I would like to take this moment and say…I'm sorry._

_I'm sorry to everyone who wanted to take part in this. I'm sorry to those who supported me and the story and those I let down because of this. I should've done my research before starting this whole thing, and this is what happens…man…I feel like a total piece of shit right now…_

_I hope that everyone, be you my faithful reviewer's or the silent readers who have followed me for so long, can forgive me for this. I will find a way to make this up to you all. I promise I will._

_I can start by making the last five chapters of this story the best one's yet. This one is probably one of my favorites, simply because I finally found a tie-in with Origins. Another because I now have a Summer to finish this thing, and make it end in the best way possible._

_For those of you who've been wondering why the Celebrities from "Call of the Dead" are not in the story its because...I just didn't care for them. Seriously, there's no great plot to Call of the Dead. The damn map isn't even centered on the character's, its based on the Original Crew stuck there._

_The Green Run Crew being there was planned for ages, and…well, as for the Mob of the Dead Crew showing up, that was actually something you all did with the polls way back. When it came to whether or not you guys wanted to continue the cycle or break the cycle, it ended up being a tie. I was really curious as to how you all would want that to play out, but I'm happy with the result nevertheless. You all didn't really pick the decision, per say, but the feedback I got from the poll helped me figure out what route to take._

_So I chose my own route and did both, and threw my own twist on it. The Mobsters are amazing characters and I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I connected with them much more than the celebrities._

_Hope those explanations helped._

_Anyway, back to my regular AN nonsense._

_Sorry for the delays everyone, but as you all know schoolwork and grades take precedence over pleasure, and I'm pleased to announce that I did really well this semester, which in the end makes my life a lot easier and makes posting this chapter after such a long delay all the more satisfying. Now that the semester is officially over and summer has begun, I expect to have this story finished by the July, and completed edited by September or so. _

_And by edited, I mean very heavy revisions and grammar, spelling, and general revisions. This story will flow much smoother and have several new scenes woven in to make the entire thing better as a whole. _

_On top of that, DOTD "Fragments" will begin shortly after the story is done. _

_However, the deal with that is those chapters will be just scenes that I wanted to put in the story but couldn't for some reason or another, but are still canon to the story and therefore relevant. They will also be VERY short. They are deleted scenes, not deleted chapters. These chapters will have no set schedule for updating, so it could be one day or seven months between updates. It just depends on what happens in the future._

_Also, I'd like to take a second and plug a group of writers who write awesome stories. That's right, the Freelancer Collaboration. A group I just so happen to be a part of. Are you a Red vs. Blue fan like me, but are having trouble finding a badass fic for it?_

_Go to the Freelancer Collaboration profile and take a look at their stories, including "Phase one: Genesis" and the sequel "Phase Two: Betrayal", the latter of which will feature my newest OC-Agent Indiana. Seriously, do it. You'll thank me. Go there now, read the stories, review, tell them I sent you (brownie points for me, tee hee) and support a group of incredibly talented writers dedicated to bringing the best of RvB Fanfiction._

_Anyway, shoutout to those who reviewed last chapter, which includes Lord rage quit, eel3234, Knightmare Frame Razgriz, DigDugDiamond, Trapinchh, doomforzombies16, Dragondude666, ZeroKIA13, Justsomeperson7734, RandomName3064, Killz718, Shadow67100, Mooman1706, TMDF-Artyom, CarriedCoin, Justplainawesome, and two new reviewers known as Percy Jackson I am and Jlyman. _

_Thanks for the love and support guys, you are the BEST READERS EVER…OF ALL TIME._

_Sorry for the delays and…well…for letting you all down with the Second Chances contest. I feel like such a horrible piece of shit right now, and I honestly wish I could pull another amazing 20,000 word chapter out of my hat to make up for it, but I can't. I hope you like this chapter, and I hope you all can forgive me for letting you all down. Maybe I can do something with Second Chances down the road before the official posting or something, but for now, it's up in the air._

_Get ready for a wild chapter…and by that, I mean…_

_CATFIGHT!_

_Enjoy._

* * *

><p>Chapter 46: Agartha<p>

"_Your memory is a monster; you forget - it doesn't. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you - and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!"_ -John Irving

* * *

><p>1995:<p>

Group 935 Restricted Access Room 178:

* * *

><p>"Uncle Yena?" Izzy whispered as she slowly walked into the room. It was nearly pitch black, save for a single light bulb that gave the room an eerie sort of lighting. Izzy fought the urge to shiver as she looked around the room. It was completely bare, save for the figure kneeling in the middle of small pentagram. He was deathly pale and had long jet black hair. He was wrapped up in a straitjacket, decorated with crimson colored runes. However, his eyes slowly opened as the girl approached him.<p>

"_Ah…little Izzy…so good of you…to visit me"_ Yena murmured weakly, his thoughts brushing against her mind.

"Uncle Yena…can you just explain?" Izzy said in a soft voice.

"_Its simple, little one…but sadly…the simplicity of it makes the matter all the harder to solve. It's a pity really, seeing as it permeates the world and all those who live in it"_ Yena drawled. Izzy sighed and said "Uncle Yena…"

"_OK…OK…Sorry, I tend to ramble…It's been a while since someone's talked to me. Sorry kid"_ Yena said in a low voice, as though afraid someone would hear him. Izzy's expression softened as she said "It's OK…Papa said you'll be OK in the end, you just need some time to think"

"_No…I need blood. It's the worst kind of feeling, this is. You're hungry and thirsty in a way that can never be satisfied the normal way. Even absorbing blood from the shadows would work, just so long as it gets in me somehow"_ Yena murmured.

Izzy smiled a little and reached for the small combat knife she had clipped to her belt.

"_No"_ Yena said in a sharp tone.

"W-what's wrong, Uncle Yena?" Izzy asked, surprised at the sudden harshness in his tone.

"_I may need blood, but I'd rather starve for a hundred years before I take a drop of yours, Izzy"_ Yena said in a firm voice.

"Why? Is…is my blood not good enough?" Izzy said in a soft voice, sounding hurt. Yena sighed mentally and said _"No…it's because you're blood is too good for me"_

"What?"

"_You see…whenever I taste blood, I get a taste of that person's essence. That said, I promised myself, when I acquired this strange power, to never harm you or Sieger…unless I had no choice…or…"_

"Or?" Izzy questioned.

"_There may come a time when I will have to test you both. Push you to your limits…after all, I swore to protect you both from harm…what better way to do that then to push you to the very limits myself, should that day come?" _Yena replied.

"That's crazy, why would you attack me or Sieger?" Izzy asked.

"Never out of a desire to hurt you…never that, little one...never that…you both hold so much potential, it is only through times of hardship that you can unleash it. Take me for example…I grew strong through my pain and suffering, I grew to become wise and calculating. That way no one could hurt me anymore…and I've grown from this. This is something you and Sieger must learn…hardship can be humanity's greatest teacher" Yena murmured.

Izzy then smiled sadly at Harvey Yena and said "But Uncle Yena-"

"Izzy?"

The young woman spun around and saw a young black haired boy with bright blue eye watching her, looking scared at what he was seeing. Yena swore lowly and said _"Sieger…I thought he was Edward for a moment…you scared me, kid"_

"What are you doing here, Sieger?" Izzy asked quietly.

"Mommy wanted to talk you. Daddy said that we can't talk to Uncle Yena anymore" Sieger mumbled.

Izzy smiled and said "Well, what Daddy doesn't know won't hurt him. Come over here and sit down"

The little boy looked uncertain as he slowly walked over to his adoptive sister and Uncle, but he sat down next to her anyway. Yena chuckled as he mind brushed against the innocent mind of Richtofen's son and said _"There we go…"_

"Izzy…I'm scared…" Sieger said in a soft voice.

"Why are you scared?" Izzy asked.

"_You're scared of the dark…aren't you Sieger?" _Yena asked the boy, who slowly nodded.

"_That's natural for someone your age…even those my age can fear the dark. It's OK to be scared_…" Yena whispered in their minds. Sieger frowned as Yena said _"Fear of the dark though, is interesting though, considering it is not the darkness we fear"_

"What is it then?" Izzy asked.

"_It is what lurks within the darkness that scares people. The monsters that lie in wait, or the darkness could represent the fear of the unknown, what lies within the darkness that we do not know"_ Yena said to the two young ones.

"_Darkness is one of mankind's greatest fears, because we do not know what lies beyond it…it's up to you all to be the light that shines through it…yes…with knowledge, determination…and maybe even a good heart, light will come…personally the thought makes me cringe, but hey, it's good for everyone else, right?"_ Yena said with an offhanded laugh.

* * *

><p>Present:<p>

Los Angles Battle Field :

* * *

><p>Takeo lunged forward towards the sinister little girl, who suddenly vanished in a burst of green colored flames. A woman's voice, cold and cruel, spoke to him.<p>

"So…you think you can really stop Master Richtofen? YOU? The broken samurai who can only speak in proverbs?" the girl giggled at him.

"Who are you!? Reveal yourself!" Takeo barked at the night air.

"Very well, Mr. Masaki" a cool male voice replied a few moments later.

An explosion of green colored flames appeared in front of Takeo, who took a step back and got into another stance, this one emphasizing defense and caution. The man who stood before him stood about six feet tall and had short black hair and a slim build with a rather blocky face. He adjusted his glasses, which covered his bright blue glowing eyes, and regarded Takeo wryly.

"Not many people see through my disguises. I have to say, you're a bit sharper than Master Richtofen said you were" the man said in a cool, smooth tone.

"What have you done with them?" Takeo asked in a smooth tone.

"They're unconscious in the alleyway, and they'll probably be waking up any minute now. The point of this ruse was to get you all to this spot" the man said with as a cruel smile spread across his face. The man glanced to the side alleyway where Dempsey stumbled into the light, bleeding from the back of his skull and wearing a fierce snarl on his face.

"You…Tak, watch out!" Dempsey yelled as Dempsey leaned against a wall, holding his head.

"To be fair, that blow to the head should've killed you. That said, the concussion I gave you will keep you from doing any sort of damage to me before my Master opens the Gateway" the man said in a cool tone as Dempsey let out a hiss of pain, having been hit much harder than Nikolai.

"Gateway?" Dempsey muttered, his head throbbing even harder. The marine closed his eyes, but as he opened them he felt his vision swim and change…

_He saw a stormy and cloudy sky above him, with rain pouring down on a muddy and decimated battlefield with bodies impaled on stakes. Dempsey saw a massive structure with strange glowing, and oddly familiar, rocks surrounding it. A moment later, Dempsey heard a horrible screeching only caused by metal scrapping metal in the worst way possible._

_**"You have to help me. Please. There is a way to open the gateway. My father was so close. He said... you have to follow the steps…" **_a frantic and pleading voice yelled from within the depths of his mind, like a long lost memory he had forgotten so long ago_. From another time…another life…another realm…_

"What the hell?" Dempsey muttered. Takeo lunged at the man, who smirked and burst into emerald flames as the samurai's katana slashed through him.

"Very well. I will deal with the lot of you here and now. After all, the survivors can't have their heroes around to give them hope. No…that would be hazardous to our plans" Jackson said to the trio, as both sides dared the other to move, to strike.

"Who are you? And why do you speak in a manner that scares small children?" Nikolai asked as he sat up, rubbing his bleeding skull as well. The Russian got to his feet and rolled his shoulder before Jackson reappeared in front of them, scowling at the insult.

"I am Peter Jackson, Keeper of the books and the Head of Intelligence of Group 935. I know all there is to know about this world, and as such I know that it is time for this world to be cleansed in the fires of changed and reborn from the ashes" the man said in a cold voice as two weapons flashed into existence in his hands.

Dempsey recognized them as Wave Guns, though they looked way more advanced than he last remembered, and now resembled sleek silver-ish guns with black trimming on the sides. Jackson held the guns loosely at his sides and said "Yes, you remember these weapons, don't you? These are the latest model, which is based on the very weapon you all saw during your trip to the Griffon Base, all those years ago. I have named these the XY Wave Guns, with five times the power and operating seven times more efficiently than the last model"

Jackson smiled widely and opened his mouth to continue before a massive tremor shook the area, causing the warriors to tighten their grips on their weapons. Jackson chuckled and said "Master Richtofen is about to begin. The Elemental Staff's will guide the souls of the damned to Agartha as Master Richtofen opens the gateway. Once he takes control of the energies within…well"

Jackson raised both of his Wave Guns and opened fire on Takeo who dove to the side and pulled out his Famas with one hand, spraying a stream of bullets at Jackson who jumped into the air and shimmered bright green before turning shrinking in size. The trio watched in surprise as he turned into a hawk and dove at Takeo, who tried to shoot the bird out of the sky, only for it to burst into green flames upon scoring a shot.

"Nice try. I can change my shape to be whatever I want, and my invisibility…well, according to my calculations, you imbeciles don't have the capacity to hit me without seeing me" Jackson chuckled.

Dempsey growled and said "You've got no idea who're you're talking to, do you?"

A burst of green flames exploded into existence above Dempsey, who pulled out his Remington Model Army and fired a shot into Jackson's skull, sending him tumbling out of the air. The man lightly landed on the ground and fired a shot at Dempsey, who barely dodged the silver beam of light with a swear. Takeo lunged at Jackson, who began to swiftly dodge the slashes of the samurai and managed to disarm Takeo by going invisible and slamming his fist into Takeo's chest, cracking several ribs with the blow.

"TAK!" Dempsey yelled as the Samurai fell to the ground. Nikolai let out a yell of rage and threw himself at Jackson, who went crashing onto the ground as Nikolai tackled him. The furious Russian slammed his right fist into Jackson's skull repeatedly until the man vanished from sight and an unseen force slammed into Nikolai's face, sending him rolling off of Jackson. The man reappeared and snapped his fingers, causing his Wave Guns to reappear in his hands. He opened fire on the Takeo, who managed to get to his feet.

"I WILL NEVER FALL!" Takeo snarled as he drew his Katana and began blocking each of the blasts. Jackson's lips curled up in annoyance before his guns were shot out of his hands, which were now slick with blood. Jackson's eyes snapped to Dempsey, who was holding his Remington Model Army in his hand and smirking slightly. Takeo gritted his teeth and held his broken ribs as he began to treat the ribs by injecting them with Quick Revive.

"Get him" Dempsey said in a cool tone as Jackson took aim at Dempsey with a Wave Gun that flashed into his hands. The man blinked in confusion before a fist slammed into the back of Jackson's skull, courtesy of Nikolai. The scientist crashed onto the ground with a howl of agony and somehow rolled to his feet, though he was clearly disoriented. Nikolai grinned savagely as he grabbed his sickle and swung it towards Jackson's skull, going in for the kill.

Jackson suddenly vanished from sight and Nikolai's sickle soared through the air. The Russian, spun around, his lips set in a snarl as he looked for his target. Nikolai suddenly howled in pain and fell to ground as something slammed into the back of his skull, leaving a bloody gash there. Jackson reappeared and laughed softly as he pulled out a Cobra and fired it at Dempsey, who sidestepped and returned the favor by shooting him with his Remington Model Army. Jackson jerked back with a grunt as the bullets tore through his body, but the wounds simply sealed up a few moments later before Dempsey was blasted in the chest by the upgraded Wave Gun, and was sent crashing onto the ground as five shots slammed into his chest. Jackson grinned widely as the three soldier's got to their feet, sporting bleeding wounds and looks of annoyance and anger on their faces.

"Ah…you're getting mad. Good…then you'll enjoy what's coming next…behold!" Jackson said as he gestured towards the M.P.D. Tower…

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

"At last…" Richtofen breathed as he opened his eyes. He eyed the four Staffs of the Ancients, each one able to harness the elements of nature placed at the four pedestals that rested atop the tower. These Staffs were the key to opening the Gateway to Agartha…

Just like they had done, all those years ago. In another life, another timeline, another world.

"The memory's…these Staffs have shown me much in such a short time…the struggle for power, Maxis's foolishness, a battle in the first World War that the world would come to forget, and of course…the power of Ancient's, lost for all time…or vas it?" Richtofen whispered.

"Vell…ve vill correct that mistake at once" Richtofen said as he turned to face the M.P.D. Richtofen allowed his powers to come forth, and soon he was surging with energy. He flung his hands to the sky, and as he did so the four Staff's glowed bright white.

"_**Hear me, Ancient Spirits of the Past!" **_Richtofen cried to the heavens.

"_**I give you zhese souls, the souls of those who have fallen, as a tribute to open the scared realm. As the Elemental Staffs as my guide, reveal your power to me so that I may cleanse this evil world of all that corrupts it. Grant me the power to destroy this twisted existence and create a new world!"**_

"_**REVEAL YOURSELF! GATEWAY TO AGARTHA!"**_ Richtofen bellowed to the sky, unleashing a massive surge of energy to the heavens. The M.P.D. flashed bright white as well and fired a stream of light into both the sky and into Richtofen's heart. The four Staff's suddenly flashed white before firing red, blue, purple, and yellow beams of light into the sky.

Richtofen's face contorted into a grimace of agony as he felt his energy being sucked away at a rapid pace. Even the thousands upon thousands of souls he had harvested didn't seem to be enough-

_BOOM._

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"NO!" Samantha screamed as the entire sky turned pitch black as a result of the beams of light shooting into the sky. Sieger's blue eyes closed as he softly swore under his breath. The final few planes that remained in the sky swooped down for landing on the outskirts of the city, knowing that despite wanting to carry on the attack, it was pointless now.<p>

"He's getting ready for the final phase. It takes a lot of time for him to ready himself to carry out the last part, so we've still got time. Three hours left by my estimate" Sieger said tiredly as he got to his feet. Samantha looked at him worriedly and said "You OK?"

The young man looked at her with a wan smile and said "I'll be fine…as long as you stick by my side that is"

Samantha blushed a faint pink as Sieger summoned his sword to his hands and said "Come on…we're almost to the end. We've got to show him truth"

"But with Agartha opened…how will we break through to him?' Samantha asked Sieger softly as she looked up into the sky once more. A small blue hole in the sky began to form, a mere dot in size from the distance they were seeing it from, but it was obvious that this hole would grow and grow until Richtofen's grasp on the energies within was strong enough for him to wipe out everything.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"See? Master Richtofen has begun. By midnight, the cleansing shall begin and this world will begin anew…accept your fate while you still can." Jackson said softly as he looked up at the four beams of red, blue, yellow, and purple light being shot towards the heavens.<p>

"This world will burn away, and be reborn from the ashes. A perfect world…the evil will not be allowed to walk free, the good will not perish but will become immortal…a good world…a world that little Izzy would've wanted to be in" Jackson said the last part in a very soft voice.

The three soldiers, however, were not listening to Jackson's words. As they beheld the Elemental Staff's being fired into the air, they felt something in their memories stir. A battle they had never seen before, and a battle they had never fought in began to play in their minds. It was them, but not quite them.

The group felt a strange surge of energy rush through them as the memories flashed through their minds. Another fight, another life…but it was still them. They looked towards the M.P.D. Tower in the distance and saw the beams of light shooting towards the sky, and knew that the Staff's were the source of these memories.

Takeo smirked as he looked away from the tower and said "I see now…this battle is simply one that has not yet ended…it continues in both our world and the other one as well! The past holds the origins or our struggles, while the future remains dark as well!"

"Zombies, robots, and strange dimensions. Makes me kinda miss my old ops…not!" Dempsey chuckled.

"I find it odd, that once again we find ourselves on the battlefield together, though…this time without the Doctor by our side" Nikolai muttered.

"Yeah…seems like we're still fighting the same damn fight that we did before. Us against Zombies and power-hungry scientists. And if that's the case, then we should crank things up a notch" Dempsey smirked as more memories flowed into their minds. Nikolai nodded and said "Then let us kick some ass!"

The three soldiers held their hands out, moved both arms behind them, and then launched a punch at Jackson, who suddenly cried as a wave of fire, ice, and lightning slammed into him and sent him crashing onto the ground.

Takeo smirked as the wraith of fire around him and admired the flames licking the sword he carried with him. As he swung it experimentally, he murmured "The flames of battle burn hotter than the flames of hell…"

"Ah, the coldness of the Ancient's! I forgot how good it feels!" Nikolai said cheerfully as he eyed the frozen sickle (lolz) in his hands before glancing down at his body, which was giving off a faint bluish aura of frozen energy.

"ORAAH! THUNDERFIST BITCHES!" Dempsey yelled as swung his surging Bowie Knives at Jackson, who vanished into thin air before the electricity hit him. Dempsey grinned evilly and said "Oh yeah, this just got fun. Come on Jackson, where'd all that confidence go? I thought you were going to kick our asses?"

"It seems this one is cautious…he is wise to fear our strength, now that the power of the Ancestors has been reawakened" Takeo murmured as he got into a defensive stance.

"But how!? They…these idiots never even fought at that excavation site! How can they have the powers of the Ancients! Only the soldiers from the other timeline had those powers!" Jackson stammered in confusion.

"The memories of the Ancient's are strong…" Takeo murmured. Dempsey and Nikolai looked at the warrior in confusion, and he smiled at them. His mind had processed the memories and made sense of them much quicker than the others.

"It would seem these memories are one's that are from another version of ourselves…in another time" Takeo said to the others, who looked at him in confusion.

"Other version? Your talking time travel stuff, right?" Dempsey asked Takeo, who nodded.

"It seems the One Inch Punch, or rather the Iron Punch since we possess the stronger version, and the memories that come with it allow us to see what has happened in that other time" Takeo explained.

"You mean the Thunderfist and the Elemental Punch, right?" Dempsey said with a smirk.

"I like Dempsey version, so much simpler and more cool" Nikolai chuckled.

"Still sounds kinda crazy…I mean, how can we have memories that aren't our own? Can we prove it?" Dempsey asked Takeo, who was smiled slightly.

"How did you know it was called Thunderfist, Dempsey?" Takeo questioned.

"Shit. You got me there Tak" Dempsey chuckled.

"This was an unexpected turn of events to be sure…" Jackson muttered. He seemed quite rattled, and Dempsey naturally made fun of him for it.

"Ooh, unexpected huh? You should've expected something kickass when you tried to take on Tank Dempsey! Now get out here and fight me like a man!" the marine yelled into the air.

"Hardly…I am simply recalculating my attack plan…" Jackson muttered in an annoyed tone.

"Oh really?" Dempsey said coolly.

Dempsey whirled around and eyed the air next to him before smiling widely.

"Boo" Dempsey whispered as he leaned forward. Jackson yelped, reappeared out of surprise and tried to get away, but Dempsey slammed a fist into his stomach and sent him crashing onto the ground several feet away, shuddering in pain from having the electricity jammed into him. Jackson pulled himself into a sitting position while the three Super Soldiers looked down at him with disdain.

"How quickly bravado goes out the window, when one lies flat on their ass" Takeo commented dryly as he leveled his sword at Jackson, who went invisible once more. Takeo smirked and lashed out with his sword, only for it to meet resistance. Before Takeo could do more than register what had happened, a force slammed into his chest and sent him crashing onto the ground. Takeo's katana clattered to the ground as Dempsey and Nikolai rushed in and Jackson vanished into thin air once more. Nikolai let out a bull-like bellow and dove forward, causing someone to yell out in pain and crash onto the ground with Nikolai. Jackson scowled and slammed his fist into Nikolai's back again and again, but Nikolai held firm and wrestled the man to his feet, gripping him in a powerful bear hug.

"Hold still! This'll only hurt a lot!" Dempsey yelled as he drew back his fist and ran at Jackson, who suddenly burst into emerald flames and emerged as a massive python that hissed and snarled at them. Nikolai yelped in surprise and let go, and the snake lunged at him, only for a flaming sword to intercept the strike and behead the serpent, which exploded in green flames once more.

"I will not allow you to harm them!" Takeo cried as he lunged forward, stabbing the air. A cry of pain broke through the night as Jackson reappeared, Takeo's blade stabbed through his stomach. Jackson's face was contorted in agony, but he summoned his Wave Gun and blasted Takeo directly in the chest with the gun, sending him flying backwards onto the ground with a cry of pain.

"TAKEO!" Nikolai and Dempsey yelled. The old warrior rolled to his feet and landed in a crouch, gritting his teeth in pain.

Jackson fell to his knees as he tried to stem the flow of blood, but only managed to press his hands against it before Dempsey slammed an electrically charged fist into his skull, sending him hurtling down the alleyway and into a wall. Nikolai scowled in fury and ran at Jackson, who went invisible once again and slipped away. Nikolai stopped in his tracks and looked around quickly, trying to figure out where he went. Suddenly he tensed as something began to wrap around him, constricting his movements.

"He has got me!" Nikolai grunted as his hands grabbed something squishy wrapped around his back. He drew his fist back and slammed it into the object, which snarled in pain and became visible. The snake that was wrapped around Nikolai had a liberal coating of ice on its scales as it tried to slither away, but Dempsey shot it in the head before it could go invisible again.

Jackson suddenly appeared in a burst of emerald flames, howling in agony as blood streamed from his skull. Dempsey grinned as he sped forward with an inhuman burst of speed and drew both of his Bowie Knives as Jackson turned away from him, trying to go invisible once more. Dempsey drew both hands back and drove both of his electrically-charged Bowie Knives through each of Jackson's lungs, twisting them savagely in his body to increase the pain the man would go through. Jackson's body trembled as he whispered "Master Richtofen…forgive me…"

Jackson howled in agony before exploding in a wraith of green flames, his scream of despair echoing on the wind. Dempsey lowered his blades and let out a deep breath of relief.

"Well done, Dempsey. You as well" Takeo nodded to Nikolai. "You both have the heart of a true warrior"

"Thanks Tak. You were pretty badass yourself" Dempsey replied as the soldier's began to treat their wounds.

"Nikolai commends you both for kicking so much ass" Nikolai said with a grin as he popped open a fresh bottle of vodka. He raised the bottle to his lips before he paused, looked at the bottle for a moment, and then slowly handed the bottle to Takeo, who blinked in surprise.

"Nikolai has thought hard on this. Maybe we are not so unalike, right?" Nikolai said to the other two warriors, who exchanged a look.

Takeo regarded the bottle of the Russian's precious drink, the very substance that was his only way of survival for a time, and smiled a little. The Samurai pressed the bottle to his lips and took a small drink of the bottle.

Takeo's eyes widened as he suddenly began to cough and sputter, shuddering at the taste of the drink. Dempsey burst out laughing and said "Tak! Don't tell me you're a lightweight!"

"I do not drink such things…disgusting…How can you stomach such a vile thing" Takeo muttered, shivering slightly. He looked at Nikolai with a weak smile, who shrugged and offered the drink to Dempsey, who smiled and said "Thanks"

The Marine took two swigs of the bottle before handing it back to Nikolai, who downed the rest of it. The three warriors had a moment of peace, dwelling on their victory over Jackson, until-

"_So…you three killed Jackson…"_ came a low yet familiar voice.

"Richtofen…" Takeo murmured, looking towards the tower.

"_I admit, I vas not expecting you three to defeat him. Then again, Jackson was blessed vith brains, not brawn or skill. Kudos to you, though in zhee end it still does not matter" _Richtofen said in a smooth tone.

"_This world will burn. It will burn until nothing is left…the world will pay for what it did to me and my Isabella…On zhee other hand., you three should have perished years ago…but I was blinded and foolish in my quest for power…now I will correct that mistake, of not dealing with you three…zhis vill be the last we shall speak…farewell"_ Richtofen said in a soft tone, his presence fading from their minds.

"So, that was a thing. Now what?" Dempsey asked the others.

"We must regroup with the others. The soldiers who were accompanying us stayed back to assist the wounded, so we must press on and assist the others" Nikolai replied.

"We are far from the battlefield. Time is not our ally" Takeo murmured.

"Shit…OK, here's the plan. We run for tower, get there, and hold that position so that the others can scale the Tower. We watch their sixes until they get to the top of the tower, and kick that Kraut's ass" Dempsey said to the other two men, who looked at him oddly.

"Why do they have to fight him?" Nikolai asked.

"Well…Samantha does. The others will back her up" Dempsey clarified.

"Why not us? Is it not our duty to stop him, since we helped him attain this power in the first place?" Nikolai asked Dempsey, who smiled at him in response. Dempsey sighed, his smile still on his face, and said "Nah…we're done"

"Done? What do you mean?" Takeo asked the marine.

"Let's face it guys…our fight's done. We've been at this for years, and we should've died ages ago but we age super slow thanks to all of the 115 exposure and the Super Soldier injections. We need to let go, and let someone else be the hero" Dempsey said in a rather tired, but satisfied tone.

"This does not sound like you, Dempsey" Takeo murmured.

"Heh…yeah, weird huh? I guess it's my old ages getting to me…" Dempsey smirked at the even older warrior.

"I…do see what you mean though. We're part of an older breed, yes? One generation that preceded another" Nikolai replied.

"Technically we missed a few, due to the hiding and fear that if we had sex we'd poison our partner or something thanks to how much crap we have affecting our bodies" Dempsey added.

"But we have children now. Bright, strong, and brave children who have spent their lives training for this. To fight the undead and protect others, just as we have done" Nikolai said to the others, who nodded at him.

"Yeah…We just have to let the next generation take the reins and protect this beautiful blue ball we call Earth" Dempsey said to the two others, who smiled at that.

"Our daughters have grown strong and wise. I would enjoy being able to watch Chan honor her name with her service to the world" Takeo murmured with a small smile, the smile of a proud father.

"Iva is a genius, and deserves to do whatever she wants…though she'd probably want to stick with that Joe kid" Nikolai said with a shrug, though he was smiling too

"Nerds of a feather flock together" Dempsey shrugged.

Takeo smirked and said "Yes, he-"

VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRN…!

"What the hell!?" Dempsey yelled as a deafening warning siren blasted through the air. Several balls of fire shot into the sky, though none of the three men saw them.

VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRN…!

"Prepare yourselves! Something approaches!" Takeo yelled.

VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRN…!

"What could that be!? And why do I feel the need to shit my pants in horror!?" Nikolai yelled, earning a dirty look from Takeo and an amused smirk from Dempsey. A fireball shot towards the ground and slammed into the ground thirty feet away from the three soldiers, who reacted on instinct and jumped back and readied their weapons.

The creature that stood before them was seven feet tall and wore bulky, grey metal armor that seemed thick enough to withstand most gunfire. Its face was a dull grey color with orange-yellowish eyes, hidden behind a misty white glass visor. It's body was thick and incredibly powerfully built, with one hand having some sort of weapon attached to the end of it while the other had a massive claw for a hand. A sleek thruster pack of some sort was attached to the back of the creature, who also had several guns attached to its body as well.

"…Dempsey?" Takeo asked after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah?"

"I will break my…code, so to speak, for a moment. I must say something in a manner that only you Americans have mastered" Takeo muttered.

"Go for it Takeo" Dempsey replied.

"_Son of a bitch!_" Takeo growled in annoyed tone, breaking his calm and cool demeanor. Nikolai snickered while Dempsey laughed as well. The Panzar Soldat suddenly shuddered and said in a low robotic voice _"It will bring me great pleasure in killing you…long live the Doctor…"_

"BRING IT!" Dempsey yelled at the robot.

"_If you insist…"_

The Soldat raised its left arm and shot its claw at Dempsey who jumped to the side and dodged the claw, which after a beat returned to its owner. Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo all opened fire on the armored soldier, but to their dismay it was hardly taking any damage.

"…See, that's like the one thing from that past that I DON'T want to remember!" Dempsey yelled as the Panzar Soldat let loose a blast of flames at the trio, who jumped back as one to avoid the flames.

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Dempsey growled as he flicked his Bowie Knives in his hands to a backwards grip.

Takeo smirked and simply said "We fight…And we win"

"Sounds good to Nikolai! Let us fight!" the Russian bellowed as the Panzar Soldat moved in.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

M.P.D. Tower Floor 5

* * *

><p>"Damn!" Eris yelped as she stumbled forward. She glanced upwards and felt a shiver go down her spine.<p>

"Looks like he's started the process. By Midnight the slaughter will begin" Eris muttered.

"Come on…we need to hurry" Yena muttered in Eris's mind. The scientists' servant nodded and ducked into her shadow before scurrying along the floor. Two Blade Zombies stood guard next to a large generator that was reinforced with very strong looking metals. Eris smirked as she allowed two shadow tendrils to snake their way to the Zombie's guarding the Killswitch.

The first Zombie went down as it's throat was crushed and it's head was removed from its body. Before the first Blade Zombie could do more than groan, the second Zombie had a massive tendril burst through its chest, tearing through its body before wrapping around it's skull and crushing it like a cherry.

"God I love killing stuff" Eris said with a small laugh, relishing the blood flowing into her from her shadows absorbing it.

"_Does it make you randy, Little One?"_ Yena murmured in the blond woman's mind. Eris flushed pink and said "Shut up…I get it from you"

"_True. You were such a good girl before we met"_ Yena chuckled as Eris slipped out from the shadows. She glanced around the room as she walked towards the generator. She admired it for a second before she simply drew his hand back and thrust her hand forward. Her shadow shot forward and reached towards the generator and began picking through the metal, boring through the thick and powerful metal within seconds. Eris could only smile as she felt the generator shudder and fail, causing the pulse that rendered all Pack-A-Punched and Wonder Weapons useless to turn off.

"There we go…" Eris said in a soft voice as her shadows retreated into her own shadow.

"_We should get back to the fight" _Yena murmured in her mind. Eris nodded, but just as she summoned the shadows around her a sharp voice said "And just where do you think you're going!?"

Eris whirled around and saw a young woman with short black hair glaring daggers at her, grabbed in a Group 935 lab coat and crossing her arms. Eris scowled and said "How'd she sneak up on me?"

"_Sophia has always been able to do that. She's good at hiding" _Yena said dryly.

"Well, it'll be ages before I can repair the killswitch…There's no point now, not when the Edward is so close" Sophia muttered.

A man suddenly called out "Are we having a party in here?"

_"Oswald...lovely"_ Yena said dryly as the scientist descended down the stairs.

"I've got this handled" Sophia said in a clipped tone to the man, who chuckled darkly.

"If you insist. I'll keep an eye on the battlefield for you...though I'll have to release the beast if things keep going the way they've been over the pas few hours" Oswald said in a taunting tone as he vanished in a burst of fire.

"Get out of here if you know what's good for you. I'm going to kill that Richtofen and end this whole thing myself" Eris growled to Sophia.

"Not a chance. I'll die for Edward if I have to, though that's assuming you can defeat me now that I have realized my full potential as a 115 Conduit" Sophia said as a small but dark smile grew on her face.

"Master…I don't think she is bluffing" Eris told Yena, who yawned in a bored tone.

"_She's bluffing. The amount of calculations Edward would have to figure out o calibrate and stabilize her powers is too much for him. Though if he did figure it out, we'd-"_ Yena began to said before Sophia flung out her hands and let out a scream.

Her entire body erupted in a shower of white and blue fire, swirling around her as her skin vanished and was replaced with a fiery layer of protection that flowed like lava. Her short black hair became yellow and her skin now resembled that of fire, orange with red, white, blue and black flickering through her. She clenched her fists and said "So much power…I can barely contain it, but I have to. Now that we're so close to the end, I have to be strong"

"For Izzy" Yena and Sophia muttered at the same time. Sophia gasped as Yena slunk out of Eris's shadow, looking at Sophia with an expression of sadness. His jet black body hunched

"_Sophia…don't do this. We're trying to save Edward from himself. His grief has maddened him, just like it did to Illuzio. Why would we all betray him if we were not right?"_ Yena said to the woman, who laughed loudly.

"Harvey, it'll be a cold day in hell before I listen to your justifications. You're the one who started this whole thing in the first place!" Sophia shot back at Yena, who chuckled.

"_Maybe so. But the other Richtofen started it…wait…no, technically Maxis gained power and betrayed the group who was helping him…so maybe it's Maxis's fault"_ Yena conceded.

"ENOUGH! I'm done talking! You've ruined enough of our plans, Harvey. You and this bitch are a hindrance to us and an insult to Izzy's memory. I thought you were better than that Harvey…" Sophia whispered.

"Bitch?" Eris deadpanned. Yena growled and said _"That little girl was precious to me as well, Sophia! You forget that she was the only thing that kept me from slaughtering you all once upon a time! You have to let her go!" _

"No…Edward will change this world like Izzy wanted us too. We're doing this because we want a world without war, without corruption…without rape, murder, crime, hate, or anger. A perfect world, leading to the improvement of the human condition. Group 935's time of glory has arrived, Harvey Yena, and you will not live to see it" the woman said in a very cold tone.

Sophia flung her hands out and a massive torrent of flames soared towards Eris, who dove to the ground like water and sank into the shadows. Eris popped out of the ground behind Sophia and spun in the air, slamming her foot into the head of the Richtofen's Lead Researcher and sent her flying across the room. Sophia righted herself in midair and landed in a crouch, her face in a snarl. Eris leveled her sniper rifle at Sophia and said "Come on…make my day"

"Gladly!" Sophia growled.

"_CATFIGHT!"_ Yena roared as Eris and Sophia dashed towards each other, shadows and flames surging around them.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"What the-!?" Joe yelled as his fists shuddered violently. The Fists of Thor began to crackle with electricity again and Joe felt the fists become both lighter and easier to use. He flexed his hands and blinked in surprise before someone yelled "The Tower! The Tower stopped making that pulse!"<p>

"Are you serious!?" Nicholas said in surprise. He was answered by an arrow that soared by his ear and slammed into the knee of a Reclaimer with a M72 LAW, who howled in pain before Judith sniped him with her Deadly Specimen Reactor, ending his life. The survivors pulled out their now-functional Pack-A-Punched Weapons and opened fire on the Reclaimer's, who began to fight back even harder. Slowly but surely the survivors began to gain ground. With the help of the Green Run Crew and with the Mobsters leading the main fighting force, the Reclaimer's quickly lost ground.

Samantha laughed and said "Everyone! RELOAD!"

Every single man, woman, and child quickly reloaded every weapon they had as Samantha held her hands out in front of her. Her hands glowed bright green and a moment later a small ball of green light materialized in front of her. Weasel walked through it with a downright evil smirk as Samantha bellowed into the night _**"MAX AMMO!"**_

The survivors felt their weapons and ammo clips return to, completely full. Grenades appeared on their belts and person as well. Samantha swayed on her feet, only for Sieger to catch her as she fell. Samantha blushed pink as Sieger steadied her on her feet.

"Thanks" Samantha said in a soft tone. Sieger nodded and summoned Lux and Fatum to his hands and opened fire. Samantha simply sprinted ahead and yelled _**"Zombie Blood!"**_

Her entire body flashed green and red before vanishing completely. She summoned the Staff of Magnus and began stabbing and jabbing anyone she could get while Sieger mercilessly shot their enemies, mowing down the Reclaimer's who were forced back with his enchanted pistols, downing an enemy with every shot.

"We need backup! Captain Oswald, we need backup!" one Reclaimer yelled frantically into his radio before being silenced by an arrow to the chest, courtesy of Jess.

Nicholas took cover behind a destroyed car with Juliet, and after a moment they both sprinted from cover, opening fire on the fresh spawned horde of Zombies that came charging towards the group. Juliet ducked and weaved through the horde, blasting them apart with her SCAR-H while Nicholas protected her with his Porter's Mark II Ray Gun, tearing through the Zombie's like they were made of paper. A Screecher came charging towards the duo, but Nicholas brought up Aegis to black it's slash and jumped back, letting Juliet run forward as she brought up her chainsaw and drove it through the Zombie's skull.

"DIE YOU UNDEAD DOUCHEBAG!" Juliet yelled furiously.

"I have the weirdest boner right now!" Nicholas stated as Juliet tore the Zombie in have with her chainsaw. Nicholas dashed to her side and slashed at a nearby trio of Zombie's with his Golden Spork, downing them instantly. He put away his Speakeasy and pulled out his Hell's Redeemer before hurling it as hard as he could. The magical tomahawk soared through the air and slammed into a faraway Reclaimer's skull. After a moment, it tore itself free and went spinning back to Nicholas, killing seven Zombies on the way back.

"God I love Black Ops Zombie's logic!" Nicholas laughed as he and Juliet pressed on.

Nick yelped as an explosion tore through her cover and sent him stumbling backwards. He grabbed a grenade from his belt and hurled it through the air, landing on the ground in front of a Reclaimer with an AK-47 that was giving Serenity trouble. The explosion went off, killing the Reclaimer instantly, and Nick got a thumbs up from the English girl who sprinted past him with Starch close behind.

The two ran towards a Blade Zombie that was tearing through two older marines who went down with blood drenching their bodies. Serenity threw a Symtex grenade at the Zombie, which slashed at it and caused the explosive to go off in its face, though it did little damage. Starch sprinted up to the Zombie and let loose a wave of fire in its face, causing the undead creature to stumble backwards with an inhuman yell of pain.

Not two seconds later, a shimmering blue arrow slammed into the Zombie's forehead, killing it instantly and downing it for good. Jess laughed as she ran along a series of cars, shooting arrows as Marcus kept any assailants off of her with his Petrifier, slowing down and destroying any Zombies that approached. Juliet fired a series of pods into the area, sending a wave of acid through the hordes that kept pouring into the streets. Weasel joined in after a moment, and soon the Reclaimer's and Zombies were coated in the acid.

"I IS A ROYAL PRINCESS!" Serenity yelled as she fired away with her Reznov's Revenge. Starch chuckled at the display but added his bullets to her's as more and more undead poured into the streets in ever greater numbers.

Jax took a second to marvel at the sheer number of undead coming at them, hundreds of them pouring into the street with each passing second. He hefted his Zeus Cannon up and let loose a wave of air, clearing the block with just a single shot. Clutch Odd and Red took up positions next to Jax and opened fire on the few Reclaimer's that remained, killing them instantly. Red grunted as a sniper round went through his shoulder and fell to one knee. Jax bent down and injected the wound with the healing fluid, and Red stood up tall, nodded to Jax, and then took aim and let loose an entire clip from his Shadowy Veil Utilizer, blasting apart the undead streaming into the streets. A massive explosion of noise erupted out of a nearby alleyway a few moments after Red reloaded, and four Juggernaut Zombies burst onto the streets, yelling incoherently as they pounded through the survivors.

"Alright! Give them hell!" Sal yelled to the others, who nodded. Russman and Finn

Iva and Joe yelled out as an explosion blasted them off of their feet and crashing onto a totaled car. Joe got to his feet first and pulled out his M115 Cauterizer, blasting at the Zombie charging at them. Iva grinned savagely and pulled out her Afterburner and added her gunfire to Joe's, and within a few moments the two teens had cleared a way forward for themselves.

"Go! Go! Go!" Maxwell yelled as he blasted away with his Ray Gun and one of his KAP-40's, grinning widely as the Zombie's fell to his attacks. Misty and Marlton ran alongside him, shooting anything that came within fifty feet of them and keeping the Zombie's repelled.

Sal and Finn stood back to back, having been surrounded after going too far ahead, as the undead swarmed around them.

"I got the ones on the left, you get the ones on the right" Sal ordered as he tightened his grip on his WN.

"There's twice as many on the right" Finn said in a joking tone as he took aim with his LSAT.

"I know. I can count" Sal said as he took aim with his Thompson and opened fire, with Finn doing the same. The two Mobsters held their ground as the undead swarmed around them, and after a few moments they were joined by Misty and Russman, who added their gunfire to theirs. Russman smirked as he blasted apart a few Zombies with a single shot from his Sassafras, meanwhile Misty had a sadistic grin on her face as the undead hordes fell to her Actuated Neutralizer 94000. A Zombie then suddenly broke into their circle, charging towards Sal-

"GET SOME!" Andrew yelled as he jumped off of a car and landed on the Zombie, stabbing it in the head I the process. Sal and Finn nodded at Andrew, who twirled Gutripper in his hands casually before lunging forward and stabbing a Nazi Zombie with it. Misty gave the teen a thumbs up while Russman shrugged and turned around, blowing apart more of the undead with his Pack-A-Punched War Machine.

John fired shot after shot of his Winter's Fury, freezing the Zombie's as they poured into the streets while Kara and Chan stood nearby, shooting the Zombies as they froze and became easy targets for their weapons.

"God I love this! No wonder our dad's get off on killing stuff!" Kara laughed as she blew apart a trio of Zombies. Chan nodded in agreement while John said in a tired but amused tone "Yeah…I have to admit, it's a rush"

"DAMN STRAIGHT!" Jordan yelled as he and Jared made their way forward, giving cover to Vice and Zero, who were charging ahead and slashing at the undead with their weapons. Vice grinned tiredly as he caved in a Zombie's skull with his Arbiter's Staff while Zero downright cackled as two Zombies were beheaded thanks to the flaming sword known as Lucifer.

Jared fired a shot from his Tagger rifle, distracting some of the Zombies with the bullet, allowing Jameson Morris to run ahead and blast them all to bits with his Remington. A bullet then soared by him and slammed into the skull of a woman with a Tac-40, killing her instantly. Morris shuddered and then turned towards the attacker, who laughed at their kill and said "Boom! You're next!"

BAM!

The teen's chest exploded in a shower of blood as a sniper round blasted him right in the heart. Jameson glanced behind him and saw Judith walking up to him, Dead Specimen Reactor raised.

"I'm so tired of people having to die…it's like watching Liam get killed again and again" Judith muttered as he reloaded her rifle and went to go find better cover to snipe from.

Billy and Weasel made quick work of a squad of Reclaimer's heading down the street, guns a blazing. Weasel casually fired a series of pods in their direction while Sal waited for the explosions of acid to go off. As the Reclaimer's screamed in agony, Billy stepped out from cover and shot each one of them in the face with his Uncle Gal.

Stuhlinger smirked as the Reclaimer's fled into the city and the Zombies kept surging forward, though they were quickly halting with a few short bursts of his SLDG HAMR, which downed a few dozens Zombies before he had to reload. He stood there for a moment, admiring the sight of the enemy retreating until he smelt an intoxicating aroma waft past him.

Fresh Zombie flesh. (Oxymoronic, huh?)

"Damn!" Stuhlinger yelled as a Zombie wrapped his neck and screamed in his ear. However, before the Zombie could administer the deadly bite, Stuhlinger's eyes gained an animalistic gleam and his head bent down as he sank his teeth into the Zombie's arm, ripping it off with his bare teeth. The Zombie staggered backwards, clearly stunned, and a sniper round blasted it in the face and put it out of its misery. Stuhlinger shuddered as he chewed the flesh in his mouth, savoring he taste, and tossed the dismembered arm to the side. He cast a glance back at Judith, the one who shot the Zombie and was downright horrified by what she had seen him do.

"Tell no one…_got it!?"_ Stuhlinger growled at Judith, who nodded shakily. The ex-member of the flesh wiped his mouth and said in a much softer voice "Come on…we need to keep going"

Judith shuddered and kept moving, though she personally was more scared of this creep than the Zombies.

"Yeah! We own these streets bitches!" Finn laughed as he fired his final RPG at a cluster of Reclaimer's with sniper rifles, downing the lot of them. He put the weapon on his back and casually stepped out to the side, grabbed a Galil from a fallen Reclaimer's corpse, along with a few clips of ammo, and got right back to work.

"There we go! Keep on coming so I can cut you down!" Weasel said in a calm yet determined tone, a small yet true smile on his face as he fired a few pods from his Acid Gat, drawing the Zombie's away from the fight and allowing the group to focus on the Reclaimer's, who were the more dangerous of the two enemies.

"Hey Weasel, you sound different" Nicholas said after a short while. Weasel frowned and said "Really? How so?"

"You seem a bit more cheerful. I mean, despite the circumstances, you seem genuinely happy, not that there's anything wrong with that"

"Well…it's kind of hard to explain" Weasel said as he sidestepped a sniper round, only for the attacker to get blasted in the skull by Marlton. Misty grinned at the nerdy man, who smiled back at her before the two rushes forward, laying waste to a group of Blade Zombies. Clutch Odd and Jax joined in and the group took down the small horde and kept going.

"Try me-damn!" Nicholas yelped as a bullet flipped her shoulder. Juliet gasped in surprise and said "You OK?"

"Yeah" Nicholas muttered as he took cover in an alleyway and pulled out one of his few remaining Quick Revive syringes. Weasel ducked into the alleyway with them, concern evident on his face, but said nothing. Nicholas healed the wound, and Weasel's expression lightened and he continued.

"Well…really, it's what you showed us back at Alcatraz. That's why I feel so…hopeful" Weasel explained.

Vice ducked as a stream of bullets soared over his head, courtesy of a Reclaimer with an M8A1, only for the attacker to get a throat-full of bullets courtesy of Serenity who was grinning widely as Vice gave her a salute before spinning around and caving in a Screecher Zombie's skull in with his Arbiter's Staff.

"We went through the cycle so many times…each time ended in people I should've trusted betraying me…no…it was a betrayal because of a betrayal…" Weasel muttered.

Sal laughed as a trio of snipers tried to blast him apart, only for Andrew to fire a grenade at them with his Skullcrusher and blast them into unconsciousness. The Mobster gave the teen a thumbs up and they pressed forward.

"But when you came…that changed" Weasel said as the trio stepped out of the alleyway and ran ahead to catch up with the others, falling into step with Sal, Finn, and Billy.

"You got them to understand…to empathize with me. You made three hardened criminals forgive me…and themselves too" Weasel said o Nicholas, who nodded.

"You ended our nightmare, a nightmare only I could remember reliving again and again. When we died and got sent back to Alcatraz, thanks to the devil…well, we all worked as a team like we never did before. We remembered, they forgave me, and I'm happier for it" Weasel replied, clapping Nicholas on the arm with a grin.

"Weasel's got a point kid…we're only here because of you. We got a second chance at righting some of the wrongs we did" Sal added.

"So you admit that what you did was wrong?" Nick asked the mobster, who nodded.

"Of course. We're all horrible murdering assholes, but we've got to make the most of what time we've been given. If we can somehow help you guys save your world…well, I can die happy knowing I helped stop the apocalypse" Finn said with a grin.

"And on top of that, we get to kill Zombies somewhere else besides that hellhole of a prison" Billy added. The mobsters nodded in agreement as three men armed with Death Machines burst onto the street and opened fire on the group, which scattered. Nicholas yelled out as dozens of survivors fell to the Death Machines and even more died when the Reclaimer's capitalized on the sudden stop in advancement. Marlton let out a yell of horror and quickly put a bullet in the Death Machine wielding Reclaimer's skulls, allowing the group to move forward once more.

Nicholas privately wondered how they were managing to make their way through the streets and avoid the bullets, and as if reading his mind, Samantha looked over at him and said "It's a combination of Stamin-Up, Vulture Aid, and Deadshot. I gave you all every sort of perk in existence, as far as I know. The others don't have every perk, and so they're more likely to die than you all"

"Still, we're getting absurdly lucky" Nicholas protested.

"There's nothing wrong with a bit of luck" Samantha said with a smirk before she vanished in a flash of green light before reappearing above them, pulling out a Mustang and Sally and opening fire on the Reclaimer's below. Russman laughed as the Reclaimer's screamed and said "That girl's pretty damn impressive. Who was she again?"

As Russman was staring at Samantha, a Reclaimer with a Ballista took aim and fired a shot from a mere forty yards away, aiming at Russman's heart but missing several inches to the left.

"RUSS!" Stuhlinger yelled as the old man went crashing to the ground, blood quickly staining his coat as blood poured from his wound. Stuhlinger whirled around and blasted the Reclaimer apart with his SLDG HAMR, spraying the ground with the man's insides and gore as the Pack-A-Punched bullets ripped him apart. Misty knelt down and used a Quick Revive syringe on the gunshot wound while Russman groaned in response.

"Damn…guess that whippersnapper got a lucky shot in" Russman muttered as Misty helped him to his feet. The older zombie slayer smirked and said "Ah well. Gotta learn from your mistakes"

"Too bad that mistakes are all too probable with you in the equation" Marlton muttered. Misty smirked and said "Well, let's step things up a bit. We can't be letting the others show us up"

"You're correct. Let's continue our crusade!" Marlton said eagerly as he watched Billy and Weasel work together to take down a Juggernaut Zombie that had burst into the ranks of the survivors, killing ten of them before being subdued by the legendary mobsters.

Misty dashed through the horde, unloading clip after clip into the undead and making the survivors around her grin in a desire to measure up to the Zombie's Slayer's skill. Misty finished off a horde of fifty in a less than a minute and ended it by blowing the lot of them sky high with a grenade, a savage grin on her face. Marlton smirked and said "Misty, you're as deadly as you are magnificent!"

"You're not so bad yourself, Marlton! How about you show them how we get it done?" Misty said with a playful laugh. Marlton responded by kneeling on the ground behind a destroyed car and taking aim.

The sniper quickly pulled the trigger, blasting the heads off of faraway Zombie's with pinpoint accuracy, all the while Misty watched his back as the other surged forward, now fully armed again. The Reclaimer's fight ferociously, but in the end were slowly forced back.

Within an two hours they made up for everything they had lost, though the Bradburn crew was all too aware of how little time the group had left. The fight was taking too long, and was draining them of whatever energy they would need to fight Richtofen. It was already 10 P.M, and Richtofen was a mere 2 hours away from killing them all. The battle was wearing them all down as well, with even the Mobsters and the Green Run Crew showing signs of tiring, though the grins and excitement never left their faces.

"_What sort of world must they come from, if this makes them so happy?"_ Nicholas wondered as he heard Russman yell out with glee as he obliterated an entire horde with a few well-fired grenades.

"_**ROAAAAAAHHHH!"**_

"What the hell was that!?" Sal yelled as he looked around.

"It's coming from the Tower" John said in a low voice, taking a step back. The Reclaimer's and survivors both took a second to admire the black blob that stuck its head out from the tower. A pair of glowing yellow eyes filled with malice flared at the group from afar as another earsplitting roar filled the air.

"Aww shit…you've got to be kidding me!" Dempsey yelled as a massive roar filled the air. The trio watched in horror as a massive figure burst out of the side of a tower and clambered out of the hole in the middle of the tower. It was jet black in color and was utterly enormous, easily several stories high and several hundred feet around in size. The Original Crew looked on in disbelief as a long neck rose from the blob with a horned head attached to the end. Two massive wings spread from the creature's back as a massive roared filled the night.

"The Doc's got a DRAGON!? WHO WRITES THIS SHIT!?" Dempsey yelled as he the monster opened its mouth and let loose a red and white tongue of fire into the sky. The three heroes readied themselves for the final rush as the dragon's head turned toward them and the loud cackle of Edward Richtofen filled the air.

A great cackle of madness, glee, rage, pain…and worst of all-

Sorrow.

* * *

><p>Flashback:<p>

1996

* * *

><p>"Goodnight Papa! I'll be back in an hour" Izzy said to Richtofen who nodded, though an expression of worry still lingered on his face as he stood in the doorway.<p>

"Be back soon. I do not like the idea of you lingering about at night, no matter what you and Sophia say to me" Richtofen murmured. Izzy smiled knowingly and hugged her adoptive father tightly.

"I'll be fine. I just have to pick up some snacks for Sieger, and God knows we can't send Oswald again" Izzy said as she broke the embrace. Richtofen smiled a little and said "Fine…but do not linger, Izzy"

"I won't. See you soon!" Izzy said as she slung her purse over her shoulder and clambered up the stairs. She slipped through the passageway hidden by Illuzio's magic and stepped out onto the cold streets of Los Angles, her breath coming out in a white puff.

She began her walk down the street, her pace swift and strong. Before too long she had travelled 3 miles, and she once again dwelled on the physical improvements on her body after being injected with the Super Solider Serum.

Izzy continued her walk, every so often glancing around her and eyeing the people walking on the street with curiosity, when she heard a wail of sorrow.

"What the…" Izzy muttered, looking around for the source of the cry.

"Please…someone…" the voice sobbed. Izzy ran forward and realized it was coming from the end of the alleyway, and she darted down it as she pulled out a flashlight clipped to her belt. The beam lit up the alleyway, and at the end of it sat a man who was crumpled on the ground, shivering and sobbing.

Izzy walked over to the man and said in a soft voice "Sir…are you OK?"

"Please…get help…" the man sobbed.

"What happened to you? Can you sit up or stand?" Izzy asked worriedly as the man shuddered again. The man slowly sat up, and then slowly got to his feet, rather shakily. Izzy smiled and said "Good! OK, I'll go call for help, give me just a sec"

Izzy pulled out her cell phone and flicked it open, turning her back to the man as she dialed 911. As the phone began to ring, she heard a whoosh of air behind her, and she turned just in time to see a baseball bat coming soaring towards her skull. It slammed into her head, and she knew no more.

The man chuckled as Izzy crumpled to the ground, blood streaming from her skull, but slowly sealing up. The man blinked in surprise as Izzy began to stir, and so he grabbed Izzy and dragged her deeper into the alleyway before letting her go. Izzy slowly opened her eyes and let out a yell as she got into a kneeling position, trying to get away. She looked up and saw the man, who seemed so frail and helpless a few moments ago, now towering above her with a baseball bat, which was now coming towards her skull yet again. Izzy fell to the ground, now completely unconscious, as the bat made contact with her head again. A sick and twisted smile spread across the face of the man who said "Third girl this month…heh, they make it too easy"

With a laugh, the man dragged Izzy through the door of the closest building nearby, leaving a trail of blood behind as Izzy skull continued to bleed. The passerby's in the street saw and heard nothing, and no one save the man who had abducted her knew where she was. The man, if he had been listening close enough, would have heard the girl mutter one last thing before slipping under one final time.

"Papa…help me…"

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>As you can all guess, the beginning of next chapter will be the darkest the story has ever gotten.<em>

_Next chapter, thing's get down to the wire as the time of peril draws near!_

_WHAT'LL HAPPEN NEXT!? AND WILL I UPDATE ON TIME, OR WILL I BE LATE AGAIN!?_

_FIND OUT NEXT TIME!_

_Until then, please review and give me feedback. Follow me on twitter at FlygonNick if you want, it's up to you. Be on the lookout for something related to Second Chance's popping up in my stories sometime within the next month. I decided on a side story that will slowly introduce elements of the story and to provide a bit of backstory. _

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	47. Plagam Extremam Infligere

_Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead_

* * *

><p><em>The secret slime word of the day is-delay.<em>

_Yep, this one took a little while. At least I got something up for this story, my Jak and Daxter fanfic update is so woefully behind I'm going to have to make it long and even more epic to make up for my insane laziness._

_But hey, writer's block is a bitch and happens to everyone. You all can praise me as much as you like, but at the end of the day writer's block can hit me too. And it hit me HARD this past month with both of my main stories._

_On top of that, real life has been holding me back and it just so happens both of the chapters up for publication are LARGE chapters with a great deal of plot at work. Therefore I have take some time with them, more so than usual. _

_Sorry about that guys, I really am. But I'm back in business with a Jak IV update in sight, probably within the next two weeks or so. _

_Soon…soon…_

_I had to do this on my old laptop since my other one lags so hard writing is impossible, and is probably failing on me or something. On the other hand, this laptop got me through the first 20 chapters of the story, so it's only fitting it get me through my final four._

_Speaking of first chapters, I have FINALLY revised and remastered the first five chapters of this story. I pretty much added some much needed detail and fixed many glaring errors. Now, I know I'm asking a lot, but for those of you who are fairly recent readers and reviewed only recent chapters of the story, I have to ask you all a favor._

_I want to know just how my revised chapters stack up against what you read before. Do they flow better, do the events that occur in them seem more plausible, and does it just seem better in general? I wouldn't be asking you all to do this is it wasn't important. You can do this either by reviewing the first five chapters and letting me know that way, or just message me and let me know what you think. Please, I really need feedback now so I can revise more chapters in the same manner. I'll be uploading the changed versions of this story in sets of five, so when I'm done with chapters 6-10 I will change them all at once, rather than as I go one by one._

_So yeah, tons of delays and shit have been happening, mainly caused by my computer, writer's block, and me working on my Pokémon Platinum Nuzlocke…_

_AND SUCEEDING._

_Highlights include me catching a Shiny Onix at Victory Road, OHKO-ing Cynthia's Garchomp with my Gastrodon's Ice Beam, my water fight with my Gastrodon vs. Cynthia's Milotic (which was her last Pokémon), and my Gyarados taking a bombardment of Sludge Bombs before taking out her Roserade_

_I am now working on my HeartGold Nuzlocke, and speaking of Pokémon…_

_I have started a new story. _

_No, it isn't Second Chances. It is, however, related closely to "Second Chances". You all should recall Vivian, who has cameo'd in both of my stories and had a bio posted on my profile for a short time? Well, "Symphony", my newest side story, is a short series of chapters that are flashes of insight from her point of view, and is a side story that goes side by side with my upcoming Pokémon story. _

_Each chapter is this story details Vivian's first encounter with many of the key characters in the story, from Wes to Zoe (or Amy, I might change her name) to Noah and so on. These chapters will not be regular updates, and this story will not be finished before I start posting Second Chances, for spoiler reasons. However, they will become more and more plot related as they go on._

_Also, if you haven't already, be sure to check out the Freelancer Collaboration and their flagship story "Phase 1: Genesis" and its sequel "Phase 2: Betrayal", the latter of which I will be writing chapters for in just a few short months._

_I've actually got a lot of stories on the backburner at the moment, and sometime down the road I'll have a poll as to what fanfic you guys want to me to take a stab at alongside "Second Chances". _

_More on that at a later date._

_**The following chapter is my first post-edit chapter, so I have one word of advice for any of my current readers who are following the story as I upload it.**_

_**READ CHAPTER 3 AGAIN.**_

_I made a very important edit regarding C.N, also known as the stupidest thing I've ever put in a story. If it wasn't for the fact that its an immense amount of trouble and a pain in the ass, I would've written that out over a year ago. It's funny, but it's just stupid and its one of my biggest regrets with this story. It was only put it because the first four chapters of the story were just me and my friends screwing around, with no direction of the story or anything else, so I put whatever they wanted in the story._

_Anyway…_

_Shoutout to those who reviewed last chapter, which includes Dustchu, DigDugDiamond, Trapinchh, Justsomeperson 7734, SILVERBRO14, Eel3234, ZeroKIA13, Mooman1706, Percy Jackson I am, Dragondude666, Amy Bachemin, two guest reviewers and a new guest review known __as __stinkytrey._

_Special shoutout to Eel3234, who is my 700__th__ reviewer. So much love and support for this story over the course of two awesome years. Please keep up the love guys, seriously. Last chapter was a scary one for me to write, because I knew I was disappointing people with the bad news about "Second Chances". _

_This is the last four chapters of the story, where the action is nonstop and a two and a half year long journey will finally end. Let me hear your thoughts and what you want to happen next. Your feedback and support drive this story, and I may sound like a broken record but it's the truth. Please review, even If you think your feedback isn't useful or helpful, it gives me a boost and helps make the writing process a bit more enjoyable, knowing that people enjoy what I strive to create._

_Enjoy my darkest chapter yet. The beginning part of the chapter is very dark and very graphic, and even with me leaving details out will probably disturb you to some extent._

_Be warned._

* * *

><p>Chapter 47: Plagam Extremam Infligere<p>

"_So it's true, when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love_." ― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly.

* * *

><p>Group 935 HQ:<p>

1996:

* * *

><p>"WHERE IS SHE, DAMN IT!?" Richtofen roared at Illuzio, who frowned as his eyes shut tighter in concentration.<p>

"Edward, calm yourself. There's got to be an explanation for this" Illuzio reasoned. Richtofen suddenly grabbed the jester by the neck and hurled him into a nearby bookcase, causing him to cry out. Oswald flinched and said "Sir, we can't get mad at ourselves. We need to start looking for her and stop trying to use magic"

"How…do you know she's hurt?" Steiner asked Richtofen, who's eyes shimmered with desperation, worry, and anger.

"I can feel it…here" Richtofen murmured, placing his hand over his heart. He had never felt such raw fear grip him like this before. His entire being was in turmoil at the thought of his little Izzy being in danger. But he knew that something was wrong…

"Jonathan…Find her. NOW!" Richtofen barked at the jester, who closed his eyes again and began to look once more.

"She's hidden from my magic…I'm trying to get a lock on her location based on her vitals…but I can't find her" Illuzio murmured.

"Maybe her vitals are really low…" Steiner suggested. Oswald shivered and said "Don't say that…"

"Jonathan, please. Don't you know any other tracing spells?" Richtofen said in a weary tone that scared the other two scientists. It was like he was almost begging Illuzio to come up with something…anything to find her.

Illuzio nodded and said "Yes, but it's a costly one. It's an advanced spell that finds people based on their life force…I'll probably be unable to move after casting it, but it should lead you to Izzy"

"But first, take this" Illuzio said as he held out his hand. A snow white crystal formed in his hands and floated over to Richtofen.

"Vhy…" Richtofen murmured.

"Consider that a lifelife. Its already enchanted…I'll release the magic now, follow it as quick as you can and bring Izzy home" Illuzio said in a soft voice as his palms glowed bright green. A ball of light floated from his hands and darted through the wall, and Illuzio collapsed to his knees and said "Go after it…Don't worry about who sees you, I can erase their memories later!"

Richtofen whirled around and sprinted out of the complex and moments later was outside. The ball of magic was already far away, so Richtofen kicked off the ground as a surging green aura erupted around him. To the passerby Richtofen was a green blur, pouring everything he had into his strange abilities. He didn't care about them though…his thoughts were only of that bright little girl who had brought joy and happiness to them. Who had opened their hearts and eased the darkness of their past.

The girl who brought Richtofen and Sophia together, who had eased the twisted mind of Harvey Yena, who inspired Illuzio to make magic even though his world was gone. Who encouraged Porter's progress with researching Element 115, and who was a sister to his son.

The ball wove throughout the street, darting down an alleyway and Richtofen followed. The ball, at first glowing green, now quickly changed colors.

"_Illuzio, what is the meaning of this?"_ Richtofen asked the jester with a flick of his thoughts.

"_Its color is based on the life-force of the person it is tracking" _Illuzio murmured in his mind.

The ball was now a dim shade of red and was blinking white. Richtofen felt horror, icy cold and painful, course through him and he pumped even more energy into moving quicker. The ball seemed to always be faster than him, so he could go as fast as he needed to without fear of leaving the ball behind. The ball finally stopped outside of a rundown warehouse, clearly abandoned for some time. Richtofen landed on the ground and threw himself at the door, which held fast. He drew back his fist and slammed it against the steel door, denting it heavily.

"OPEN DAMN YOU!" Richtofen bellowed as he flung his hand out. A massive shockwave of green energy burst from his palm and struck the door, vaporizing it instantly. Richtofen darted into the dark warehouse, the ball of light leading him forward. It then passed into a hallway, and Richtofen pulled a Mauser from his belt and held it ready. The ball began to blink white for longer and longer intervals, and Richtofen felt the cold feeling of fear come up again when he noticed the hallway's floor turn crimson.

"Blood…zhis is blood" Richtofen breathed as he quickened his pace, his boots stomping down the blood-spattered hallway. The ball floated through a door and Richtofen came to a stop next to it before violently kicking it down.

"What the hell!? Who're you!?" a cold voice said in the darkness, barely illuminated by the dull light of the fading orb of magic. A shot erupted from the room and hit Richtofen harmlessly in the chest, and Richtofen fired his Masuer twice at the assailant, hitting him. Richtofen then growled furiously and said "Where is she!?"

"Pa…Papa…" a whisper answered him

Richtofen's heart caught as he heard her voice, impossible small and weak. Richtofen let the energy within him illuminate the room, and his felt his soul writhe in horror as he beheld something no human should ever see.

Izzy was pinned to the wall with chains, utterly eviscerated with her clothes torn to pieces, obvious signs of trauma of the worst kind were visible to the horrified blue eyes of Edward Richtofen. Massive lacerations and cuts were all over her body, and there were two blood holes where her eyes used to be. Pictures of men, women, and children were plastered all over the room, obviously previous victims of the man Richtofen had shot. Izzy breathed, or rather she inhaled very slightly, and whispered again "Papa?"

Richtofen ran over to the girl and severed her bonds, freeing her. Izzy fell lightly into Richtofen's arms as tears spilled from the Group 935 Leader's eyes.

"Izzy…Izzy, please stay with me! I can save you! I can get you back to Illuzio, he can heal you!" Richtofen whispered. Izzy shook her head and whispered "No Papa…I…Papa…he…I can't see anything…its so dark…"

Richtofen felt hot tears flow down his face as he held the girl who meant so much to him tightly. The ball of light remained white for several seconds before flashing red for a moment.

"Papa?" Izzy whispered.

"Yes, little one?" Richtofen whispered.

"It's OK, Papa…don't be so sad…I'm not afraid to die…" Izzy whispered to the former Nazi, who held the young woman tighter. He felt something in him being ripped apart at the sight of the pure and innocent little girl, one who was so good and bright, being reduced to a bloody and ravaged living corpse. Richtofen buried his face in the crook of her neck as Izzy heart began to slow.

"Thank you…Papa…I was so happy…being with you and Mama…and Sieger…" Izzy whispered, her weak arms returning the embrace Richtofen had her in. Richtofen held back another sob and said "Izzy…You were a light to all us. The years we spent with you will never be forgotten, my dear…I…I love you"

"I love you too, Papa" Izzy whispered, her voice barely audible as the orb flashed red before becoming white again. It remained white for several long moments before Richtofen let out a scream of misery as the little girl who had brought hope and joy to his life was ripped away from him. He wasn't even aware of the soul gem in his pocket that flashed white for a moment, as though life now thrummed through it, before returning to its normal state. Richtofen set Izzy on the ground gently before looking up.

"YOU!" Richtofen bellowed at the horrible, evil man who took his adopted daughter way from him. The man had somehow gotten to his feet and had a magnum pointed at Richtofen. He fired a shot, but it simply rebounded off of the enraged father. Richtofen lunged forward and grabbed the man by the throat, his green aura bursting into existence once again.

"You killed her! You killed zhat precious and vonderful girl!" Richtofen roared as he threw the man across the room. The man cried out as he slammed through the wall and into the hallway. Richtofen blew apart the wall with a wave of his hand as the man shakily got to his feet, trying to run and not bleed out from the wounds the Nazi had given him. Richtofen took aim as tears of pain and rage rolled down his face and fired his Masuer at the man's legs, blowing apart his kneecaps and sending him crashing onto the ground with a scream of agony.

"N-no! P-please! Don't do this!" the mans screamed and begged as he tried to crawl away, only for Richtofen to pick him up by the throat and stare into his eyes.

He recognized this man…He had seen him on the television, all those years ago. He had killed then, and was not punished for his crimes. He had killed innocents, and yet he was still allowed to walk free. Monsters like this were a threat to mankind, yet the world's foolish systems failed to properly punish those who were evil.

"I will destroy you…for destroying her" Richtofen whispered calmly before energy began to burn in Richtofen's hand, causing the man to scream as green electricity surged into him. The man screamed as loud as he could, and yet even that could not convey the level of utter agony Richtofen was putting him through. The man's body, starting from the throat, was being ripped apart cell by cell, with each destroyed bit of him causing him the worst amount of pain Richtofen could ever deliver.

"You took her from me…my little girl…my Izzy!" Richtofen bellowed at the man as he was ripped apart before his eyes. All too soon, the man's body was gone, and he was worse than dead. Richtofen swayed on his feet as the rage faded away and the grief returned, quelling his anger.

He stumbled back to the room Izzy was in, so calm and peaceful as she lay there. Richtofen took off his coat and wrapped it around her as he kneeled next to her. He gently picked her up and got to his feet, shaking with despair.

"No..." Richtofen wept as he bowed his head.

"_Master Richtofen…?" _Illuzio murmured in his mind.

"_**NOOOOOO!"**_ Richtofen screamed as a green ball of light engulfed him and exploded.

…

Illuzio warped into the alleyway, staggering as his little energy was spent then. He walked through the alleyway, towards the sound of the massive explosion, and saw a massive crater, sparking with energy that belonged to those who could control Element 115.

"Edward!" Illuzio called.

"Jonathan…" came a hoarse reply from somewhere in the pit. Illuzio ran towards the hole and as he caught sight of Richtofen he stopped in his tracks, horrified.

"No! Izzy!" Illuzio yelled as he ran down to meet his friend, who's eyes were bloodshot as the tears continued to flow down from his face, and looked at the body of the little girl with sadness.

"Jonathan…clean her up. Fix her eyes…" Richtofen whispered hollowly.

"Edward…I…" Illuzio began to say, caught off guard.

"Please, Jonathan. Do it for her…she doesn't need to suffer anymore" Edward murmured. Illuzio nodded and placed his hands over the young girl's heart. Even if he couldn't bring back the dead, no magic could, he could at least heal the wounds that caused her to die. A few moments later, Izzy's skin was once again whole and undamaged, save for her eyes, and the blood vanished from her skin. Illuzio gently brushed his hands over her eyes as the formed in their lids, a bright blue color, he then brushed them closed. Richtofen remembered the day she had come to him and asked him to give her eyes like his…she had wanted to be like Sieger and him…

"We should go…the authorities will be coming soon" Illuzio said to Richtofen as a tear rolled down his face. Richtofen clutched the body of Izzy tightly and nodded, and the two men vanished from the wreckage of the building, leaving behind a ruined testament to a father's love and grief as his hope and happiness was destroyed in front of him.

* * *

><p>2011:<p>

Los Angles Battlefield:

10:30 PM:

* * *

><p>"Shit…this is not good" Dempsey growled as the dragon advanced towards them. Nikolai sighed and said "Looks like having that drink break is an unlikely event now, huh?"<p>

"What do you think?" Takeo muttered as the creature suddenly tensed and turned to the side, letting out a roar as a plume of smoke and fire erupted from its maw a few moments later.

"Wonder what distracted it?" Dempsey muttered as he glanced around for any incoming undead. Spotting a few, he took care of them with a few bursts from his now-working Lamentation.

"We should go after it. The others may not be able to stop that beast" Takeo said as he drew his katana, which burst into flames as he activated his Elemental Fists. Nikolai nodded and shouldered his SPAZ-24, smirking at the thought of fighting such a powerful foe.

"Alright. Let's go dragon slaying" Dempsey growled as the trio ran after the dragon laying waste to the survivors, halting several groups advance completely and cutting through their ranks with bright red and yellow flames. The dragon seemed to be impervious to storm of gunfire being directed at it by the survivors, who were not only trying to fend off the dragon but were trying to deal with the Zombies and Reclaimers, who took advantage of the appearance of the dragon and redoubled their efforts and attacked, halting the advancement of the survivors.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Where are you!?" Sophia yelled as she ran down the empty streets, flames trailing behind her. She frantically looked around, her target nowhere in sight.<p>

"Come on out Harvey!" Sophia called, only for a shot to ring out. The scientist ducked as a bullet soared over her head and spun around, calling forth a column of fire that enveloped the streets, shattering all of the windows on the sides of the buildings just from the sheer level of heat the fire generated.

"I don't care who you have doing your bidding now! You won't stop Edward! Not when we've come this far!" Sophia yelled.

"And that is exactly why this must end"

Sophia whirled around to see Eris flying towards her. Eris grabbed Sophia's face and slammed it into the asphalt, using the shadows to give her extra leverage. Eris began to wince as her palms burned, and suddenly screamed as her entire hand caught on fire. Eris retreated a good distance away as Sophia got to her feet, the horrible bleeding wounds on her face sealing up.

"You…you have no idea what I've suffered through. I want to watch this world burn…I want this world to suffer like me and Edward had to…" Sophia whispered as she summoned two balls of fire in her hand. Eris's expression softened as she sighed.

"Pain is pain…it may always be with you, but that doesn't mean you have to let your pain control you" Eris said shaking her head before jumping back as the two fireballs left Sophia's hands and hurtled towards her, only to slam into the ground and create a massive shockwave of flames.

"You don't know anything about pain! How could you with a monster like Yena controlling you!?" Sophia yelled furiously, shooting plumes of fire out of her hands and torching the streets. The flames suddenly parted around a spot in the middle of the street, where Eris suddenly rose out of, a scowl on her face.

"I was captured by one of the most twisted creatures in existence…doomed to be a plaything for a monster until Master Yena saved me. He saved my life…he saved my very soul. I won't let you insult him any longer" Eris growled as the shadows around her writhed.

"Then let's see whose devotion is stronger. My love for Edward and his new world, or your loyalty to a Master who is more evil than the man you're trying to kill" Sophia said softly as the balls of fire exploded violently. Sophia vanished in the blast, her body melting away.

'Where…" Eris muttered, glancing around.

"Eris!"

The blond haired woman glanced back and saw a large crowd of fighters running towards her. She felt a cold thrill of horror as she realized it was the Bradburn Crew, the Mobsters, the Survivors from New York, and the Green Run Crew. As she turned to face them, Sophia appeared in a flash of flames, looking at the group with a cold expression.

"Look who decided to show up" Sophia said in a casual tone that sent shivers down Eris's spine.

"No! Get back!" Eris screamed to the survivors, who began to register that a fight was taking place. Sophia smiled and fired a ball of crimson flames at the shadow wielder, who was hurled backwards as the ball exploded at her feet.

"Eris!" Stuhlinger yelled, a rare note of genuine concern in his voice as smoke billowed around the young woman.

"No worries…It'll take more than that to take me down" Eris said as the smoke cleared, revealing the woman with no injuries. She summoned her rifle to her hands and took aim at Sophia, firing a shot at her and sniping the woman off of the building she was standing on. Sophia exploded in a blast of flames though, only to reappear in front of group, holding a shining ball of white fire and wearing a wide smile on her face.

"Mom! STOP!" Sieger screamed as the woman held the ball of fire in front of her, a colossal wave of flames bursting from the orb of fire and rushing towards them.

"NO! I won't let you hurt them!" Eris yelled as she shot out of the shadows, flinging her hands up as she stood in front of the group. A sea of black rose from in front of the group as the tidal wave of fire roared towards them. The two forces crashed into one another and for a moment, both forces held. Eris then let out a scream of defiance against the 935 Scientist and thrusted her hands forward, making the wall of shadows rise and engulf the flames, snuffing them out as a hand would a candle's flames. Sophia stumbled back, clearly stunned, but Eris flicked her hand out with a grim smile.

Sophia gasped as a shadow tendril wrapped around her ankles and yanked her high into the air, only to swing her downwards and make her crash onto a destroyed car.

"Mom!" Sieger screamed as Sophia rose into the air again and slammed into the ground. Sophia screamed in pain as the shadow dragged her along the concrete before hurling her into the air for a third time only for her to come crashing onto a pool of writhing shadows that wrapped around her and completely immobilized her.

Eris let out a snarl and shot forward, slinking along the ground like a snake with incredible speed, only for Sophia threw her head back with a yell and let loose a massive whirlwind of flames at the shadow user, causing her to go flying back as the inferno washed over her, dispelling the shadows that bound her as well.

"Sieger, get back!" Sophia yelled to her son as she clenched her fists, burning bright white as she grew hotter and hotter, burning like a sun.

"Mom, you've got to stop!" Sieger yelled as Sophia shot towards Eris like a rocket, only for her shadow to rise out of the ground and wrap itself around her, dragging her into her own shadow. Eris pulled out her rifle and said "Run for the Tower! I've got Sophia handled, you just worry about Richtofen!"

"But we want to help!" Starch said angrily to Eris, who shook her head.

"I agree. Her powers seem quite formidable, and even with your skills you may be hard-pressed to survive" Marlton said in a quiet voice, worry evident in his tone.

"No. I've got this. Get to the Tower. No matter what happens to me, you guys have to make it to the Tower! Nothing else is important except for stopping that madman!" Eris said as she turned around, shouldering her rifle.

"You've got it" Misty said to the blond-haired woman, who dove into her shadow. There was a far-off explosion in the distance and Stuhlinger said "I hope she'll be OK…"

"She can handle herself. Let's keep moving" Finn said to the others, who heeded his words and continued their run towards the massive Tower looming above them. The group rushed forward, the entrance to the Tower closer than ever, with only a massive sea of undead and Reclaimers standing between them and the man responsible for the hell they had been through. A literal torrent of gunfire was exchanged between the two sides, neither one willing to give an inch, only doing so when the life was blasted out of them by the opposing side. Men, women, and even children fell as the battle raged on with ever-increasing ferocity.

One side fought for the promise of a better world. A world where the good can live in peace and where evil is but a concept unthinkable to all. A world where crime, hate indifference, and pain are nonexistent. A world where only those loyal to Richtofen would survive, and the rest would fall into place as their leader's divine powers created the world anew.

The others fought for hope. Hope that they could make things right, with time. Hope that this world could be saved, that it wasn't a lost cause. A fight to save not just themselves, but humanity as a whole. Billions would be obliterated by the hatred and pain of Richtofen, and only they could put things right.

This was a fight to see the sunrise.

Either a sunrise of hope, illuminating the world with the ideal that humanity still has time to make things right. A sunrise of faith, of survival, of a love of the existing world that, even with all its faults, was still worth saving.

Or a light of cleansing, where those who had given up would be rewarded for their service with an assured spot in a new world, where the old world would be burned away and a new one would take its place. A world of Richtofen's creation, but a world where those who did not submit would not be welcome, and would be destroyed completely by the grieving and furious Doctor, angry at a world who took too much from him too soon.

"Come on guys, we've killed bigger stiffs than these idiots!" Sal yelled encouragingly to the group as he blasted apart a few Reclaimer's shooting at them with his WN, killing them with fatal shots to the head and neck.

"Keep going! Don't let up!" Billy yelled as he pulled out his Executioner, blasting at five charging Zombies before a sniper round went through his shoulder. Billy snarled and took aim with his Uncle Gal, only for a second round to blast him in the chest. Billy staggered back with a grunt before firing his Pack-A-Punched Uzi, tearing apart the teen who had attacked him.

"Billy!" Sal yelled as his partner fell to the ground, panting from the pain.

"I've got you covered!" Nicholas yelled, holding Aegis out in front of them to protect them from the gunfire. Billy remained still as Juliet injected him with Quick Revive, with Sal holding off the rampaging undead coming at them. Juliet helped Billy to his feet, earning a nod of thanks before the group pressed on.

Starch and Serenity looked up as several screeches filled the night and a wave of Wyvern Zombies soared down from above. One slammed into a nearby survivor, ripping apart his throat and hurling the corpse to the side, snarling at the others before being blasted apart by Joe, who fired his WunderWaffe DG-7 into the Wyvern Zombie and killed it and five of its undead brethren at once.

"Joe, watch out!" Iva barked as she jumped next to him and opened fire on a Blade Zombie charging at him, being blasted at from all angles. Iva jumped back as the Zombie slashed at her and she brought out her sickle and began to exchange blows with the Zombie before Joe ran up the Zombie and sucker punched it in the gut with the Fist of Thor. As the Zombie's head came into range, Joe slammed his fist into the Zombie's armored skull and cracked it open, causing it to crash onto the ground senseless. Iva smiled at Joe who pulled out his M115 Cauterizer and said "Shall we?"

"Let's" Iva said casually as the duo ran forward, blasting at the undead masses before them with grins on their faces.

Jared, Serenity, Starch, and Jordan all stayed towards the back with Nick and Judith, who were trying to deal with a swarm of Hellhounds that had entered the fray and were cutting through their ranks. Jared fired a shot from his Tagger rifle and lured some of the undead dogs away, allowing Judith and Jordan to snipe at them while Starch, Serenity, and Nick killed them.

However the Hellhounds spawned around them almost as quickly as they could be dispatched. Starch let loose a plume of fire from his Accelerated Combat Rifle, cackling evilly as the dogs howled in pain. Jared kept the undead dogs distracted while Jordan sniped with his DSR-50 and Judith fired with her Dead Specimen Reactor. Serenity wore a depressed look on her face as she blasted a flaming undead dog that was charging at her, and when Judith asked what was wrong said "I don't like killing them…"

"They're still just puppies" Serenity said angrily as she stomped off. Starch looked at her with a worried expression and Jordan said "She'll be OK once we're done here."

"We should keep moving" Nick suggested.

"Come on ya undead sons of bitches! Is that all you've got!?" Billy bellowed as he slammed the Golden Spork into a woman's undead skull and yanked it free, blasting at the wall of undead in front of him with his Uncle Gal as he did so.

"You guys are awesome!" Andrew said with a grin as he ducked under a Zombie's swipe and beheaded the creature with a slash from Gutripper. A series of roars came from above them and Andrew saw a swarm of Wyvern Zombies charge at the from above.

"I've got 'em!" Finn yelled as he aimed his Rocket Propelled Grievance skyward and fired several times. The rockets flew up and slammed into the skyward horde, dispelling them and sending their charred and mangles bodies crashing onto the ground.

Russman chuckled under his breath at the spectacle and said "These kids sure know how to kick some tail, eh Stu?"

"Meh. They're OK, I guess" Stuhlinger shrugged as Russman pulled out Sassafras, casually shooting two Reclaimer's with Lamentation's in the head as they opened fire on a group of survivors. Stuhlinger reloaded his SLDG HAMR as Sieger and Samantha ran ahead, blasting at the undead with their pistols.

Samantha and Sieger were a team to behold, watching each other's back and making quick work of anything that stepped in their way. As several Blade Zombies spawned by them, they summoned the Staff of Magnus and Glorious to their hands respectively and stood back to back, smiling at each other. Samantha felt elated fighting with Sieger by her side. She had known him for such a short time, but felt she could trust him without reserve.

Sieger felt the same for Samantha, the girl who became a legend to Group 935 and was the opposite of what his father had said about her. She had suffered so much, and yet was so strong because of it. Kind, trusting, and willing to put others before herself.

Samantha slammed the speared tip of the Staff into a Blade Zombie's skull and wrenched it free with a savage yell as she dropped to the ground, firing several green and white balls of energy at the approaching Blade Zombies and blowing them apart. Sieger slashed and traded blows with several Blade Zombies at once before swinging his blade in an arc-

The Zombies let out a cry of agony before bursting into black flames.

"Sieger…that was cool" Samantha said with a small laugh. Sieger shrugged and said "Meh. I've done better.

"Someone help! We're surrounded!" came a yell from somewhere behind them. Samantha looked behind her and saw a horde surrounded Jess, Marcus, Kara, Chan, and John. The Zombies had forced them into a box and despite the hailstorm of gunfire, the Zombies kept pushing them back.

"Sam! I've got an idea!" Sieger yelled as he blew the head off another Reclaimer who had shot an Marine in the chest with Fatum as he summoned it to his other hand.

"What?" Samantha asked quickly.

"Fluffy" Sieger said simply.

"…WHY HAVEN'T I USED FLUFFY YET!?" Samantha screamed furiously.

"Because FlygonNick forgot about her, that's why!" Jess yelled in the distance.

"Fluffy! SIC 'EM!" Samantha yelled, pointing at the horde. A wraith of flames warped around Samantha and a massive Hellhound exploded into existence, bounding towards the trapped teens and landing in front of them. Jess squealed and said "Gut Welpe, jetzt reißen sie Glied für Glied und senden sie an den dunkelsten Tiefen der Hölle!"

Fluffy darted forward into the horde, dashing through the undead and tearing through them with teeth and claw. John laughed and said "Let's go while she takes care of them!"

Kara nodded and opened fire with his HK21 as Chan dashed by, shooting at the undead with her Tokyo and Rose. Jess hung back, picking off the undead with Artemis's Judgment and downing a Zombie with each shot fired. Marcus took a position next Jess, keeping an eye out for anything that meant the brown-haired girl harm and blasting anything that came close to her with his Python. John led the rush out of the horde, marveling at the power of the original Hellhound as it ripped the horde to pieces. John fired several short bursts from his Colt Commando, finally breaking free and running into Jax, who ran up to the remainder of the horde and pulled out his Zeus Cannon. A massive shockwave air erupted from the tip of the Pack-a-Punched Wonder Weapon, ripping the horde to pieces. Jess, Kara, Chan, and Marcus walked through the undead bits and thanked Jax for his help.

"You guys alright?" Jax asked worriedly. John smiled weakly and pet the massive Hellhound on the head, who barked cheerfully. Jess then blinked as a thought struck her and said "Fluffy, can help the others? Gehen Sie zurück und den anderen helfen, OK?"

The Hellhound licked Jess on the cheek, and then turned around to face the way they had come. Fluffy let out a howl and shot off like a flaming dart.

Jameson Morris flicked out his KABAR and ducked under a swing from a Nazi Zombie, slitting its throat quickly before pulling out his Remington 870 and blasting at another Zombie in front of him. Clutch Odd jogged by him, giving him a thumbs up before dashing forward and slamming his Tonfa into the back of a Screecher's skull as it drew its hand back to deliver the death blow to an old man with a shotgun. The Zombie crumpled as Clutch turned around, only to see a massive Blade Zombie towering above him. He took a few steps back and then started as several shots rang out, with several sniper rounds slamming into the head of the Zombie.

"Red!" Clutch called to the sniper, who nodded from afar and took aim once again. The shots seemed to not being doing all that much to the Zombie, who stabbed and slashed at the young man who frantically blocked the attacks.

"INCOMING!"

Clutch jumped to the side as a figure came flying towards the Blade Zombie, crashing into the head of it. Vice had apparently jumped off a nearby building's roof and was now standing on the face and shoulders of the Zombie as it stumbled back. Vice pressed the tip of both of his Beretta handguns against the Zombies forehead and pulled the triggers. The back of the Blade Zombie's skull exploded with gore and the Zombie toppled to the ground with a low groan as Vice toppled out of the air and crashed onto the ground with a yell, only for Clutch and Jameson to help him to his feet.

"Good work, man" Clutch said with a smirk.

"We should keep moving" Jameson said in a low voice as Red walked ahead of them, sniping a few Zombies that came into view.

Nicholas scooped up a grenade as it clattered on the ground next to him and hurled it a cluster of Zombies attacking Misty and Marlton, grinning as the explosion ripped the undead monsters apart. He took aim with his M27 and opened fire at the undead wave of enemies before him, barring their path to the Tower where Richtofen lay waiting for them. He looked at Juliet next to him, blond hair flying behind her as she expertly weaved in and out of the horde, slashing, stabbing, hacking, and kicking the undead around her and making quick work of them.

"Today is a good day for _you_ to die!" Nicholas bellowed at the Zombies as he pulled out his Porter's Mark II Ray Gun and opened fire, clearing the street of the undead.

"That thing's just a bit overpowered" Juliet stated as she gave Nicholas a one-armed hug. Weasel held up his Ray Gun Mark II and said "Nah…"

He then casually pointed it at a charging Juggernaut Zombie making their way towards them and pulled the trigger several times. He then took a step back as the Zombie's corpse came crashing down next to him as its momentum finally stopped.

"OK, maybe a little" Weasel amended as he reloaded the Ray Gun Mark II.

Sal and Billy ran over to the group as a series of explosions rang out in the distance. Maxwell, Joe, and Iva also made their way to the group as the Zombies slowly made their way of the earth, giving them a moment to rest.

"Joe!" a familiar voice yelled.

The teen turned around to see his dad and Juliet's parents run out of the nearby alleyway, worse for wear but thankfully alive. They had split up to help the other survivors and offer support.

"What's the word?" Maxwell asked them. Joe's father shook his head and said "That dragon is halting all western advancement and is slowing down everyone else. It looks like it can't be killed with the firepower we have now"

"So what you're saying is that we can't kill it?" Maxwell asked Joe's father, who shook his head and said "I don't know…something like that shouldn't exist"

"None of this should exist. But it does, and we've got to take it out or we won't make it in time" Maxwell snapped, blasting two Zombies charging at them with his Ray Gun.

"Good point" Joe's father admitted.

"Well, we have to think of something" Juliet's mother said with a small laugh, casually blasting a Zombie in the face with her Mist Maker.

"Gotta keep positive. Nothing's invincible, not even the fella who's pulling all the stops to beat us" Juliet's dad said as he looked up at the Tower where Richtofen awaited them.

"Get back to the other fronts, see what you can do. Keep me updated, got it?" Maxwell ordered the three adults, who nodded. Joe's father looked to his son and said "Keep going, alright? I'll meet up with you again soon, OK?"

"Yeah" Joe replied as his dad walked over to him and hugged him tightly. The Bradburn officer then let go of his son, nodded to the others, and hurried off after Juliet's parents.

"We may be making progress, but the other groups are getting their asses kicked. We've got to stop this before we lose control on all fronts" Maxwell growled.

Maxwell turned around and threw his fist out, slamming it into the face of a Screecher Zombie that was drawing its hand back to slash at him. The Zombie's face crumpled under the force of the soldier's jab and fell to the ground, where a blast from his Ray Gun ended the creature's un-life. Maxwell scowled and turned towards the Tower before running after the others.

"Come on assholes! Give me a challenge!" Misty jeered as she jumped up on a nearby car, blasting at a few women with AK-47's and causing them to fall to the ground, dead.

"Misty, you're as deadly as you are incredible!" Marlton said to the farmgirl as he carefully took aim. He frowned as he saw a faraway Reclaimer with an RPG take aim at Misty, and eliminated the threat with a press of the trigger. Misty spun around in surprise as the Reclaimer jerked back, a sniper round going through his throat.

"Misty! Stay alert!" Marlton warned as he ran by her. Misty nodded in embarrassment and said "Yeah. You got a point"

"Stupid bitch" Stuhlinger muttered as he blasted away at the undead with his SLDG HAMR. Nick glanced at the strange man and said "What's your problem with her?"

"I just don't like her. She doesn't like me either. Not much too it" Stu shrugged as he looked up. He suddenly dropped to one knee and aimed skyward, a smirk on his face as he opened fire. Nick looked up in surprise and saw five Wyvern Zombies shooting towards them from above. The bullets ripped through their wings with relative ease, and with Stuhlinger's careful aim the five Zombies were quickly killed.

"I'd move away from here if I were you. Their bodies are still going to crash into the ground kinda hard" Stu said with a small laugh as he walked forward.

"Weirdo…still, at least he's on our side" Nick muttered.

"_For now. That man is complicated to say the least" _C.N. said darkly in his mind.

"Where've you been?" Nick asked the knife.

"_There are forces at work you don't understand, Nick…we're so close to the end…much closer than you think"_ C.N. said in a low voice. He sounded tired, as if he was exhausted by some unknown struggle. Nick shook his head and said "No time for talk like that. I need your head in the game for this, man. We've got to get to that Tower"

"_Yes…the Tower…"_ C.N. muttered distractedly.

"Come on, let's-" Nick was cut as several rockets slammed into the few buildings near them. Nick heard a yell and turned around to see a group of survivors fall to the ground as the rubble crashed into them. One of them was Jared, one of the survivors from New York, who vanished in the cloud of dust that billowed from the buildings as parts of them collapsed. The largest building however fell completely, and Nick let out a yell as he ran towards the rubble.

"Nick!" Juliet yelled to Nick, who looked over at the Zombie-Slaying cheerleader.

"There were people under that building! I'm going back to help them!" Nick yelled back. Juliet nodded and said "Do what you have to help. Catch up, OK?"

"Got it" the teen replied as he ran towards the debris.

Nick coughed as he stumbled towards the building and smoke and dirt filled his lungs, firing at a few wayward Zombies. He began searching through the wreckage, trying to find any of the survivors.

"Nick! What happened?" Serenity called to Nick as she ducked under a Screecher's swipe, only to blast it in the face with her Reznov's Revenge. Jordan stood nearby, sniping at a Reclaimer who had taken aim at her with a SVU-AS and shooting him in the stomach, downing him.

"I'm over here! Come help me get some of the people out!" Nick called as he searched the rubble, coughing harshly as he finally spotted something sticking out of the rubble. He spotted a hand clutching a rifle, the Tagger that Jared used, and Nick ran over and began shifting aside the rubble. Serenity and Jordan ran towards him and began to help him dig the teen out of the rubble, but the trio found that Jared's lower half was pinned underneath large section of the building too.

"Agh…hey…I'm done…" Jared muttered as Nick tried to hack at the rubble with C.N., to no avail.

"Can't you do anything!?" Nick asked the entity in the blade, but received silence in return. Nick took a moment to wonder why C.N. had been quiet during the fight before Nick remembered the situation they were in. Jared hissed in pain and said "Just go…I'm not afraid to die"

"Damn it…I'm sorry" Nick said to Jared, who shook his head. He then held the rifle up to Nick and said "Take this…It'll help you guys reach the tower. It's only got a few shots left, but it'll distract the Zombies and give you an opening"

"Thanks…" Nick said with a small smile as he clipped C.N. to his belt and held the rifle in his hands. Jared suddenly yelled "Behind you!"

Nick spun around and saw a Blade Zombie standing above them just a few feet away, electric blue eyes gleaming in the night. It lunged forward, stabbing at Nick who jumped back with a yelp and drew C.N., who flashed bright blue.

"Bring it asshole!" Nick yelled as the Zombie, which raised its arm and whirled around, delivering a powerful backhanded slash which Nick blocked with C.N. that sent him nevertheless crashing onto the ground. The Blade Zombie took a step forward before seizing up as an electrical charge went through it, courtesy of Serenity throwing a Shock Charge into the creature's back. Jordan sprinted up to the Zombie, placing his rifle against the back of its head and pulled the trigger, blowing a chunk of its head off. Nick threw C.N. at the Blade Zombie, catching it in the chest where C.N. flashed white for a moment. The Zombie twitched and with a groan it fell backwards lifelessly.

"Nice work" Jordan said approvingly as Serenity helped Nick to his feet, and after a moment Nick went and retrieved C.N. from the Zombie's corpse. The group glanced around at the undead moving towards them and Jared said "Just go..."

"We're not leaving you here to die at their hands or get turned into one of them" Nick said angrily to Jared.

"Who said anything about turning?" Jared said with a smirk. He tried reaching for his belt, but found that the debris made it impossible. Jordan caught onto what he was doing and unclipped a fragmentation grenade from his belt, looking at it for a moment with a look of sadness.

"Here. Just…well, you know what to do" Jordan said, pressing the explosive in Jared's hand. The teen nodded and said "Good luck guys…give that Nazi hell for me"

The trio stood there for a moment before Jared said "Go…they need you!"

The group nodded and turned around, running forward. Nick suddenly stopped and fired the rifle, drawing the Zombies towards him. With a painful one hand salute, Jared pulling the pin of the grenade out and waited as the Zombies ran towards him.

Nick shivered as the explosion rang out in the night. C.N. remained silent, and he pressed forward.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"We've got to stop that thing!" Dempsey yelled as he sprinted down the street, jumping on top of a destroyed car and taking aim with his Lamentation, firing several shot bursts as the dragon let loose a tongue of flames at the survivors, causing them to fall back. Despite the Green Run Crew, the Survivors from New York, and Mobsters, and the Bradburn Crew closing in on the Tower, this dragon would completely wreck the remaining survivors if left alive before the group could get to the tower.<p>

The three of them had to make sure the main attacking force survived. "Alright, we need a plan guys" Dempsey growled to his two fellow Zombie slayers. Takeo frowned and opened his mouth to say something when a man yelled "Agent Dempsey!"

The marine turned around saw three battered marines sprinting towards them, sporting various wounds but otherwise looking fine. Dempsey recognized them as soldiers they had sent to help the civilians, and were part of the squad Woods had organized to help them stop Richtofen.

Sergeant Irwin Castel, was a muscular man with tan skin and dark brown hair, whose brown eyes regarded Dempsey with admiration. He was a man who willing to take one for the team, and had done so before, earning a scar on his shoulder and a Purple Heart. A M32 Multi-shot Grenade Launcher was slung over his back and an modified AR-15 with a stock and scope rested in his hands.

Lance Corporal Robert Evens, a young dark-skinned man with short black hair and a rather broad build. He was a rather strong-willed man had a bit of experience under his belt and was calm and rather tactical, at least as far as Dempsey could tell. He had two M9 Beretta's clipped to his belt and a M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System (SASS) held tightly in his hands.

Private Cassandra Wilson, a younger fair-skinned woman with short blond hair and a runner-like build. She was recommended by Woods to help them with this mission because she showed promise, and Dempsey was always willing to give people a chance to show their stuff. She was a bit reserved, but more than capable of fighting the undead with a M4 Carbine in her hands and a M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) strapped to her back.

"Good to you're still in one piece guys. Where are the others?" Dempsey asked the three.

"We don't know sir. Agent Woods and a few of the others are coordinating attack plans with Captain Maxwell back at one of the temp HQ's, but from our squad…I think it's just us" Castel said shaking his head. Dempsey swore under his breath and said "Alright…we'll mourn later. We've got a dragon to kill"

"Any ideas sir?" Evans asked Dempsey, who nodded.

"Yeah. Aim for the head and hope we get lucky. Unless Tak's got some sort of ancient technique to slay this thing, we'll be doing it the old fashioned way" Dempsey growled.

"Does anybody have any vodka on them by any chance?" Nikolai asked the marines, who shook their heads. Nikolai shrugged and said "Ah well. I'll get my fix later, yes?"

"Yeah. For now, we focus on the dragon" Dempsey said to the Russian, who nodded and said "We must think outside the box for this one"

"Nikolai is…correct. We should attack its vital points, or the weakest parts of the body. For example…this creature is powerful, but all animals are weak within" Takeo said softly as the dragon let loose a torrent of flames at the survivors, who screamed as the flames roasted them alive.

"You mean attack the soft inside of the dragon, rather than the tougher exterior. That may work" Castel said with a small grin.

"We need to draw its attention" Wilson said to the marines. Dempsey nodded and said "Castel, get a grenade to pop in its face. That should get it on us instead of the other survivors"

"We shall take down this beast together" Takeo said with a small smile as the marine took careful aim. The dragon raised its head and roared, challenging those who dared to stand in its way to come forth.

"Take the shot!" Dempsey said to Castel, who nodded and fired from his grenade launcher. The explosive soared through the air, soaring through the crimson night sky towards the monster's face. The marine's aim was true, and the explosive exploded right in the face of the dragon, which snarled in pain. The dragon turned its evil yellow eyes to the marines and growled softly, flames and smoke billowing from its mouth.

"Alright you ugly sack of scales! You ready for a fight!?" Dempsey yelled, firing his Lamentation into the Dragon's face. The creature snarled and raised a clawed hand and swiped at the marine's, who dodged the attack by either jumping back or rolling to the side. Nikolai, however dropped to the ground and fired a shot from his SPAZ-24, blasting the dragons' hand as it swooshed over him. The dragon snarled in pain and snapped at the Russian who was saved by a grenade shooting from Castel's launcher and exploding the monster's face.

"Keep at it!" Castel barked to the others, who opened fire on the dragon, which snarled as the gunfire and explosions slammed into it. The dragon clawed and snapped at the soldiers, who expertly avoided the attacks with the training beaten into them for this sort of situation.

After several minutes of battling, the dragon seemed to be showing some signs of wear, but the soldiers knew that in the end the dragon would either get lucky or they would slip up. Then, the dragon reared its head back and took a deep breath.

"It's getting ready for-!" Castel began to yell, taking a step back in horror as a small ball of light formed in the dragon's open mouth.

"GET BEHIND US!" Dempsey roared at the marines, who crouched behind Dempsey as he held his forearms out as a shield.

"Tak! Nikolai! Help me!" Dempsey barked at the two Super Soldiers.

Nikolai and Takeo nodded and stood next to Dempsey, forming a three man wall as the dragon bent its head down, a torrent of flames hurtling towards them.

"Stand your ground!" Dempsey yelled as the flames crashed into them.

"What the…" Wilson muttered in disbelief.

The three soldiers seemed to be holding back and withstanding the tide of fire, or at least weathering the blast. Dempsey grinned and said "Heh…gotta love Ph.D Flopper"

Dempsey had test out their limits just a few years ago, not knowing if the perks they had been given all those years ago would hold up, and to their surprise they did. Ph.D Flopper made the flames harmlessly pass by them like it was nothing, though the sheer force of the blast still was hard to endure.

"Stand strong!" Takeo yelled as the flames intensified. Evens frowned and said "This is like something out a nightmare, huh?"

"Yep…like some sort of fantasy gone wrong" Castel added, shaking his head and panting as the heat around them made it hard to breath.

"How long is this asshole going to keep breathing fire!?" Dempsey growled, his arms burning with effort. He could feel the effects of Ph.D Flopper being stretched to its limits, and he knew this wouldn't last much longer. Nikolai suddenly smirked and said "Maybe it would like something cold, eh?"

Nikolai suddenly pulled the Sickle off of his belt, which instantly froze solid at the touch of the Russian's hand. The Russian closed his eyes and focused the power of the Ancient's flowing through him into his arm, channeling the awesome powers of ice. The sickle soon become a deadly swirling instrument of death and Nikolai drew back his hand and hurled it into the maw of the dragon, where it flew into the monster's mouth.

The effect was immediate, with the wall of flames stopping as the dragon stumbled back in pain and hissed as the weapon lodged into its throat, burning the inside of the monster with the sheer cold wrath of the Ancients. Dempsey smirked and said "Nice"

"Thank you. Now, how do you suppose we subdue the beast?" Nikolai asked Dempsey, who chuckled and said "I thought you'd never ask-"

"You're going to go for the eyes to stun it…aren't you?" Wilson asked in a dry tone. Dempsey laughed nervously and said "That may have been my plan…what, you don't think it'll work?"

"Seems a bit obvious, sir" Wilson said with a small smile

"But on something that big, the eyes have got to be a weak spot"

"RAAAAAAHH!"

"Aw shit" Dempsey muttered as he looked up, seeing a spiked tail coming right at him. The marines, Russian, and Samurai jumped to the side, with the tail only clipping Dempsey's arm as it sailed by. The marine rolled to his feet and hurled a Symtex grenade at the creature's body, with an explosion going off just a few moments later. The dragon didn't even register the explosion and shot another blast of flames at Dempsey, who grinned evilly and threw his Bowie Knife, charged with electricity from his own Elemental Fist powers, at the dragon's open mouth. Dempsey jumped to the side to avoid the initial blast of fire and watched as the dragon roared in pain and recoiled as the blade slammed into the inside of it's throat. The dragon flailed and slammed its head into a nearby building, disorientating it further and causing its head to crash onto the ground.

"There we go!" Evens laughed as he opened fire on the dragon, with the others joining in. The dragon's eyes suddenly flashed bright blue and Dempsey yelled "Get back!"

The dragon let loose a tidal wave of fire that engulfed the street, causing the marines to take cover in the alleyways. The dragon shuddered and got to its feet, even with the hailstorm of gunfire slamming it into it as the marines stepped back out. The creature's evil eyes narrowed in anger and the dragon arched its head back and let loose another tongue of fire at the soldiers, who scattered as the flames of hell scorched the streets.

"We've got to put this thing down!" Nikolai yelled as he got to his feet, hurling a grenade skyward at the beast, only for it to explode at the base of its neck. The dragon growled softly and then, with greater speed than any of the soldiers thought possible, swung its entire body around and lashed at them with its tail. The soldier's all dove for cover as the tail swung into the streets, the deadly spikes on the tail being large enough to easily impale them and the end of the tail being a deadly mace-like thing that could kill a lesser fighter with ease. Dempsey rolled into a crouch and saw Takeo standing tall as the behemoth loomed over head, blasting him with flames and slowly bringing its mouth closer to him. The hardened warrior had a scowl on his face yet stood tall against the force of fire pounding against him.

"Tak! Do it!" Dempsey barked at the samurai.

Takeo darted forward into the flames and leapt into the opened mouth of the creature, stabbing downwards into the bottom of the creature's mouth. The dragon roared in agony and swung it head, sending the samurai flying out of its mouth and crashing into a lamppost before landing on the ground.

"Takeo!" Nikolai yelled.

"Nikolai! Get down!" Dempsey yelled to the Russian, who looked up to see a massive claw coming down towards him. As he made the move to jump, the dragon's claw was engulfed in a small explosion and the creature's hand retracted in pain.

"Not a chance!" Castel growled as he fired four more shots from his grenade launcher, this time aiming for the dragon's face. The small grenades exploded in the dragon's face, causing it to recoil in agony as black colored blood began to seep from the wounds.

"We're hurting it!" Wilson said with a grin as she took aim with her gun and opened fire. The others did this as well, adding onto the barrage assaulting the monster. The creature roared and took a futile step back as the barrage continued. The beast weakly lashed out with its tail, destroying a nearby building's front half.

"Hey…I've got an idea" Dempsey said with a smirk as he observed the destroyed building, eyeing the slope-like look of it with glee. Castel, Evens, and Wilson exchanged glances as they blasted the dragon with gunfire before Takeo said "What do you plan to do?"

"Kick ass. What else?" Dempsey smirked as he put away his Lamentation and sprinted at the building. The dragon eyed the man and let loose a blast of fire, but a series of grenades to the face halted its assault.

Dempsey sprinted through the destroyed building, jumping from piece to piece of the wreckage as quickly as he could and within seconds found himself on the roof, eye level with the dragon. Dempsey smirked and said "Hey!"

The dragon turned its head towards the noise, its nose literally right next to Dempsey who drew his hand back and slammed his fist into the dragon's nose. The marines on the ground could only watch in awe as the marine legend that was Tank Dempsey slammed his fist into the dragon's face, sending it stumbling back as a burst of electricity surged into its face.

Dempsey laughed and said "Come on! Is that it!?"

The dragon growled softly and lashed out with its tail, destroying what was left of the building and sending Dempsey plummeting through the dust and smoke and towards the ground, only for a spiked tail to slam into him from below and sending him flying into the air. The marine's mouth hung open in silent agony as blood raced down his chest and arms as he tried to take in a breath of air from his no doubt shattered ribs. He somehow righted himself in midair as the dragon looked up at him.

"Alright you son of a bitch!" Dempsey roared as he began his fall to the earth.

"DEMPSEY!" Takeo yelled as Dempsey soared towards the ground. The dragon reared its head back and lunged at the marine, who drew his fist back and threw it at the beast as it opened its mouth. The electrically charged fist slammed into the dragon's mouth, stopping it dead in its tracks and causing it to snarl in pain as its head shot backwards from the insane amount of force behind the marine's right hook. Dempsey fell towards the ground, crashing onto it with a howl of pain. Takeo and the others surged forward to attack the creature while it was stunned while Nikolai began to treat Dempsey injuries. As the marine sat back up, he saw the dragon raise its clawed hand high into the air and bring it down on Castel, who let out a yell as the dragon's claw came crashing down on him.

"No! Castel!" Dempsey yelled as the marine crashed onto the ground, pinned under the claw of the dragon and thrashing in agony. The others tried rushed at the dragon, unloading everything they had at it, but to no avail. The creature roared in triumph before blasting the marine with dark red flames, killing him instantly.

"No!" Wilson yelled out, gripping her gun and clearly trying to restrain herself from running towards the slain marine, who lay still as a charred and broken mess as the dragon raised its claws. Irwin ran forward and scooped up the soldier's fallen grenade launcher and fired what was left at the dragon, with three of the explosives blasting the dragon's head and causing it to crashing disorientated into a nearby building. Wilson opened fire the creature as its head blearily tried to shake off the explosions, which seemed to be taking their toll. If they could get in one more solid hit…

"Guys! Together!" Nikolai barked at the others. Takeo and Dempsey exchanged looks before Nikolai held up his fist, which was swirling with icy energy. Takeo and Dempsey nodded and held up their hands, which burst into fire and electricity respectively.

"Get the dragon's head close to the ground!" Dempsey barked to the marines behind them. Irwin nodded, tossing the empty grenade launcher to the ground and hurling a grenade skyward. The dragon eyed the explosive wearily as it soared near its face, but when Wilson shot the explosive next to the dragon's head it went crashing down on the ground with a roar of pain.

"NOW!" Dempsey yelled as he sprinted forward, drawing his fist back slamming it into the face of the dragon. Nikolai and Takeo threw their fists at the beast's skull at the same time, and as the three Elemental Fists connected, the dragon let out a bellow as it quickly rose it its feet, a massive gash on its head. The soldiers watched on with a detached sort of awe as the dragon stumbled backwards and let out several short weak roars before it shuddered violently. It finally threw back its head and let out one final roar before it crashed onto the ground, where it did not rise again.

"…So…we just took down a dragon" Dempsey said slowly to the other soldiers, a grin on his face.

"Yeah…we did" Nikolai said with a small laugh.

"Poor Castel…" Wilson muttered, looking over at the charred body of the slain marine.

"We'll come back for him later…OK?" Dempsey muttered to the young marine, who nodded.

"We cannot dwell on this victory, no matter how great it is. We have to help the others" Takeo said in a low voice. The others nodded and then looked alarmed as a series of explosions rang out in the distance, followed by streams of fire and smoke.

"We better hurry" Dempsey said with a nervous laugh.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

"Er…double time" Dempsey added as he began to run forward, with the others joining him after a beat.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"DIE!" Sophia screamed, hurling several crimson fireballs at Eris, who laughed as she dove into her shadow, reappearing behind Sophia and drawing her hand back before punching her in the back of the skull. Sophia let out a cry of pain and flew forward, but not before Eris flung out her hand, wrapping a shadow tendril around Sophia's ankle. With a flick of Eris's hand, Sophia was sent hurtling down the street towards the tower with a scream.<p>

"_Good! Now finish her off!"_ Yena roared in her head. Eris nodded and dove into her shadow again, shooting out of the ground next to the unmoving form of Sophia. She flipped in midair and took aim with her rifle, firing the entire clip towards the Group 935 Scientist. The woman burst into flames as the bullets made contact with her skin, and Eris frowned and said 'What? Where-"

Eris was interrupted by a massive fireball slamming into her from behind, sending her flying through the air as the wave of fire burned and scorched her back. She slammed into a building, screaming as the fire ripped at her skin as it exploded violently. She lay there for a few moments, drifting out of consciousness before Yena growled and said _"Wake up! She's coming for another attack!"_

"I…I don't…she's…" Eris mumbled weakly, trying to focus her thoughts.

"_If you don't do something, she's going to kill them…all of them. The Mobsters you saved look to you as someone they can trust…the others look to you as their savior, someone who can help them save their doomed world. The children see you as a friend…someone who wants to help them convince Richtofen that his way is wrong…you give them hope, despite them knowing you for so little time…these bonds define us not just as humans, but as living beings"_

"_Are you so willing to throw that all away, little one?" _Yena murmured in her mind. Eris's eyes snapped open and she held out her hand, throwing out a shadow tendril towards Sophia, who was rocketing towards her. Sophia let out a scream of pain as the tendril tore through her shoulder and sent her crashing to the ground, bleeding heavily.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Sieger took aim with Fatum and Lux and fired both clips at the horde running at them, clearing them away effortlessly. The group continued to press on, trying to ignore the sounds of roaring and explosions in the distance. Sieger looked deeply troubled, as if trying to make up his mind about something…<p>

"Samantha…" Sieger muttered.

"Yeah?" Samantha said softly to Sieger.

"What's more important…protecting those precious to you…or doing what's right?" Sieger whispered, shaking his head in despair. Samantha realized what he was struggling to figure out, and shivered as he looked over at her, a grim look on his face.

"Samantha…Go help Eris, I'll keep the group going! You have to stop my mother before she kills her" Sieger said to Samantha, who nodded and shot off in the other direction as a nearby series of buildings exploded in flames. Zero scowled and said "Alright…enough of this shit"

Sieger looked down at the Tower, looming overhead. They were close…very close.

"Come on…we're close to the end guys, we've got to keep pressing on! We have to keeping going, we have to keep fighting! For everyone we've lost , for everything we've fought so hard for! We can't stop now!" Sieger yelled to the group as he walked to the front, black flames flicking around him as he summoned Glorious to his hand and raised it high to the air. The survivors rallied at the words of Richtofen's son and cheered loudly in response.

"You can fight Sieger…but in the end you will fall…" a soft voice muttered, watching the group as they pressed onwards. A burst of silver flames erupted on the roof of a nearby building, revealing Oswald. He looked down at them and said "Nothing can stop Edward…not you…not Samantha…no one can stop their grief…their pain…it will destroy this world and ravage it until nothing is left…accept your fate now…"

Oswald closed his eyes and let the cries of the dying and screams of the undead fill his ears as the battle below him raged on.

Meanwhile:

Eris screamed as the flames danced by her, searing her skin and blackening her arm further. It hurt horribly and was barely usable at this point. Sophia landed on the ground, strutting towards her with a confident smile on her face.

"You know…I don't get to go out into the field that much. Edward wanted my powers to grow…and grow they have. I'm stronger than that fool Illuzio could have ever dreamed to be…power…the power to change the world" Sophia breathed as Eris shook her head.

"You….you've become blinded by your own power…" Eris said as Sophia laughed as she looked up to the void that was the entrance to Agartha.

"No…I've seen the light. Only through power can you change the world. The time for peace is over…the flames of war and change will ravage this world until all evil is burned away…" Sophia breathed as the flames around her grew. She then locked eyes with Eris, aiming her pointer finger at Eris's heart.

"Starting with you-" Sophia began to say.

"No!"

Sophia whirled around in time for a fist to slam into her face, sending her rocketing backwards and crashing onto the asphalt. Samantha flipped in midair, green sparks flickering around her hands and landed in a crouch, looking bewildered. She stood up and said in a rather shaky voice "Magic is weird…I don't know how Illuzio managed with this"

"You…why did you help me?" Eris asked Samantha.

"Sieger told me too" Samantha replied with a small smile.

"He…he did that? He'd ask you to help him stop his own mom?" Eris asked, clearly stunned.

"You're an ally. You want to help us make this right…he knows that in his heart, we have to stop his parents from destroying this world. Besides, the others seem to trust you. I trust their judgment" Samantha said to the shadow woman, who frowned and said "Even if Master Yena is helping?"

Samantha looked away and said "Even then…we have to stop Richtofen…I'll take what help I can get at this point"

"That's rather big of you" Eris said with a wan smile.

"AGGGHH! ENOUGH!"

A massive fireball exploded down the street, revealing an irate Sophia, clenching his fists as black flames flickered around her fingers. Samantha was eerily reminded of Sieger, and remembered where he got his pyrokinesis abilities from. Sophia took a few steps forward, two massive fireballs forming in her hands as she aimed her hands towards Samantha and Eris, the former of whom summoned the Staff of Magnus and stood in front of Eris.

"Because of you my daddy ignored me and let Richtofen experiment on me. He got trapped in a Soul Gem because of you!" Samantha barked at the woman.

"Because of your father I was nearly killed. He deserved everything he got…" Sophia pointed at the Soul Gem around Samantha's neck and said "Is that it?

"_Sophia…"_ a weak voice murmured in her mind.

Sophia smiled grimly and said "Hello Ludvig. It's been a while"

"_It has…how have you been?"_ Dr. Maxis asked Sophia in a soft voice.

"Good...Edward treats me like a queen, I couldn't be prouder of my son and we're closing to realizing Group 935's goal. The betterment of the mankind and the improvement of the human condition" Sophia replied.

"Sophia…this was not what we wanted…" Dr. Maxis said in a low voice.

"_I don't give a shit wanted you wanted Doctor Maxis!"_ Sophia growled as the fire around her flared up. She took a shaky breath and said "We've come too far, Ludvig. We will change the world forever, and I won't let any of you hurt Edward"

"_Samantha…kill her"_ Dr. Maxis rasped. Samantha was suddenly thrown back as a fireball slammed into her, courtesy of Sophia. The woman sped forward and grabbed Samantha by the neck, ripping the Soul Gem that contained Dr. Maxis off of her neck.

"I've been waiting for this day for a long time Ludvig!" Sophia yelled as she gripped the Soul Gem tightly. Samantha got to her feet and lunged at Sophia, but an audible crack rippled through the air.

"DADDY!" Samantha screamed as the Soul Gem shattered violently. Blue energies flowed through the air as the tormented soul of Dr. Maxis was released. The blue wraith flowed around Samantha and said one last thing to her before it soared skywards towards the hole in the sky that was Agartha.

_I love you Samantha._

"There…we'll never have to see him again" Sophia whispered before Samantha tackled her to the ground. The two rolled on the ground, exchanging punches and kicks before Sophia kicked Samantha off of her.

"He's gone Samantha! His soul now aids Edward in opening the gateway!" Sophia said with a laugh as Samantha fired a blast of energy from the Staff of Magnus at Sophia, who dodged the attack and rolled into a crouch.

"I've been wanting to kill you for a while…I think Sieger will understand if I slit your throat" Samantha breathed softly, hatred laced in her voice.

"Ladies, I know we all want to kill each other but I'm the only one who'll be killing Sophia" Eris said with a glare, directing it at the 935 scientist.

""Weird…I feel the same way about you-AGH!"

Sophia let out a yell as a pole-like object crashed into her skull, sending her stumbling forward with a yelp. She whirled around, palms flaring to see Vice, Starch and Zero aiming their weapons at her, with the Arbiter's Staff pointed at her, scorched horribly from where it made contact with her head.

"Not a chance, bitch" Zero growled, flicking Lucifer in his grip. Vice nodded in agreement while Starch rolled his eyes and said "As cliché as it is, she's done way too much for us, so we can't really stand by and watch you hurt her. That goes for Samantha too"

"So be it. You can die too" Sophia said in a soft voice, thrusting her palm forward and summoning a column of fire. The three teens yelled out as they were jerked backwards, black tendrils wrapped around them. Sophia turned around and saw Eris getting to her feet, snarling as her burnt arm slowly reformed itself it's a jet black clawed gauntlet.

"No…they've suffered enough. Your fight is with me" Eris growled at the 935 Scientist.

"**No…"**a dark voice whispered.

Eris's shadow shuddered and it slowly rose upwards and began to take shape. As a flowing mane of jet black hair formed and the figure of Harvey Yena took shape, Sophia took a step back in horror as the man made of shadows smirked at her, though no amusement was in his smile. It was a cold and serious sort of thing that only he could pull off and make terrifying.

"**It's with us"** Yena said coldly, cracking his knuckles. Yena looked at Eris and said **"I helped start all of this. If anyone is the true mastermind behind this, it is me. It's only fitting I help end this and make Edward lose something else he loved"**

Sophia's lips curled into a snarl as she whispered "How dare you…" Yena laughed, a short cold bark-like sound and said **"Sophia…if you think I'm a piece of shit, then you better look in a mirror. You're even worse than me"**

"Excuse me?" Sophia growled, flames flaring around her. Samantha and the others simply watched as the two Senior Members of Group 935 exchanged barbs.

"**You make me sick…you really do. You think that little girl is proud of you both? You can't hold onto her forever, Sophia…She's gone…she's dead. Edward can't even speak to her, let alone bring her back. You both should've kept at the work we were doing back then, instead of coming up with this! Make the world better with science, not destroy it all and make it your own…Izzy would be ashamed of you both"** Yena hissed, a note of anger in his voice.

"Master…you've changed" Eris whispered to the shadow, a small smile on her face..

Yena looked at her with a small smile and said "**You've shown me quite a bit in the short time we've known each other, little one…Don't get me wrong, I'm a psychotic and bloodthirsty monster who would rather kill you than shake your hand…"**

Yena then looked away and said** "But…When I met you, that changed a bit…you reminded me of that brave little girl who helped make our lives a little brighter…she was the one person who was never afraid of me…she trusted me without reserve, even when I became the monster you see before you…that little girl was the light that kept me sane, and I, like Edward, have felt the pain of her death…it drove me past the brink…and into the shadows…I became the tool Edward wanted me to be, that instrument of death and destruction. I planned on betraying him sometime down the road and filling the world with the same darkness that filled my soul…"**

"**But then I met you, Eris…" **Yena said softly, looking towards Agartha.

"**And then I remembered…I remembered what I had lost…what we, as Group 935 once strived for…when I met you the faith and hope that Izzy gave me rekindled. You reminded me that humanity is still salvageable…" **Yena then looked at Sophia with a sorrowful look on his face.

"**This world is worth preserving, because it is a world that Izzy would be proud to live in. Eris wants to preserve this realm as well, and that is why I stand against you. Whether it was me wanting to enshroud the world in darkness or you and Edward burning the world clean and starting anew, the concept is still flawed. The innocent that would die would outnumber the amount of people you could ever hope to save-"**

"ENOUGH!" Sophia screamed at Yena, who blinked in surprise at the outburst.

"I will not stand here and allow you to insult me. Izzy wanted a beautiful, peaceful world, and we will find a way to accomplish that goal no matter what the cost. This world is evil! It took our little girl away from us! Our new world will be free from all suffering! Hate, greed, death, and evil will all be gone in this new world!" Sophia yelled at Yena, who simply shook his head at the woman.

"I'm ready to die for this world…our ideals our strong, and so is our resolve. People will die, yes…but this has gone on for too long. The world will begin anew…" Sophia whispered as she closed her eyes.

"**Well…if that's the way it's going to be"** Yean growled, as two pistols formed in his jet black hands. Crow and Wolf, the two very guns that Izzy had designed herself for him, all those years ago. He gripped the weapons tightly and said **"Eris…get ready, little one"**

"Right" Eris replied, flexing her newly formed arm with a wince.

"Very well…let's level the playing field then" Sophia said in a softy tone as she held her arms out. Sophia closed her eyes and said "Edward…"

"_Very well…"_ Richtofen murmured in her mind. Sophia felt a strange energy course through her. Eris took a steps back as the flames surrounding Sophia burned white and black, with immense waves of heat rolling off of her now.

"Now…where were we?" Sophia said in a soft voice before hurling a bright white fireball at Eris and Yena, who dove into a nearby shadow for cover. Sophia let out a yell and shot off down the street, chasing the slithering shadow with a look of anger on her face.

Samantha bit her lip and made a move to go after them, not liking the idea of Richtofen's pyromaniac lover out and about and killing people in the battle between her and Eris, but the recalled Eris's plea that they keep moving.

"Don't die on us!" Samantha yelled after Eris. Samantha stood there for a moment before swearing under her breath and using Illuzio's powers again, vanishing in a flash of green light. Vice, Starch, and Zero exchanged glances, unsure of what to do.

Zero scowled and said "Go…I'll back her up"

"Alright…be careful" Vice said tersely to Zero, who nodded and sprinted after the two women. Starch sighed and said "Come on…let's get back to the others.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Oswald chuckled as the survivors continued to press their way forward, or rather the central fighting force was anyway. Contrary to what Maxwell and the others thought, the battle wasn't exactly going in their favor. Aside from the central route to the Tower, where Samantha and her friends were fighting and gaining ground quickly, the battle had deadlocked or the Reclaimers were gaining ground. If they could just get the right push…<p>

"Master Richtofen…the world is watching. Your followers, all loyal to you and only you, stand ready…your beloved fights in your stead while you open the Gateway to Agartha…but what will you do?"

"What will you do…that is the question indeed" Oswald chuckled as he admired the battle raging below him, Sophia and Eris. Two women protecting what they believed in. One fighting out of grief, the other fighting to protect a world she loved.

"A battle of ideals…is this all what this is about…" Oswald asked himself, shaking his head.

"Ah well…we'll see in the end"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

M.P.D. Tower:

* * *

><p>Richtofen was torn.<p>

On the one hand, his plan was nearly ready. Their time was nearly up, and the time of reckoning was upon them. Agartha was within his grasp, the gateway within sight but not quite open, despite the ranting of Jackson who claimed otherwise.

However, Oswald and Sophia were his only remaining personnel who could stop the teens led by Samantha and Sieger to stop him. He had underestimated them, so much so that there was a chance that they could get to him…

And Samantha had the Staff…

It had hurt him when he discovered Illuzio's treachery, stemming from Sieger's departure. Illuzio would then spend more and more time going into other worlds and brooding…planning…

And it would seem the jester had the last laugh, because Samantha was stronger than ever and was holding the one weapon that could stop him, a weapon Illuzio had told him never existed. He felt even worse that Sophia was now fighting against Yena and his vessel, a gifted young woman who was also a threat to his plans.

"I think a war on two fronts is appropriate…" Richtofen murmured as he walked towards the edge of the tower, tapping into the power of the M.P.D. As he looked down, he could make out the form of Sophia, shining like a beacon as she fought to protect him.

"I haff faith in you, my dear…just a little longer…" Richtofen whispered as his eyes glowed bright blue.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Sophia crashed onto the street with a scream as Yena slammed his fist into her jaw, only for Eris to kick her violently in the back as hard as she could. Eris grinned and took aim, firing several shots of her rifle at Sophia while in midair, who screamed as the rounds slammed into her, blowing apart her body.<p>

"Like fish in a barrel!" Eris grinned.

"Not bad. Finish her off" Yena said coolly, aiming Crow at Sophia and firing a shot.

Sophia suddenly shined bright white and exploded in a raging fireball,

"NO!"

A figure threw himself in between the attack, holding his own flaming rod diverting the flames that would've killed her.

Eris looked up to see Zero holding the flat of Lucifer and holding back the flames that threatened to burn him alive, already burning his palms and arms. Zero swung the blade as the flames dissipated and sprinted forward, slashing at Sophia, who ducked under the blow and grabbed Zero by the arm, causing him to scream in agony as his flesh burned before his eyes, leaving warped flesh marred by sheer heat. Zero fell to the ground, mouth agape as he screamed silently in pain. He looked up, ignoring the red haze of pain clouding his vision as Sophia conjured a rod of flames that changed into a flaming blade.

"Your world means nothing to me…Yena, how does it feel to know your vessel is nothing compared to-" Sophia began to say before she screamed in agony as a sword was shoved through her chest. Sophia staggered forward and whirled around, sending an arc of fire at Zero who howled in agony as the flames danced by him, causing him to fall to the ground as his skin burned to black. The flames cracked his gas mask as he suddenly became very still.

Sophia yanked at Lucifer and tossed it onto the ground, panting as the wound sealed itself back up.

"You'll pay for that…" a soft cold voice whispered behind her.

Sophia quickly turned around, only for a black tendril to impale her through the chest, causing her to scream as it writhed and split into five smaller tendrils, which turned around and dug into her hands and feet, immobilizing her. Eris's face was contorted into a downright evil scowl as a red hellish aura enveloped her. Yena walked beside her, his face also marked with rage.

"All he was trying to do was protect me…he wanted to help change this world for the better, not destroy it like you idiots are doing" Eris hissed as she advanced towards Sophia, pressing the tip of her rifle against Sophia's lips.

"Heh…at least I went out in a blaze of glory…" Zero coughed as Eris made a move to pull the trigger.

"_**Sophia! NO!"**_

The scientist felt something inside of her react, causing a shockwave of flames to burst from her and send Eris sprawling onto the ground. Yena had vanished for the moment, and Sophia had realized that Edward had intervened yet again on her behalf. Sophia watched Eris get back to her feet, a horrible scowl on her face as a red aura flickered around her. Sophia took a step back as a horrible power reached her…something wrong…something dark…

"Shit!" Sophia muttered as she kicked off the ground and fled in the other direction, her wounds cauterizing instantly. Eris took a running start and cast her shadows out as she dove into them, giving chase to the fire-wielding woman.

Zero watched them leave with a faint smile on his face, as he felt the life leave his body. The pain was fading…his grip on everything was going away…

He recalled sometime in his past…back when things were normal…back when he was happy…back when all of this was irrelevant…

They were all gone now…

Or were they…?

He opened his eyes, not really seeing anything else but a dull light. He could hear voices…wait…it was them…

"I've missed you…I've missed you all so much…I'm home…" Zero laughed in a raspy voice as he closed his eyes again behind his horribly cracked gasmask. His last thoughts as he slipped from one life to the next was that he was reunited with his loved ones after all this time. The next was a sense of satisfaction, knowing Eris would help them save the world and that his actions had meant something in the end. He had made a difference…

"Alright guys…take me home" Zero whispered as the life left his body.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"We're nearly there!" Jess cheered as the entrance to the Tower came into sight. Marcus looked behind them at the three Leviathan Zombies they had to fight through and said "Thank Christ for that…"<p>

A green burst of light filled the street and a young girl landed next to Sieger and Nicholas, holding a staff. Samantha simply said "She said she could handle it"

"Alright" Sieger said with a nod as he turned his head to look at the Tower where his father was. As the group neared the Tower, a faint sound filled the air. Sieger and Samantha slowed to a stop, and then the others did as well.

It was the sound of clapping.

"I'll be honest…" a cool voice said to the as the group as the Zombies around them simply froze. Oswald burst into existence in front of them, armed to the teeth in glowing Pack-A-Punched weaponry and wearing full combat gear, emblazoned with the Group 935 logo.

"Oswald! Stand aside! I don't want to kill you" Sieger barked.

"I was NOT expecting you idiots to make it this far. Kudos to the two of you, Samantha and Victor, for getting to the Tower. Not that it'll do you any good, considering that even if you guys manage to kill me and Sophia you have to actually get to Richtofen. Not likely" Oswald chuckled.

"So…now we stand here. On the stage of another great battle. Me, Oswald Fairwind, Richtofen's Senior Advisor and the mastermind behind this little battle in Los Angles, against a ragtag team of idiots who got here through sheer dumb luck" Oswald said in a calm tone.

"No…we got here-" Nicholas began to say.

"Well, he's got a point" Nick butted in. Jess gave him a look and said "Way to take the bad guy's side"

"Yeah, nice going numbnuts" Andrew muttered.

"Hehe…numbnuts" Jess giggled.

"Back on topic, and supporting my point…you guys got lucky. Again and again, fate seems to allow things to go your way. And quite frankly, I hate it. Why should this world continue to exist? It's evil, corrupt, and millions die every day while the rest of the world pleads ignorance. Arrogance flows through this very country like water while those in power refuse to listen to reason and allow themselves to be swayed by vices…quite frankly I can't think of a better thing to happen to this world…" Oswald growled at the group.

He then looked skyward, towards the hole that was the entryway to Agartha and said "That beautiful gate…what lays beyond it…such unfathomable power…such might…it's all ours for the taking…"

"But first…the task at hand" Oswald said as he looked at the group of Zombie slayers before him. He smirked and snapped his fingers, and a silver crisscrossing wall of the fire jetted out from the ground. Nicholas swore and jumped forward, and as he glanced around him he realized that he and his friends were isolated from the rest of the group.

"Damn it! We've got to get through!" Sal barked as he glanced around, trying to find a way to get past the flames.

"Oswald!" Sieger barked, taking aim with Fatum and firing a shot. Oswald's skull jerked back as the shot connected with his forehead, though when Oswald began to laugh Sieger lowered the pistol and said "I knew that wouldn't work"

"So you did it just to put a bullet in my head…"

"Pretty much. I never really liked you as much as the others, you know. Uncle Kraken though, he was cool" Sieger said offhandedly.

"He was a little pansy who fought as well as he dressed. Me on the other hand-" Oswald cracked his neck before a silver wraith of flames enveloped him.

"I trained the others how to fight, and how to channel their powers. You were a prodigy in your own right, Sieger. A born hero that could have been the prince of a Utopia with your father as King…"

"Instead you chose to rebel. You wanted peace to prevail…you didn't want your father to kill everyone because of what happened to Izzy" Oswald hissed, anger and resentment slipping into his voice. Samantha's expression softened as she recognized the raw pain of loss in Oswald's voice and realized he too was grieving the loss of the adopted daughter of Richtofen.

"You guys have to stop letting her death torture you like this. She wouldn't have wanted to you to do this to yourselves! She always told me that you have to be the best person you can be, and not let past hurts bother you. Why can't you see that she would hate this world you're trying to create!?" Sieger yelled at Oswald, who shook his head.

"Because I too have seen the injustices in the world…and Izzy was the final straw. This world can go to hell for all I care…all I have to do is stall you. I won't kill you Sieger…but your friends…well, I have no qualms killing them" Oswald said as two guns flashed into existence in his hands, two Commando's.

"I may die, but Izzy's memory lives on in the new world. En garde, Sieger and Samantha. Let's see who's ideals stand stronger" Oswald purred as he opened fire on the group.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Oswald…stand strong my friend. We are close…oh so close to the end" Richtofen whispered as the energies flowed through him. The M.P.D. began to open once more as the souls he had gathered charged up within the confines of the device.<p>

"Not an hour remains…they don't have much time left…" Richtofen said to himself as he walked towards the M.P.D. He then froze as a familiar voice _said "Edward…"_

"Maxis…hello my old friend" Richtofen said as he turned around, eyeing the spirit silhouette of his former friend, mentor, and father figure.

"_Edward…I must confess, I am surprised that you changed so much over the years. Did swapping souls again with Samantha change you that much? Did it cure the insanity that raged throughout your soul?"_ Maxis asked the man, who nodded.

"I saw light…I saw reason. The pain and rage faded away…I decided to devote my life to realizing the goal we set out for, all those years ago" Richtofen replied.

"_And then Izzy died…"_ Dr. Maxis said in a soft voice.

"Yes…and zhen my little Izzy vas taken from us..." Richtofen whispered.

"_What was she like, Edward? Please…tell me about her"_ Dr. Maxis asked.

"Vhy should I tell you…you are just as twisted as I am, Ludvig"

"_Because I know that feeling…I would go to the ends of the earth to get revenge for Samantha…I wanted to destroy you for what you did to my little girl…I want to know about the girl who invoked these feelings in you as well…consider it an old friend's final request"_ Maxis muttered. Richtofen beckoned his former friend to come closer, and the two walked towards the edge of the Tower. Richtofen knew Maxis had been released from his Soul Gem, and was fighting to escape the vacuum of souls that was Agartha.

"She was bright…I had never seen a mind like her's before, Ludvig. She had a knack for figuring out solutions to complicated problems and had a thirst for knowledge…" Richtofen said softly, a faraway look in his eyes.

"She was kind. She was brave, strong, and had a unbreakable will. She had been hurt in the past, and was all alone. We took her in, and she became the heart of Group 935. She became the daughter I had never had…and when Victor was born, she became the model sister for him…she was our world…" Richtofen went on, eyeing the raging battle below.

"I loved that little girl…when I met her, I devoted my research to creating her world. Her ideal world…she'd talk about it every night as we sat down for dinner…she had plans, she had ideas…she had dreams of a world where no one hurt anymore. A world where no crime existed, corruption and evil was expunged from the world as a whole…a perfect and pure world of peace…"

"_A world of peace…it sounds beautiful"_ Maxis said softly.

Richtofen nodded and said "Yes…but then she was taken from us…and then I felt the pain and the rage came back, Ludvig…I wanted to destroy the world that took her from me…"

"_I see…"_

"Do you?"

"_Yes…I do"_

"Hmmm…zhis is the end, my friend. You cannot remain here any longer" Richtofen said as he turned to face his old friend, who was fading before his eyes.

"_I know…Samantha will stop you, Edward. She too has been hurt, but she has become strong through her suffering…she will save this world from you…"_ Maxis said to Richtofen, who shook his head and looked away towards Agartha.

"Then I await her arrival…the end is near…I vill not be stopped by anything" Richtofen whispered. After a few moments, he looked behind himself once more and realized Dr. Maxis was gone. Richtofen looked skyward and sighed deeply.

"Farewell, Dr. Maxis…" Richtofen muttered as he closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath to steel himself for what was coming.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Not bad! Not bad at all!" Oswald laughed as he ducked under a sniper round from Jess as he and Sieger traded blows. Oswald spun around and slammed his heel in Sieger's chin, sending him flying back as Samantha dashed forward and stabbed at Oswald with the Staff of Magnus.<p>

Oswald burst into a cloud do silver flames and reappeared a moment later, grabbing Samantha by the scruff of her neck, only for a enchanted tomahawk to slam into his skull. Oswald flew backwards with a howl of pain as the Hell's Redeemer flew back into Nicholas's hand. The teens were worn down with the relentless attacks of Oswald, who seemed to not show any sort of special abilities at all other than shooting at them and vanishing and reappearing.

"Oswald, why are you holding back?" Sieger asked the scientist bitterly, earning a laugh in response.

"Because if I did that, then this would end too quickly" Oswald replied, shouldering his Commando until a stream of gunfire blasted him into oblivion.

"Save your ammo, guys. He's just stalling instead of fighting us like a real man would" Sieger said in a loud voice.

"…Very well. If you want me to go all out, then I will be happy to oblige" Oswald said coldly.

The man reappeared in a burst of silver flames and threw his hands in the air before becoming immersed in silver fire. The teens felt a shiver roll down their spine as Oswald let out a wailing scream and the silver flames exploded outward, creating a strange void-like sphere around the man.

Oswald's body began to glow as light formed around him, taking the form of armor. As plates of silver light formed around him, his body quickly grew and expanded. His skin slowly began to take on a silver color, becoming stronger and more durable. His arms grew long and powerful and his legs grew tall. Oswald threw back his head with a scream as his head elongated, turning into a demonic looking snout with pointed ears. As the armor formed around the scientist, a column of silver fire formed in his hands before materializing into a massive silver claymore.

"Ah…now this is more like it!" Oswald chuckled as he stood up, twenty feet tall and utterly massive. He flex his muscles and said "Ah…It's not often I get to go all out…last time I did this was when we tried to subdue Harvey when he lost control…"

"Hey asshole, just because you can transform doesn't mean this fight's over!" Andrew barked as he pulled out his Skullcrusher. Oswald grinned sadistically and said "Too true!"

Andrew fired a grenade at Oswald, which exploded harmlessly in his face. The scientists then dashed at the teen and brought down his sword on Andrew, who threw himself to the side to avoid the slash but couldn't avoid the savage kick Oswald delivered right afterwards.

"Andrew!" Nicholas yelled as the teen slammed into a telephone pole and crashed onto the ground senseless. Samantha and Sieger ran at Oswald, who swung his sword and made them both vanish on the spot. Samantha reappeared and opened fire with her Mustang and Sally, causing Oswald to snarl in response to the explosions engulfing him. Sieger suddenly appeared underneath him and lunged at him stabbing him in the chest with Glorious.

"Agh! That damned sword!" Oswald howled as he drew his hand back and slammed it into Sieger, sending him flying backwards. Oswald whirled around and slashed at Samantha, who nimbly jumped into the air and fired a ball of energy from him palm, which slammed into Oswald's face and sent him stumbling backwards.

"OPEN FIRE!" Nicholas bellowed as he let loose a stream of bullets from his Speakeasy. The others added their gunfire to his and Oswald snarled in pain as the bullets began to tore through his armor.

"I won't die here! NOT YET!" Oswald growled as he charged at the teen, slashing and hacking at them. Nick brought up C.N. as Oswald delivered a downward slash and managed to block the strike, but the force sent Nick flying backwards and rolling on the ground.

"Nick!" Nicholas yelled as Oswald opened his mouth, a ball of energy formed in it.

"Eat it!" Joe barked as he charged up his WunderWaffe DG-7 and fired it at Oswald's mouth. The two balls of energy exploded violently, causing Oswald to stumble backwards with a whine of pain, only for his body to suddenly start slowing down…it then began to sting horribly-

"No!" Oswald growled as he looked to the side, seeing Marcus blasting at him with the Petrifier. He then saw Jess taking aim with Artemis's Judgment before firing an arrow at Oswald, who staggered back as the Pack-A-Punched arrow pierced his armored chest.

Oswald darted forward and swung his sword downward, causing Jess to scream as she jumped to the side to avoid the deadly blade, dropping her bow in the process. Oswald suddenly reached out and grabbed Jess by the middle, grinning evilly as he began to crush her in his grip as he pulled her towards him. Jess screamed in agony and uselessly hit the man's elongated and claw-like fingers with her fist.

"JESS!" Marcus bellowed as he ran at Oswald, only for the scientist to backhand him with enough force to knock him into the street senseless, a trail of blood streaming from his skull.

"NO!" Samantha screamed as she threw herself at Oswald, only for the blade to slam into her and sent her crashing onto the ground behind him, bleeding heavily from the slash he delivered. Oswald grinned evilly at the sight of the wounded daughter of Maxis before he turned around. Oswald then jerked back as a sniper round went into his eye socket and caused him to let go of Jess, who fell to the ground clutching her stomach.

Nicholas and Nick ran forward to check on her while Judith fired another shot into Oswald's face, this one catching him in the forehead. John fired several shots from his Winter's Fury, slowing down Oswald and making it harder for him to move his legs through the ice.

"Is that all you've got!?" Oswald bellowed as he slashed at Nicholas, who brought up Aegis to defend. Nicholas crumpled under the force of the slash, but the shield held firm.

"Juliet! Go for it!" Nicholas yelled.

"You've got it!" Juliet yelled with a wide grin as she shot forward, using her Chainsaw Dash. Juliet kicked off of the ground and flipped in midair as she soared towards Oswald before plunging her chainsaw in his chest. The man stumbled backwards as the chainsaw ripped his insides apart, but even as Juliet kicked off of the man's body she dashed forward and slashed at his legs. Oswald tried to strike her down, but she was much too nimble.

"We need a plan, she can't take him down by herself" Nicholas muttered to Joe, who nodded and said "If we can weaken him with our Wonder Weapons, I think we can set him up for the kill"

"You guys weaken him, and then I'll finish him off with this" Nicholas said as he tapped the Hell's Redeemer on his hip. Joe nodded as he pulled out his Wunderwaffe DG-7. Nick walked over to the ground, holding Jess's Siliquifier in his hands while Judith gripped her Scavenger tightly. John took aim with his Winter's Fury and said "Alright…let's get this over with"

The group rushed forward as Oswald slashed at Juliet with his sword, only to kick out with his left leg and catch Juliet in midair, sending her flying away. Nicholas let out a yell and caught her as she soared towards him. The cheerleader began to violently cough up blood, signifying that something had been broken as a result of the last attack she had taken, and got to work healing her.

John relentlessly fired at the legs of Oswald as Judith lined up the shot and fired an explosive bolt into the face of Oswald, which screamed in pain as the bolt blinded him in his left eye from the explosion. As Juliet got to her feet she pulled out her Vitriolic Withering and fired the pods at the feet of Oswald as Nick sprayed the Siliquifier over Oswald's feet, causing the scientist to fall to the ground in pain as Joe charged up his WunderWaffe and fired a blast at Oswald, who roared as the electricity surged through him. Nicholas opened fire with his Porter's Mark II Ray Gun until he felt the ground shake.

"NOOO!" Oswald bellowed a silver shockwave of fire erupted from his mangled and bleeding body.

"Not…not to you…" Oswald panted as he dropped his sword to the ground, weakly slashing at John who jumped back to avoid his clawed hand.

"No" came a familiar voice behind Nicholas. The teen looked behind him and saw Sieger supporting a healed but still unconscious Samantha. Sieger summoned Glorious to his hand and said "If anyone's going to end this, it's me"

"I'll watch after her. Finish him" Nicholas said as he took Samantha off of Sieger's shoulder and set her on the pavement gently.

"Well then…little Victor…are you ready to kill me?" Oswald said softly to the teen, who tightened his grip on his sword before vanishing in a burst of black flames. Sieger then reappeared below Oswald and jumped upwards, slashing furiously at Oswald and ripping open his chest like a piñata, spraying the ground and air with crimson. Sieger flipped in midair and dove towards Oswald, stabbing him in the heart with Glorious as black flames raced down the blade. Sieger then yanked the blade out and landed lightly on the ground as Oswald let out a roar of agony.

The man stumbled weakly backwards before falling to one knee as the blood rushed from his face. He looked up at the group before him…once upon a time so weak…now they were ready to confront his Master in a challenge of ideals…

"Looks like you guys are ready…well…good luck then" Oswald said with a twisted smile as he body began to burn away. Sieger sighed and said "All five of them…Steiner, Kraken, Saem, Jackson…and Oswald…All gone…"

"Who were they exactly?" Samantha asked Sieger softly.

"Five members of Group 935, tasked with advancing the Project and helping my father. They've been working in the shadows for a while now, doing what though…well, that's a mystery we'll never know" Sieger admitted.

"Are you OK?" Samantha asked Sieger in a whisper. Sieger shook his head, fighting back the sense of horror and remorse. These people…he had grown up with him. They were like family to him…and here he was fighting them off…Steiner had been fun to kill, only because he was only in it for the power and wasn't very important to him, but the others…

They were the ones who were by his side as he grew up…

"Sieger…"

Victor Richtofen felt a hand wrap around his and saw Samantha standing by him, offering comfort to the grieving young man. The group stood there in silence as the silver flames died away…

Before two massive fireballs slammed into the entrance to the Tower.

Sieger yelled out as a blast of fire slammed into Samantha, who threw herself in front of Sieger and took a fireball for him. As he looked forward, he saw Eris grabbing Sophia by the neck and straggling her, with Sophia wildly shooting fire in an attempt to dislodge the fire-wielder. Finally, Sophia drew back her feet and kicked Eris into the air, following up with shooting an arc of white flames that sent Eris soaring into the air and crashing onto the ground next to Nicholas, Jess, and Nick.

Sophia got to her feet, a cold smile on her face. She glanced at Sieger, who was helping Samantha to her feet and aimed a palm at Eris, Nick, Jess, and Nicholas before letting loose a massive wave of fire at them.

"MOM NO!" Sieger cried out as the flames raced towards his friends.

"Not so fast!" Nick yelled, jumping in front of the others.

"Nick! WAIT!" Nicholas screamed as Nick ran in front of them, hurling C.N at Sophia with a grin on his face. The dagger soared through the flames, stopping them in their tracks, and slammed into the chest of the 935 Scientist. Sophia staggered back as the flames vanished from her body and she fell to the ground, stunned as golden energy surged into her as she screamed in agony.

"Nice throw!" Joe yelled to Nick, who laughed a little while scratching his head before jogging over to the unmoving Sophia's body.

"_**NO!"**_A massive bolt of lightning struck down from the ground, with a wraith of red flowing energy surging around him. Nick slowed to a stop as the form of Richtofen stood in front of Sophia, drawing out C.N. with a note of curiosity and urgency. He placed a hand on Sophia's chest wound, causing it to seal up and sending energy into her body, causing her to sigh with relief as life poured into her once more.

"Zhis…vhat is this?" Richtofen muttered, examining the golden dagger that was C.N.

"It's Chuck Norris, now give him back!" Nick yelled as he pulled out his Calamity and Jane, only for Richtofen to silence him with a look. No one moved, and no one breathed as C.N. began to glow bright blue.

"_What am I…"_ a soft voice breathed, echoing in the air around them.

Richtofen gasped and let go of the dagger, which began to float in the air in front of them. It began to glow bright blue before the dagger that was C.N. began to dissolve, revealing a small blue gem in the center.

"C.N!" Nick yelled out.

"A Soul Gem…" Richtofen murmured, reaching towards it with a sparking hand.

"This one holds great power…so much power…" Richtofen whispered as a familiar smile cross his face. One of wonder, of a power lust that had once driven him mad…

"NO! Leave him alone!" Nick yelled, sprinting at Richtofen, who looked at the approaching teen with an expression of the utmost disgust, energy surging around his fist.

"Nick, get away from him!" Samantha screamed, running after Nick, but he had already reached Richtofen and was opening fire on him.

"Begone!" Richtofen snarled, drawing his arm back and lunging at Nick, slamming his fist into Nick's chest. Everyone watching could only stare in horror as Nick was sent falling backwards and crashing onto the ground, screaming as sparks floated away from his body as it began to dissolve before his eyes his shirt burning away from the very presence of Richtofen's power. The Bradburn teens let out cries of horror and clustered around their friend…

But they knew the damage had been done. The burning mark on Nick's chest left crisscrossing green cracks against Nick's bare chest as his eyes flickered bright blue. Richtofen's powers had seeped into Nick...

"No…damn it!" Samantha shouted as tears began to form in her eyes. The others felt horror and fear course through them as the faint sound of Richtofen chuckling. The teens turned around and opened fire on Richtofen, who took the gunfire head on. The Mobsters and Green Run Crew watched on warily, unsure of whether or not to press on or aid them. The Staff of Magnus on Samantha's back shuddered, but she was too grief-stricken to remember the weapon existed…Nick lay on the ground, unmoving save for his flickering blue eyes as the life drained from him.

"No…not like Liam…" Judith sobbed while Marcus held Jess tightly. Nick smiled weakly and said "Guys…I…" He trailed off weakly, unable to finish his sentence as his eyes glowed bright blue again.

"Ah, zhat was very satisfying. Now, as for this-" Richtofen said as the gem in front of him glowed bright blue.

"_Fool…"_ the voice whispered to Richtofen. The teens turned their attention to the floating gem that was once C.N. and Richtofen said "Vhat are you? And do not lie to me…I know you are not some foolish cowboy…vhat are you really?"

"_What am I…I am an artifact, a relic long forgotten but so very, very real…"_ the gem whispered. The teens simply watched the exchange with disinterest as they watched their friend's body slowly decay in front of them, though Nick's eyes were focused on Richtofen and C.N.

"You're from before the Great Disaster…before all magic was destroyed…aren't you?" Richtofen realized.

"What? But…what's going on?" Joe asked miserably, lowering his weapon with a look of defeat. The others did the same, and a very odd ceasefire began as the gem began to speak to them all.

"_Yes and no…My real name is lost to time itself...as the for the gem that I reside in…it was enchanted over 700 years ago, in a time of magic and peace. Then…one day that changed. A great calamity struck the land, and all magic was destroyed…completely erased from existence…except for two exceptions"_

"Illuzio and you" Richtofen breathed.

"_Yes…you see, I was enchanted by the greatest magician in history, specifically for the betterment of the human race. I was enchanted to bring goodness to those near me…I was designed to promote growth to those who were in my very presence…whether it be soldiers fighting on the battlefield or magicians…I influenced events in their favor so they would succeed, so they would grow stronger, wiser, and become their true selves…"_

"In short…I was designed to bring out an individual's full potential" C.N. said in a soft voice to Richtofen, who frowned.

"But…how did you wind up in the hands of zhis fool?" Richtofen murmured.

"Don't call him that!" Judith yelled at Richtofen, who ignored her.

"_On the day of the Great Disaster…my creator had a vision. A future where the world roamed with demons and only a select group of heroes would be able to stop this evil…even as the Disaster approached, I was re-enchanted to serve a new master…I was designed to be controlled by one person and one person alone. My creator enchanted me with the sole purpose of finding a wielder who's destiny was to help save this world and set it out on the right path…I was destined to wind up in the hands of a new hero, and help them achieve their full potential"_

"_And that hero was Nick, and by extension his friends"_ the gem whispered.

Richtofen began to say something, but a tremor shook the earth and he looked up.

"Edward! Get back to the Tower! If you're not up there, the connection will weaken!" Sophia gasped as she stumbled to her feet, her body flickering with fire as she tried to get it going again. Richtofen glanced at her with worry, but she yelled "Go! I can handle this!"

"Very well. Be careful my dear" Richtofen said as he vanished in a surge of lightning heading back to the tower.

"Nick…come on man…" Joe muttered.

Nick shuddered and said "I…I can't feel my body…Joe…"

"_You are dying…there is no saving you…"_ C.N said in his usual tone, though his rough voice had taken on a soft undertone.

"How can we trust what you say?" Jordan asked the Soul Gem.

"_Think about it…ever since Nick encountered me, you all have become hardened and powerful fighters. You have achieved things that would have been impossible before this…You reached your fullest potential…You survived battles that no normal person could even hope to get out of alive, much less unscathed like you all. You have, in a sense, become Super Soliders yourselves. You all have become heroes…"_

"_Samantha…"_ the spirit addressed the young woman.

"_You learned the importance of friendship, of trust and faith. You gained your own body and became stronger than you were before"_

"_Even you, Sieger…You let go of your fear and worry of being judged for your relation to Dr. Richtofen, and become stronger as a person. You too, grew closer to reaching your fullest potential…"_

"_And so my work here is done…You see…all of this was part of the plan all along…you have all reached your full potential…but…as my wielder dies…so too shall my strength fade"_ C.N. said softly.

"Nick!" John yelled at the teen with worry as a he let out a rasp, a death rattle.

"I…I think I'm done…" Nick muttered, a faint smirk on his face as his shoulder began to dissolve before their eyes. The gem that was C.N. said _"I am sorry your defense of me did this…you were a true Champion, Nick"_

"Really?…Hey, at least I went out like a hero…right?" Nick asked his friends. Samantha smiled sadly and said "Yes…like a hero"

Nick closed his eyes and said "Good…guys…just…don't die...Oh, and make sure they remember me as I am now, not how I was back at school"

"You mean not an asshole, but as the comic relief hero?" Judith said with a small laugh. Nick gave her a weak thumbs up before his eyes flashed blue. Nick shuddered and said "Guys…may the awesomeness of Chuck Norris be with you. Always…"

Nick let out a small laugh as his glowing blue eyes began to fade back to his original color. Nick suddenly stiffened, and one small smile crossed his face as a small breath escaped his lips…

And then he died.

The Soul Gem that was C.N. exploded in a shower of shards, only to vanish before they hit the ground.

"No…" Samantha whispered as the tears fell. Sieger could only stand by her and rest a hand on her shoulder. Samantha got to her feet and buried her face into his chest, sobbing as one of the people who had stood by her throughout this whole journey passed away before her eyes. The others mourned their friend, realizing that despite all the times they argued and laughed at him, he was still a friend when it counted. He had stood by them, unwavering, all this time…

And now he was gone.

"So…now you follow him" Sophia said as her body reignited, white flames coursing through her as she held a palm out towards the clustered teens, still mourning their friend.

"NO!"

A black figured slammed into Sophia, sending her crashing onto the ground. Sophia got to her feet, beholding the bleeding and horribly wounded form of Eris, who was panting heavily as she clutched her stump of an arm.

"You…I thought I killed you" Sophia said roughly.

"Not…on your life…bitch…" Eris panted as her arm began to reform, though it was happening much slower than usual. Yena was nowhere in sight.

"Guys…get to the Tower…I'll hold her off for as long as I can" Eris said to the Bradburn Crew. She looked to the Mobsters, Green Run Crew, and the New York Survivors and said "You all protect them on their way up. Make sure they get to the top of the Tower…stop Richtofen"

"No!" Misty growled as she stepped in front of Eris and fired a burst from her Actuated Neutralizer at Sophia, who yelled out as the bullets passed through her and drew blood. The wound cauterized instantly, but as Sophia made a move to strike back Stuhlinger, Russman, and Marlton stood next to her, weapons drawn.

"That's enough, young lady!" Russman growled.

"Your attack on our comrade will cease at once. We will not allow such detestable behavior continue" Marlton said as he adjusted his glasses.

"Meaning you're not laying another flaming finger on her. Got it?" Stuhlinger said in a low voice, aiming his SLDG HAMR at Sophia, who began to laugh.

"Oh, this is rich. You four think you can take me on by yourselves!? Edward's powers course through me and amplify my own! You don't stand a chance!" Sophia said with a grin as she formed a fireball in her hands and hurled a fireball at the ground, only for a wave of shadows to intercept it.

"I…I said go!" Eris panted as she tried to get to her feet.

"That'll do"

The groups watched as Weasel strode in front of them and starred down Sophia, a twisted smile playing at his lips.

"Seems like we're not the only ones who want to protect that young lady. Looks like we're going to have to show you how us old timers get shit done" Weasel said casually as Finn, Sal, and Billy walked alongside him. Nicholas felt a shiver run down his side as he beheld the four legendary mobsters standing side by side, a sight that made Sophia's smile falter. With two deadly groups of Zombie Slayers opposing her, her chances of success were now questionable again.

"You guys. Get to the Tower and stop that man. Save your world" Misty said to the Bradburn Crew.

"But-" Jess began to say.

"No buts. We'll be just fine…" Sal said with a smile.

"We're on borrowed time as is…This…well, I think this is supposed to be our way of making amends for what we did in the past" Finn said as he looked over at Sophia.

"In the end we're bad people. Plain and simple…but it doesn't mean that we can't try and make things right, at least for you guys" Billy said as he drew his Excutioner and aimed it Sophia.

"We've got a world to save, but first we're going to save yours" Russman said to the group with a grin as Stuhlinger nodded, placing a comforting hand on Eris's shoulder.

"You're not alone. We've got your back" Stuhlinger muttered.

"You sure guys?" Nicholas asked the Mobsters and the Green Run Crew.

"Go…save your world, Nicholas. We'll buy you some time" Finn said as he stepped in between Sophia and Nicholas.

"Finn…are you sure?" Nicholas asked softly. The Mobster smiled wanly at him in reply

"Yeah, I'm sure kid…hey. Catch" Finn said as he eased something off of his fist and tossed it at Nicholas, who caught it. Nicholas blinked in surprise as he held out his old Galvaknuckle, the one he had given Finn back at Alcatraz.

"I wanted you to have it. Just remember me whenever you use it to kick someone's ass" Finn laughed as he turned his attention back to Sophia, who clenched her flaming fists with anger.

"Oh…and by the way" Sal said to Nicholas, who turned to him.

"Thank you…for everything" Sal said to the teen, nodding his head to him out of respect. The other Mobsters did the same, and Nicholas grinned back at them and said "Good luck guys"

"We won't need it" Weasel said with a smirk as he turned to face Sophia.

"Come on…my father is waiting" Sieger said to the group, walking towards the Tower. Nicholas lagged behind as the massive group starred down Sophia.

"Be careful guys…" Nicholas murmured before turning around and running up to the Tower's entrance, going inside after his friends. The entrance sealed up behind them.

"Alright…you guys ready for one last stand?" Stuhlinger asked the others.

"Hey…I've faced my own death more times than I care to admit…" Weasel said with a laugh as he shouldered his Acid Gat. Finn chuckled and said "Hey, even if we die here, we go out as heroes. I say bring it"

"What about the others?" Sal asked the group, eyeing the survivors who had their weapons trained on Sophia.

"They can keep the undead off of us and protect the Tower's entrance. You kids keep watch, got it? We'll take care of this broad, you keep the undead and the Reclaimer's off our backs! This is between us and her, and we don't want any Reclaimer or Zombie inference, got it?" Billy barked to the teens, who nodded and dispersed, taking up positions around the tower to protect the Zombie Slayers while they fought the final member of Group 935.

"Why do you fight so hard to protect a world that you don't belong in? I just don't understand your logic in this" Sophia muttered, shaking her head.

"Well, we're fighting so we can make up for what we did. Maybe…just maybe if we help save the world, then we can help make right some of the things we did wrong. That kid…he showed us something we lost. Our humanity…our faith. Trust…" Sal said in a low voice.

"Kinda sappy coming from you, Boss" Billy said with a smirk.

"Maybe…but still. We've got a job to do" Sal readied his WN and said "We've got to buy the kid some time. We're doing this for him"

"And you?" Sophia asked the Green Run Crew.

"We're doing this for her" Misty said as she pointed to Eris.

"She said she can help us save our world, but first we have to help save this one. She saved us, and so we're returning the favor" Russman explained.

"And so we will battle you, save the day, and venture back to our world and help right the wrongs that have befallen our planet" Marlton added.

"But first, we've got to take you down" Stuhlinger finished, a dark smile playing at his lips.

"Very well…this will be between you and me then. No interference from Edward, Samantha, or anyone else" Sophia muttered as she eyed the eight Zombie slayers starring her down. Eris fell to her knees, only for her shadow to shift and Yena to help her to her feet. Yena's crimson eyes flashed as he regarded the lover of Richtofen with a cruel smirk.

Sophia clenched her fists and said "Edward can deal with the others…I have to make sure they can't help the others get to him…OK…OK…" Sophia looked up at the Mobsters and Green Run Crew, starring them down as she brought her hands up. She brought them down with authority.

"Time to_** burn…**_" Sophia whispered as two columns of fire erupted net to her and the penultimate battle of Los Angles began.

End of Chapter:

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><p><em>THREE CHAPTERS LEFT!<em>

_Can the Mobsters, Green Run Crew, Eris and Yean take down Sophia? _

_Will the New York Crew be able to hold off Richtofen's minions long enough for the Bradburn Crew, Samantha, and Sieger to get to Richtofen? _

_Can the Original Crew held turn the tide of the Battle of Los Angles!? _

_Don't miss chapter 48, the second to last chapter of the story before the epilogue! The end is in sight, and it's something truly awesome to behold._

_Until then, review and show your support! Please let your opinion and voices be heard! Even if you don't think your opinion matters, it does! _

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	48. Burn

_Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead_

* * *

><p><em>Ha. You guys thought I'd take forever to upload again, huh?<em>

_Well joke's on you. I got this thing up on time. :D_

_I'd like to take a moment and point out that these "deadlines" are purely created by me and for me alone, and are self-imposed. I try to give myself a window of time so I can make time to write, so it doesn't take me six months to write a chapter. I think I do fairly well for a story that produces as many chapters as I have with chapters as long as they are._

_Many of the stories that I follow, and advise you to follow because they're bloody amazing, have much longer upload times than I do. Hell, even "Jak IV: The Avenging Angels" has been updated more recently than some of the stories I follow, and it's been three months since I last uploaded a new chapter._

_The bottom line is, these things take time. _

_I work fast, but not everyday is going to be a fruitful time of brainstorming and progress for me. I have a life outside of this, and as you all know it's not always easy to write. I think I do better than most writers when it comes to getting stuff out in a decent amount of time and making sure that the chapters have a good amount of meat to them. That's what I pride myself on, and I just wanted you guys to know that._

_Sorry, had to get that out. I've also been having a few personal problems lately, depression and all that._

_But hey. That's life, right?_

_So anyway guys, here we are. The final chapter before the fight against Richtofen._

_Also, and I'm not sure if I ever brought this up, but "Second Chances" will not be linked to this story of "Jak IV: The Avenging Angels" in any way. Vivian cameo'd in both stories to simply tease it._

_The characters in this story will remain in the story and not appear in Second Chances. However, should I do a sequel for "Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead", then they will appear in that._

_Oh, and no. There's not going to be an Avenged Sevenfold concert in the story. That'd hardly be original, but I do have plans for the Epilogue that you may enjoy._

_I did however, (May or may not be true, feel free to educate me more in the review section) learn that Treyarch is involved with 2015's CoD game, so maybe we'll have more answers as to what happened in Buried and Origins._

_Also, I'd like to once again plug the Freelancer Collaboration. Seriously, if you're a Red vs. Blue fan, GO TO THEIR PAGE AND READ THEIR STUFF._

_Let's put it this way. The story was so incredible that I messaged the guy in charge and asked him how I could be a part of it, even when the story had just hit a hundred reviews and I was at like 450 or so. _

_That was a ear ago. I'm now proud to announce that I have been given the role as the writer for Agent Minnesota, on top of my own OC, Agent Indiana, appearing later on this year in "Phase 2: Betrayal". _

_My first chapter for Agent Minnesota will be officially posted in just a few short weeks, with Indiana's first chapters being published late this year._

_Get on over to the Freelancer Collaboration and read their flagship story 'Phase One: Genesis" and its sequel "Phase Two: Betrayal", where you'll get to see me and a host of other talented writers work together to bring you all the finest in RvB Fanfiction. Make sure to review and show your support as well!_

_And…If you're interested in joining up…well, just message me. We're recruiting sometime down the road and will be looking for fresh blood and new ideas! If you're interested in taking part of the greatest RvB series ever (of all time) that is taking both the community and the Achievement Hunter community by storm, message me ASAP (Please have read both stories before you do so)._

_I'll be more than happy to advise you on how you can join me and my fellow writers in our quest to create a masterpiece of awesomeness._

_But back to the COD Zombie stuff, since that's what you're here for._

_Shoutout to those who reviewed last chapter, which included eel3234, DigDugDiamond, RandomName3064, stinkytrey, Dustchu, Trapinchh, Dragondude666, Amy Bachemin, MetaNkight0011, Jlyman, and a new reviewer known as __ . Thanks for the feedback and support guys!_

_Here's a chapter filled with combat, tragedy, death, and destruction!_

Enjoy

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><p>Chapter 48: Burn<p>

"_When those you love die, the best you can do is honor their spirit for as long as you live. You make a commitment that you're going to take whatever lesson that person or animal was trying to teach you, and you make it true in your own life... it's a positive way to keep their spirit alive in the world, by keeping it alive in yourself." -_ Patrick Swayze, _The Time of My Life._

* * *

><p>Location: Group 935 Los Angles HQ<p>

1995:

* * *

><p>"Edward…"<p>

_Ignore them…_

"Edward…please, you should eat something"

"Leave me alone, Sophia…I don't want to speak to any of you…" Richtofen said in a voice that was surprisingly steady.

"Edward…it's been a week since the funeral…you have to come out" Sophia said softly, Richtofen shook his head…he couldn't face them…not when he had failed to save her…

For all his power and achievements, he had failed in the end to save her…Grief, anger, and self-loathing tore at him in a way he had never know before. All he knew now was that he hated the world…hated it for making him suffer like this…for making Izzy suffer so much more than any being deserved to…

"Zhis world…we had the power to make it truly better…" Richtofen rasped as he lowered his head, pressing it against the cold wood. They had all the power to change the world, to make it what Izzy wanted…

But would she want that? Now that she was gone…would she want to make it better.

_Accept your fate…begin anew…_

Richtofen's eyes widened as the words appeared in his mind, and then he realized what his adoptive daughter had wanted. Not a better world, but a new one. A world of peace…where no one had to suffer anymore…a just world…a perfect world.

No less than she deserved.

"Daddy?" came a soft voice. Richtofen turned around saw a black haired boy with blue eyes looking into the room with a scared look. Sophia had somehow opened the door and sent his son into the room. Richtofen smiled weakly and said "Sieger…come here"

The little boy entered the room and slowly walked to his father, who picked him up and sat him on his lap. After a moment, Richtofen pulled the boy into a hug and said "Sieger…my son"

"Daddy?" the little boy said in a surprised tone. His father had never sounded this way. Richtofen felt the tears come once again, as he held his only son and mourned that wonderful girl who was taken away from him all too soon.

That was when Edward Richtofen began down that dark path once again. With the death of his adoptive daughter weighing on his heart, and the future of his son in his hands, he began walking down the path that would ravage the world and create a new one in its place. A world his son would be proud to live in, and a world where Izzy's legacy and dreams could live on…

* * *

><p>Present:<p>

M.P.D. Tower:

* * *

><p>The moment the teens entered the Tower, the door slammed shut behind them, sealing them in.<p>

Samantha sighed and said "This is it"

"Sam…"

The young woman turned around and saw Sieger looking at her with a small smile. He gestured towards the winding stairway that wound its way around the building and said "There's no other way to go up, my father had Illuzio set up wards that prevent anyone except him, my father, and my mother from teleporting to the top"

"So we fight our way to the top" Andrew said in a low voice, gripping Gutripper tightly.

"Yes. Come on" Sieger said as he took a few steps forward. All of a sudden the dark room began to glowed white as a series of panels on the floor.

Sieger sword softly and said "We've got only minutes left. We wasted so much time fighting Richtofen's forces…"

"He was probably hoping we'd be too tired too fight when we got to him" John said with a frown, rubbing his shoulder. The other seemed to share this sentiment, sporting various injuries and feeling fairly rundown at this point.

"I can fix that. Fluffy!" Samantha yelled. The Hellhound exploded into existence next to her and Samantha pet her beloved dog with a small smile.

"Fluffy is bound to me, so I can call her inside of here" Samantha said as John opened his mouth to ask how the Hellhound could get inside of the Tower.

"Good puppy…Fluffy, I need to take some of your energy. Is that OK?" Samantha asked her dog, who nodded. Samantha placed her hand on the dog's back as her hand glowed bright green. Samantha sighed with relief as her wounds and injuries began to heal. Samantha walked over to each of them and placed a hand on them, healing the various injuries they had suffered throughout the day. By the time Samantha was finished, Fluffy was looking exhausted. Samantha hugged her dog and said "Good girl…stay here, OK? Just rest and keep watch. Bleibt hier und wacht, nehmen Sie einen guten Schlaf, OK?

Fluffy licked Samantha in the face before laying down on the floor, looking at the door they just came through with a sleepy expression on her face.

"Come on…Father is waiting" Sieger said to the others as he began to run up the stairway. The others began to follow, and the teens began their way to the man who was waiting to destroy their world.

"WARNING. INTRUDER ALERT. ACTIVATING SECURITY DOORS AND AUTOMATED DEFENSES" a female voice echoed throughout the building. A metal door suddenly shut down on the stairway, blocking it off. They were now stuck in a large room filled with computers and monitors, the stairway winding around the room.

"Awww…lame!" Jess pouted. Sieger looked alarmed at the sound of the alarm and said "Well, this is new!"

"You're kidding me!" Iva barked at Sieger.

"No, I'm serious!" Sieger replied in a bemused tone.

"You guys never had a security system before this!?" Joe yelled as the alarms wailed in the background.

"The Tower was cloaked, enchanted, and was guarded by scientists with superpowers. Did we really need to waste effort on a security system on this thing beforehand?" Sieger deadpanned.

"…He's got a point" Juliet said after a moment.

"AUTOMATED TURRETS ONLINE"

"Take cover!" Sieger yelled as he exploded in a burst of flames as several turrets emerged from the ceiling and opened fire on the group with Pack-A-Punched ammunition, who scattered. Nicholas activated Ageis and took cover behind she shield, covering Juliet as well. Judith took cover in the stairway, screaming as one of the turrets fired at her.

"Can't you guys just rip through the door or something?" John asked Samantha and Sieger, who were standing behind a wall of magic Samantha had thrown up.

"Not a chance. The metal that the Tower is made of is literally indestructible. Glorious is enchanted and it can't even scratch the stuff, I've tried" Sieger replied.

"If Nick was here we could try and have C.N. cut through it somehow" Samantha muttered. Sieger noticed the pained look on her face and realized she blamed herself for Nick's death. Sieger placed a hand on her shoulder and said in a soft voice "It wasn't your fault, Sam."

She didn't reply, but Iva yelled out as a bullet clipped her elbow. Joe pulled her closer to him, since they were sharing cover. Andrew took a potshot at one of the turrets, only to find that they were protected by some sort of barrier.

"Someone do something!" Andrew yelled as he ducked back into cover.

"Hang on!" Jess yelled as she ran from cover, a mad grin on her face, making towards the control panel on the other end of the room. She threw herself cover the railing and screamed as one of the turrets focused on her.

"Juliet, find someplace to hide, I'm going to give Jess cover!" Nicholas said to the young woman, who nodded and leapt out from her cover and hide behind the wall of magic Samantha had summoned thanks to absorbing Illuzio's powers.

Jess looked up as the hail of bullets stopped crashing down next to her and Nicholas offered her a smile as he stood in front of her. Jess hopped to her feet and began to press buttons on the keyboard.

"Wait, do you know what you're doing?" Nicholas asked.

"Not at all" Jess chirped.

"…WHAT!?" Andrew yelled.

"Yeah…didn't think this plan through that well, huh?" Jess remarked as she kept pressing buttons.

"That's it! I'm coming over!" Joe yelled as he ran out from cover and hurried over to Jess and Nicholas, crouching behind Aegis.

"You guys do realize this thing isn't a wall, right? It's not designed to shield this many people!" Nicholas sighed angrily as Joe and Jess began to press buttons on the screen.

"There!" Joe said with a small smile.

"System Override in Progress…1%..." the system said in a cool voice.

"Oh goddamn it" Joe sighed as the bullets continued to rain down on them.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Sophia jumped back as Russman fired a stream of grenades at her, only for the others to relentlessly fire at her. Despite the abuse she had taken earlier, Sophia still had plenty left in the tank. She exploded violently in a ball of fire, only to appear in front of Marlton and Misty, a palm surging with fire. As she made a move to let loose the flames, a shadow slunk out from behind her and pulled her onto the ground. Eris dashed towards Sophia, who threw up a wall of fire at the shadow wielding woman in retaliation. Eris held up her arms as she crashed into the wall of fire and broke through, only for a first to slam into her face, sending her careening into the ground.<p>

Yena snarled and lunged at Sophia, grabbing her by the head with his left hand and slamming his fist into her skull with the other. Sophia yelled out as she went crashing onto the ground, only to roll dazedly to her feet and shoot a blast of fire at Yena, causing him to disperse.

"No!" Stuhlinger yelled, shooting a burst of gunfire at Eris with his SLDG HAMR, only for her to appear in front of him. Eris swung her arm at Stuhlinger, who jumped out of the way as an arc of flames shot towards him, blasting him away. Sophia ducked under a stab from Misty's Bowie Knife and kicked her savagely in the side, causing her to scream as the flaming kick burned her in the chest.

"NO! MISTY!" Marlton yelled as the woman fell to the ground, panting in pain.

"I'm fine…get her" Misty snarled as she got to her feet, her shirt burned and first and second degree burns evident on her stomach and hip.

"We can't allow her to get a direct hit on any of us…." Marlton said softly as he turned to face the flaming wife of Richtofen, who smiled at him.

"Well? I'm waiting?" Sophia laughed.

"ROAST THAT BITCH!" Sal barked as the Mobsters opened fire on Sophia as the wall of fire dispersed. Richtfofen's lover grinned as she summoned a ball of fire to take on the wave of gunfire, only for the shield to disperse as Marlton hurled as E.M.P. grenade, causing Eris's body to seize up and cause the shield to fail.

"GET HER!" Marlton yelled in a tone indicating a rare instance of anger. They had come so far…so very far. So much death, so much pain, so much violence. Hope had been destroyed...

Marlton had taken the betrayal of Doctor Maxis especially hard, despite not showing it. He had come to respect the man over the course of their journey as someone who had suffered immensely tin his efforts to save his daughter and stop a madman, only to find out that they were helping him destroy the very thing they were trying to save.

In the end, being betrayed by an intellectual figure who he had put his faith in had hurt Marlton. This man had hurt him, and now that they had a chance to repair the damage, he would not let some hot-headed harpy stop their quest. Not when they had come so far.

Finn fired his Rocket Propelled Grievance at Sophia again and again as the others unloaded on her. Stuhlinger and Misty joined in, and after a few moments Sophia screamed in agony before a massive fireball engulfed the street, exploding violently and sending them all flying back.

"NO! Not now! Not yet! I won't die because of you. I will be standing there with Edward as he destroys this horrible world!" Sophia yelled at the groups of Zombie Slayers as they got to their feet.

Misty and Billy got to their feet first and lunged at Sophia, who's fire seemed to dim a bit from the damage she had taken just now. Sophia merely ducked under the slash from Misty and rolled away, spinning around and firing a ball of flames at the young woman who jumped back with a triumphant smirk before firing her Actuated Neutralizer 94000, causing the scientist to scream as the bullets ripped through her.

Sophia then let out a scream as Billy ran forward and stabbed her with his Golden Spork. The strange Wonder Weapon seemed to do a great deal of damage, as when Billy yanked it out, Sophia's fire flickered for a moment and a pained look appeared on her face. Sophia then swung her hand at the ground, sending both Zombie Slayers flying as a flaming explosion ripped through the air.

"Billy! Misty!" Eris yelled as she got to her feet. Yena reformed a few moments later and opened fire on Sophia, who took a step back and got into a crouch as balls of fire engulfed her hands. She swung her hands at each incoming shot, blocking each powerful bullet with the sheer power given to her from Richtofen.

"**Look what **_**happened**_** to you…what happened to that lovely docile woman I used to know?"** Yena asked softly in a mocking manner.

"She's dead, just like this world" Sophia hissed at Yena, who lowered his guns and dispelled them.

"**You've changed more than I have. Just a few days ago, you were docile and calm, worrying about Sieger and consoling your husband…since when did you become such a bitch?"** Yena asked casually.

"I became this when I realized we were trying to make an evil world better. It's not enough to want to improve the human condition. Better to just destroy it and begin again…"

"And as for the new me…well, I had to harden my heart to everything around me. I can't get distracted. I can't fail…the old me was weak…useless…she wasn't able to protect her children…" Sophia whispered.

"But I will stop you. Richtofen will stop those foolish children and convince our son to side with us as we cleanse this world with our light!" Sophia yelled at Yena, broke out into a wide grin before suddenly Eris smiled and fell back into her shadow, taking Yena with her. Sophia gasped in surprise before she felt something wrap around her throat, impossibly strong. She was slowly turned around to face Yena, who was standing in front of Eris with a wide evil grin on his face.

"**That's fine with me. Even the brightest lights get snuffed out in the end" **Yena said coolly as he slammed his fist into Sophia's stomach and grabbed onto her arm, hurling her into the Tower and causing her to slam violently into the very Tower that would ravage the world.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"68%..."<p>

"I HATE YOU AUTOMATED COMPUTER VOICE!" Joe bellowed furiously.

"69%...-"

"Hahaha, 69%. That's like a sex thing, right?" Jess giggled as Joe rolled his eyes.

"70%..."

"Joe, can't you just punch the damn console or something!?" John yelled.

"Meh. I can do that" Joe said as he quickly bashed in the screen with the Fist of Thor. The turrets whirred for a moment before shutting down. Sieger sighed and said "Right…"

"And once again, sheer force wins against superior technology" Andrew cheered as the doors flew open. All of a sudden a massive purple tentacle writhed out of the entranceway and slammed into Andrew, hurling him into the ceiling. Before the teens could even register what was going on, a faintly familiar voice growled "Yes…sweet revenge!"

"Steiner!?" Sieger said in a surprise, jumping back. A glowing purple Zombie wearing a Nazi uniform with several writhing tentacles sticking out of his back stood in the center of the room, grinning evilly. Sieger summoned his pistols and began shooting at the Zombie, who howled in pain as parts of him were blown off.

"What the hell is this!? We killed him!" Samantha growled as she summoned the Staff of Magnus.

"This is typical video game shit, making us refight bosses!" Joe whined as he pulled out the Wunderwaffe DG-7. Iva smirked and said "Looks like FlygonNick just went a bit further down on the shit list. Awesome"

"Master Richtofen allowed me and the others to come back, should we fail to stop you all, in the form of Zombies. He has assured me that once we has gained complete control of the energies within Agartha, my old body can be restored and my soul can be placed in it once again. For now, I will assume this form and slaughter you all before you can even get close to the Tower's Roof" Steiner said with a smirk.

Steiner vanished on the spot before reappearing on the ceiling, flinging his tentacles at Samantha and wrapping them around her before spinning around, hurling her viciously against the wall and sending her crashing onto the ground.

"DOWN YOU GO BITCH!" Andrew growled as he took aim with Skullcrusher and fired a grenade at the ceiling, causing it to explode violently. Steiner crashed onto the floor where a flurry of gunfire converged on him.

"Guys! Just go!" Andrew barked.

"What?" Samantha said in surprise as Andrew drew Gutripper.

"I'll deal with this guy myself. You guys get to top. They're slowing us down, and besides…" Andrew trailed off as he got into a fighting stance.

"I owe these assholes. For Nick and Liam" Andrew growled, flipping Gutripper in his hands. Steiner got to his feet, badly torn apart and missing an arm from his zombified body. A horrific smile crossed his face as he said "Sounds good to me. Go on up…the others will deal with you while I take this fool out myself"

"Andrew…be careful" Samantha said as the others slowly walked up the stairs, clearly hesitant to leave their friend behind.

Andrew hit the ground as a tentacle shot towards his head and he swung his sword upwards, slashing the tentacle in half, causing Steiner to yell out. Andrew swung his arm around and fired a grenade from his Skullcrusher at Steiner, who was hurled back into a control panel with a yell.

"Agh! You little-" Steiner growled as the tentacle stump retreated into his back. Andrew smirked and lunged at the scientist with a yell, only for a tentacle to wrap around his throat. Steiner grinned horribly and said "Breathtaking, isn't it? The power of Element 115…of the M.P.D…and Agartha…"

Andrew gagged as he was forced to one knee as the pressure increased…Skullcrusher fell out of his hand…he tried to swing Gutripper upwards to sever the tentacle…but the pressure was too much…

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Starch let out a laugh as a tongue of fire shot out of his Accelerated Combustion Rifle, incinerating a row of Zombies running at them. The number of undead charging at them had increased to an incredible amount, and the group found that even with their combined efforts they were merely holding off the undead forces of Richtofen.<p>

A Screecher Zombie swiped at Vice, only to have its face blown off by one of his Beretta handgun. The teen turned around, only to see a line of Zombie's get their heads blown off by Kara as she unloaded on the horde with her Predator, letting out a fierce yell as she did so. The daughter of Tank Dempsey ripped out a clip and jammed a fresh one in before clearing out a row of Zombies by herself.

"Come on guys! Hold the line!" Kara barked as Chan slunk by her, Tokyo and Rose in hand as she blasted at Zombies with both SMG's, ripping through the Zombies with an aim inherited by a true warrior and forged by hard training and skill. Chan spun around and saw a group of ten Zombies charging out her, only for Jax to run in front of her and fire a blast from his Zeus Cannon, sending a massive wave of air at the horde and sending them flying into the air. Jax put away the Wonder Weapon and pulled out his M16 and said "Looks like I'm out of ammo for that."

"It was a good run whole it lasted" Chan laughed as Jax took aim and started firing at a new group of Zombies that had just spawned.

Jameson Morris yanked out his KABARR and jabbed at another Zombie, stabbing the blade into the throat of another one of Richtofen's undead minions. He looked to the side to see a Blade Zombie running at him, only for a stream of gunfire from Serenity and Starch halt the undead monster in its tracks. Vice jumped into the air and slammed the end of the Arbiter's Staff into the Zombie's skull, caving it in and killing it instantly.

Vice turned around and felt a pang of panic as the undead kept coming. He realized bitterly that despite making so much progress, now they were sitting ducks as they held off the undead from killing the others.

Clutch Odd wore a permanent scowl on his face as he bashed and shot at anything that came within range of him with a terrifying amount of viciousness, culminating him slamming his Tonfa into a Zombie's skull and unloading an entire clip of his pistol into the Zombie's throat.

Red and Jordan took positions near the back of the formation of shooters, sniping at any incoming threats with a headshot at a time, ending the life of any Zombies that came their way. Jordan swore as a Zombie snuck up behind him and tackled him to the ground, only for the Zombie to go limp as several shots rang out, filling the Zombie with lead. Jordan kicked the Zombie off and saw Red standing there, aiming his Tac-40 at him.

"T-thanks man" Jordan said as Red offered him a hand, which he took. Jordan got to his feet and two snipers readied themselves for more fighting.

Serenity yelped as a Screecher slashed at her face, barely avoiding the slash with a duck before blasting it with her Reznov's Revenge. Serenity grinned as she held her Pack-A-Punched AK-47 and said "That's right! Feel my royal wrath!"

"Laaaaame!" Starch sang as he let loose more fire, only for the flames to suddenly stop.

"Well…shit" Starch said before switching back to the former mode and letting out a stream of bullets. Despite every shot, every hit, and every death to the Zombie horde in front of them, they just kept coming. Little did the survivors know that the survivors across the city were dying at a rapid rate as the number of undead seemingly grew and grew, overwhelming the forces fighting for the fate of the world that was to be destroyed.

But they had to have faith. They had to stand their ground, even as hell broke out around them as a twisted painting of hell of created in front of them.

This was their last stand, and they would go down like Nick…Like Zero…Like Liam…

They'd go out as heroes.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Nicholas yelled out as Kraken phased through the ground and kicked him savagely in the chest, sending him crashing onto the ground with several broken ribs. Sieger slashed at Kraken, only for him to phase through the floor one more.<p>

"Stop stalling Kraken!" Judith yelled as she gripped the Scavenger in her arms tightly. The 935 Scientist was introduced by Sieger upon his reappearance and shortly after that he began the annoying task of stalling them, using a sort of hit and run sort of approach to this.

"Nah…its kind of fun, this stalling thing. Come on Sieger, why fight it? Everyone's gotta die for this new world to be created…isn't that what you wanted?" Kraken asked the young man. Sieger let out a snarl and said "Yes, but not at the cost of everyone's lives! Why should the world suffer for the actions of a select few people!?"

"Because the world is bad. It's bad, through and through. Change needs to happen, and it'll happen one way or another" Kraken said in a serious tone as he rose from the floor.

He crossed his arms and said "Man oh man…the boss man hasn't been the same since the incident. This thing is happening, with or without you…won't you come quietly?"

"Sorry…but this isn't the right way to change the world" Sieger murmured. Kraken laughed softly and said "It's OK buddy, you're doing what you think is right. In the end, that's what we're doing."

Kraken suddenly lashed out and kicked Marcus in the chest, sending him toppling over a monitor with a yell. Jess yelled out as she pulled out Artemis's Judgment and fired an arrow, which barely missed the Zombie who laughed in response.

"GO! I can keep him occupied, just go! Stop Richtofen before its too late!" Jess yelled as she fired another arrow, causing Kraken to dive into the ground again.

"No! We're not leaving you!" Judith yelled back at her best friend.

"Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!" Jess chanted as she fired another arrow at Kraken as he lunged at her from the ceiling, earning an arrow in the shoulder. He crashed onto the ground, phased through it and then reappeared next to Jess and kicked her in the back, sending her crashing onto the ground.

"F*CK THAT!" Marcus yelled as he jumped into the fray, jamming his pistol against Kraken's chest and firing the entire chamber, causing the scientist to stumble backwards and holding his chest, where a chunk of his body was missing.

"Bring it on then, bitches!" Kraken laughed as he pulled out his Ultra and Violet and sank into the floor.

"GO!" Marcus and Jess yelled at the group, who hesitated before moving on. Jess pulled out the Siliquifier while Marcus pulled out his AUG and said "Get ready"

"Roger doger" Jess said with an eager grin as Kraken dropped down from the ceiling, shooting at the duo who returned fire. Jess jumped back as Marcus pulled out a Symtex and hurled it skyward, catching Kraken in the chest with the explosive. The man let out a yell before it went off, sending him flying across the room. Marcus pulled out the Petrifier and fired a beam at Kraken as he got to his feet, causing him to yell out as parts of him began to disintegrate before their eyes. He then sank into the ground with a howl of pain.

"Not bad! Not bad at all!" Kraken laughed as he phased out of the ceiling, kicking Jess savagely in the face and sending her flying across the room, where she crashed against the wall and fell to the ground. Marcus let out a scream of horror before several shots rang out, sending him staggering back with a yell of pain as he fell back, crashing against a monitor.

"But, in the end you guys will fail. Nothing can stop the Doctor's rage…nothing" Kraken said as he pressed a Python against Marcus's chest, smiling horribly as Marcus panted in pain, blood gushing from his chest.

He then let out a scream as an arrow slammed into his head, sending him stumbling away from Marcus, looked over at his savior with a look of surprise. Jess smiled weakly at him, despite the blood running down her face and her broken nose. She notched another arrow, and said "You OK?"

"I've…been better" Marcus hissed as he pulled out a Quick Revive syringe and injected himself with it, healing most of the injuries caused by Kraken, who had gotten to his feet and yanked out the arrow.

"Awesome! You guys still have a bit of fight in you!" Kraken said cheerfully as blue flames enveloped him. He rushed forward and the couple opened fire.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>Sophia ducked under a slash from Finn's Golden Spork and jumped into the air, thrusting her arms downwards and calling forth a column of flames that erupted out of the ground. The Mobster flung himself to the side, but screamed in agony as one of the flames caught his shoulder.<p>

"Finn!" Eris yelled as she got to her feet, leveling her rifle at Sophia and fired several times. Sophia let out a yell as the bullets tore through her, but exploded violently and vanished.

"Damn…that hurt" Finn growled as he eyed the burning shirt and patted it and gritting his teeth in pain.

"One hit and it could be over…we've gotta be more careful" Weasel muttered as he got to his feet, panting from the heat circling them.

"Careful? It's a little too late for that…"

Sophia reappeared, holding a sword made of pure fire and said "Don't play with fire if you don't want to be burned."

Russman and Stuhlinger exchanged looks before opening fire on her, but Sophia sent them to the ground with a slash of her sword, which sent an arc of fire at them. She fired a plume of flames from her hand, only for a shadow to wrap around her waist and hurl her into the air. Sophie righted herself in time for Yena to slam both of his feet into her stomach, sending her hurtling even higher into the air.

"_M-master...I can't keep this up"_ Eris panted. Yena scowled as Sophia righted herself and said **"Just a little more!"**

"HARVEY! JUST DIE ALREADY!" Sophia screamed furiously as she hurled a massive fireball at him. Yena swore and quickly retreated back to Eris, who dove into her shadow. As the others looked up in horror at the massive fireball heading towards them, they too were pulled into their shadows. The fireball slammed into the ground and engulfed the area, sending the New York survivors crashing to the ground from the sheer force of it.

"Where…where are they?"Sophia murmured as she reappeared on the ground in a burst of fire. She glanced around nervously, then felt a shiver of horror go down her spine.

"Maybe they got into the Tower…she did it before…" Sophia whispered as she turned around to jump towards the Tower.

"GOTCHA!"

Sophia whirled around, but felt a searing pain course through her as a blur raced by her, slashing at her with some golden object. Sophia screamed as her side was ripped open and blood spilled out of the wound. Finn rolled to his feet and aimed his Rocket Propelled Grievance at her, firing a rocket at the scientist and sending her crashing to the ground.

"Not so tough now, are ya?" Finn laughed.

"Grrr…Just die already!" Sophia yelled as she shakily got to her feet, sending a fireball at Finn, who grinned evilly and slashed at the ball with his Golden Spork. To Sophia's amazement, the ball of flames was dispelled by the flames and parted harmlessly around Finn.

"Guess this shiny spoon was worth the trouble after all" Finn said as he admired the Golden Spork with a smile. Sophia clenched her fists and was about to attack Finn when she heard someone yell "COMING AT YA BITCH!"

Sophia screamed as Billy slammed into her, stabbing his Golden Spork into her chest savagely. Sophia's flaming armor faded for a moment, and Billy yanked out the Spork before an explosion ripped apart the place he was just standing, sending him flying several yards and crashing onto the ground.

"W-where…the shadows…" Sophia hissed as she cauterized the wounds. She then shrieked in agony as four different guns opened fire on her, enveloping her in a hailstorm of bullets from every direction. Sophia tried to teleport, but the pain was too great. She fired a ball of flames at her feet, sending her flying away from the gunfire and crashing onto the ground some distance away. Sophia let out a soft groan as her wounds seared and burned, cauterizing from the heat…

She looked up and saw the Green Run Crew aiming their weapons at her with Finn and Billy standing behind them, looking pleased at themselves. Sophia clenched her fists as she got to her feet, only for a yell behind her to make her spin around in surprise.

"RAAAH!" Weasel snarled as he jammed the Golden Spork into her chest. Sophia violently kicked Weasel in the chest as she ripped out the Golden Spork and threw it to the ground.

"No! Nooo…I can't…Edward's counting on me" Sophia wheezed as the blood dripped onto the ground, taking several moments to seal up. Sophia's vision swam for a moment as she stumbled weakly forward…

"_Mommy…where's Izzy?"_

No…

"_Mommy…why are you crying?"_

This was her children…for Sieger…for Izzy…

"_Mommy…are you OK?"_

Sophia looked up as the shadows warped in front of her and Sal Deluca came flying through the air towards her. Sophia let out a yell as she hurled a ball of flames at the mobster, only for the flames to be dispelled as he swung the Golden Spork at them. Sal landed on the ground several feet away from Sophia, who summoned two swords made of flames in her hands, a look of hate on her face.

"How does it feel…to know that you're plans are about to come crashing down?" Sal asked, a grin on his face. He had no fear…no reason to hate or be afraid.

Sophia lunged at him and Sal brought up his Golden Spork to block, but yelled out as the heat and flames surged around him as Sophia's sword and his Spork collided, creating a shockwave of energy. Sophia grinned and flipped in midair, twisting around and bringing the other sword down on Sal's neck. The mobster was suddenly jerked out of the way by a shadow, and Sophia let out a scream of frustration.

"You…" Sophia growled at Eris, who was holding her hand out.

Eris shot towards Sophia, shadows writhing around her as Sophia lunged at her. Sophia slashed at Eris, only for Yena to jump out of the shadows and tackle her in midair. Yena threw Sophia at the ground as Eris took aim with her rifle and unloaded into the scientist, who screamed in agony as the bullets ripped through her.

"_**NO!" **_Sophia screamed as she threw her hands to the ground and fell to her knees.

Sophia's flames suddenly turned pure black…

"Wait, what happened?" Eris said in surprise as the remainder of the bullets bounced off of Sophia. The horrible wounds scattered along her body were healing up quickly…

"**It's her second wind…she's on her last legs…but this is when she's at her most dangerous…"** Yena growled.

"_**No…"**_ Sophia growled as she got to her feet, the rods of fire in her hand now burning jet black. Sophia didn't even register the gunfire now slamming into them from the Green Gun Crew, and as the Mobsters got ready for another attack round with the flaming scientist.

"Not a chance!" Eris yelled as she and Yena shot towards her. Sophia noticed the Green Run Crew reloading and getting ready to bombard her with gunfire.

"Yah!" Sophia barked, flinging her hands towards the Green Run Crew as they ran towards her. A massive wall of flames encircled them, and then another one around that, and the another one around that. The group stood there, panting from the heat the three walls of fire were generating and trying to find a way out. Eris yelled out worriedly and went towards them, only for a flaming foot to slam into her skull and sending her crashing into the ground. Yena growled as he sank into Eris's shadow as she fell unconscious.

"And now…you stand alone" Sophia whispered to the Mobsters as she turned to face them.

"Heh…we're never alone" Finn said coolly as he pulled out his Hell's Redeemer and pointed his Golden Spork at Sophia, who smiled widely. She summoned the two flaming black swords to her hands and dashed at Finn, only for him to block her first slash with his Spork. Sophia spun around to hit him with her other blade, but Weasel jumped in and blocked it with a feral grin on his face.

"Looks like you're the one who's alone! Your man ain't here to save ya, and you can't take us when we're together!" Weasel whispered gleefully as he pushed back with the Spork and jabbed Sophia with it. Finn grinned as Sophia yelled out and slashed at her with his own Spork, causing her to yell out and jump back to put some distance between herself the Mobsters.

"B-but how…these flames are supposed to make me invincible…" Sophia breathed.

"These Sporks are stronger than anything else we can throw at you" Sal said coolly. Then he smiled and said "Ah…I take it back. There is something stronger"

Sophia blinked for a moment before Finn, Weasel, and Sal hurled their Hell's Redeemer's at Sophia, who sidestepped the first one but was caught in the shoulder and chest by the other two. As she yelled out in pain, Billy sprinted up to her and stabbed her violently with his Golden Spork.

"May not have one of those super tomahawks, but at least I can stab you to my heart's content!" Billy hissed at Sophia, who backhanded him in the face. Billy screamed in agony as he fell to the ground, a horrible burn on his face visible despite him holding it. The others clenched their fists in worry and anger, but Billy got to his knees and said "Get that bitch! Don't worry about me!"

Finn, Weasel, and Sal nodded as Sophia advanced towards them, yanking out Billy's Spork and tossing it aside with a horrible scowl on her face. Sophia dashed forward and slashed at Weasel, who blocked the slash and jumped back, throwing his Hell's Redeemer at Sophia, who ducked under it and sent a fireball at Weasel, who blocked it with his Spork. Sal lunged at Sophia, only for her to sidestep and shoot a plume of flames at Weasel and Finn, causing them to back away. Sophia then turned around to face Sal, who was charging at her with his Spork. Sophia flung her hand downwards, creating ring of fire around him, but Sal dove through the fire, stabbing at her.

"Gotcha!" Sophia yelled as she sidestepped Sal's stab and jabbed him in the chest with her open palm, releasing a massive burst of fire into his chest.

"BOSS!" Weasel yelled as Sal fell backwards towards the ground, flames raging around him.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"DOWNLOAD AT 34%..."<p>

"Sieger…"

"Hey, don't blame me. Steiner was the computer expert!" Sieger sighed as the turrets continued to open fire on them.

"DOWNLOAD AT 36%..."

"Oh wow, it jumped two percent! Holy f*ck!" Joe said in mock surprise.

"You know, this wouldn't be happening if someone hadn't broken the keyboards with his fat gorilla hands" Judith yelled at Joe.

"Well excuse me, Princess! I don't see you contributing." Joe snapped at Judith.

He turned to the monitor with an annoyed expression and said "We're all going to die because Richtofen has shitty wifi. Go figure"

"I wonder if he has problems troubleshooting" Juliet laughed before a loud yell interrupted her. A massive burst of green fire erupted in the room, revealing a Zombie with a surging silver aura around him.

"Alright, time for some payback" Saem growled as he suddenly lashed out at Iva, catching her in the chest with a swing of his arm and sending her crashing into the far wall with a cry of pain.

"AND THAT'S THE FINAL STRAW!" Joe bellowed, pulling out his WunderWaffe DG-7 and pulling the trigger, sending a massive bolt of lightning at Saem who exploded in a burst of silver fire as the lightning crashed through him. Everyone in the room was sent crashing onto the ground, screaming in pain as electricity surged through them.

"No! I'm sorry guys!" Joe apologized as he hastily put away his Wonder Weapon.

"You ever stop to think why we're not using a Nuke to blown open the doors? To make sure crap like that doesn't happen!" Samantha growled at Joe as Saem reappeared. The large man cracked his fingers and said "OK, so who's-"

"EAT IT!"

A shot rang out and the group looked at Saem in surprise to see that he had stumbled backwards with a sniper bolt in his head. The round exploded violently and spattered the walls with gore.

Judith lowered the Scavenger with a smile and said "Well…that was satisfying"

"More like badass," Joe said with a grin. John however said "Cool, yeah. But it didn't do much. Look"

"…at…uck…ah…"

The stump that used to be Saem's neck before his head exploded was slowly reforming before their eyes. As they turned to face Saem once more, they saw the door to the next area open, perhaps due to Saem being weakened at the moment.

"This guy's just going to keep giving us crap if we don't deal with him" Joe muttered. John stepped forward and said "I'll keep him busy. You guys hurry up and deal with Richtofen…"

"I'll help too." Judith said as she took aim with the Scavenger and fired another bolt, this time putting It in Saem's chest and causing him exploded violently.

"So apparently he also has the ability of reformation as a Zombie. Lovely" John said in an annoyed tone as Saem began to reform quickly. Samantha felt a pang of worry about leaving her friends, but who knew that they didn't have time to deal with Saem when Richtofen was so close to ending everything…

"Good luck guys…and be safe" Samantha whispered the last part to herself as Saem reformed himself with a yell and charged at John, who opened fire with his Winter's Fury. Judith yelled out as Saem picked up a monitor and hurled it at her, nearly smashing into her and missing her head by inches. John jumped out of range and pulled out his Colt Commando and opened fire on the Group 935 Weapons Expert, who pulled out two Pack-A-Punched KAP-40's and fired a stream of bullets at John, who yelled out as the bullets ripped through him.

"JOHN!" Judith screamed before firing another bolt into Saem's skull, blowing his skull to pieces again. Judith ran over to John and used Quick Revive to heal his wounds, and as he got to his feet he winced at the pain.

"Guess Quick Revive can only heal so much…" John muttered.

"Any idea how to stop this guy?" Judith asked as she reloaded her Scavenger. John smiled darkly as Saem's head reformed again and said "I think I have a few ideas."

"DIE!" Saem bellowed as he broke through the ice and stormed towards the duo, who took aim and fired at the rampaging Man/Zombie with everything they had.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Keep going! Come on!" Jordan yelled as a Blade Zombie fell to his rifle.<p>

"No good! We're getting pushed back!" Clutch Odd yelled as he took a step back. The group was running low on ammo at this point and half of them were resorting to melee attacks of some kind, and were losing ground quickly as Zombies came from all angles. They had to hold this position just a little longer…"

"It's no use!" Starch said softly as his gun clicked uselessly. He pulled out a combat knife and got ready for the end…The others seemed to feel the same way…this was it…

"Alright guys! Backup has arrived!" a loud voice yelled.

All of a sudden a massive wave of a fire, lightning, and ice ripped through the street, annihilating the undead coming towards them and revealing three figures, standing tall. The survivors looked on in awe as the trio walked towards them, legends forgotten by time but never forgotten in the hearts of those who had fought the undead. Ever since the truth was revealed about the game that many had cherished for a seemingly dark and innocent game mode…

Dempsey grinned and said "You guys did good, holding this position. Now it's our turn"

"We will stand together against the undead. Our combined might will be unstoppable" Takeo said softly as he held his Katana out, flames tracing the length of the sword of the samurai.

"Wait, where is my Iva?" Nikolai asked worriedly, looking around.

"She went into the Tower" Serenity told the Russian in a awed tone. Nikolai scowled and muttered "Damn!"

"She'll be alright, Nikolai. Remember, Samantha and Sieger are with her. She's a smart girl, she'll be fine" Dempsey said comfortingly as he turned around. Nikolai turned to the marine and nodded, before turning around with Takeo to face the crowd of undead that had stopped in front of them.

"Alright…let's show these kids how it's supposed to be done" Dempsey said as he cracked his knuckles, releasing a wave of lightning around him. Nikolai and Takeo both smiled savagely and as the Zombies in front of them surged forward, so did they.

Tank Dempsey lived up to his reputation as he obliterated wave after wave of his Zombies with his Lamentation, a fierce grin on his face as he let loose and unloaded on the undead minions of his former partner against the Zombies. The ease with which he slew them was a sight that many could not have described if they wanted to, and with a yell the marine stood tall in a pile of bodies, grinning evilly.

Nikolai slammed his fist into a Blade Zombie, killing it instantly, but before that Zombie's body could hit the ground Nikolai pulled out his Scorpion EVO and unloaded at the Zombies that rushed him from all angles, slaughtering them with a terrifying precision.

Takeo was a demon, more or less, as he weaved in and out of the horde, slashing precisely through the horde, turning Zombies to ash with a strike of his sword. The samurai let out a cry and said "Together!"

The teens felt a surge of hope come back to them as they beheld the legendary Zombie Slayers hold off the horde single-handedly. Vice laughed under his breath and said "Well…I don't think they need it, but let's give them some backup"

"ALRIGHT BITCHES! SHOWTIME!" Starch yelled gleefully as he ran into the fray. Serenity shrugged and joined him, and the others followed.

Dempsey kicked at a Screecher, caving in its face, and turned around to destroy a whole line of Zombies charging at him. He swiftly reloaded before putting away his gun and pulled out his Bowie Knifes with a sadistic grin. He then blinked in surprise as a familiar blur raced past him and yelled out as she unloaded on a row of Zombies, taking them out with her Predator. A Nazi Zombie ran at her, only for her to shove the end of her gun into it's mouth, holding it still.

"That's my girl!" Dempsey yelled as Kara spun around and slammed her foot into a Zombie's skull, caving it in with a yell of fury. She dropped to the ground and opened fire on the horde, taking down several Zombies by blasting at their heads. Dempsey sprinted after his daughter, aiming punches at anything that came at him and said "Come on Kara! Let's show these bastards to fear the name Dempsey!"

"Hmm. It would seem as though they want to showcase their family's legacy for the world to see…" Takeo murmured. Chan walked past her father and said "Then let's show them the might of the Masaki, shall we?"

Takeo nodded and said "Let's"

The two then pulled out their Katana's the leapt into the horde, slashing and hacking at everything in sight. Anyone who saw the Masaki's would have mistaken them for deadly blurs as the decimated Zombie after Zombie with a sort of skill that was unreal to them. Takeo beheaded four Zombies in a single second before killing a Blade Zombie with a single punch to the gut, enveloping it in fire as it fell back and crashed onto the ground. Chan impaled a Screecher through the chest and yanked the blade free before slashing the heads and limbs of four attacking Zombies in quick succession.

"Little Iva…be OK…" Nikolai murmured before he opened his hands, releasing the power of the Ancient's that now flowed through him. Nikolai's passive expression turned into a fierce grin and said "As I wait for you, I will crack some skulls!"

Nikolai ran forward, grabbing a Zombie by the skull and throwing it to the ground as he slammed a freezing fist into another Zombie, killing it instantly. He proceeded to use his just his fists as he decimated horde after horde with the fury of a Soviet Super Solider. As the Screecher Zombies arrived in bulk he pulled out his SPAZ-24 and said "Come! Feel the might of Nikolai!"

The Russian darted forward, blasting away with his shotgun and mowing down the undead with a sort of ease that horrified the survivors. Nikolai's face was contorted in a wide grin as he ducked under a particularly big Screecher's slash and slammed his shotgun in its face, hurting it but not quite killing it. He then adjusted his grip on the shotgun and caved in the Zombie's skull by swinging it like a club.

The others ran forward to join the legendary soldiers, who were making quick work of the hordes streaming in from every direction. This was their time. While the others confronted Richtofen, this was where they would write their own legacy as the ones who held the line against the hosts of hell.

This was their final stand, and oh what a grand fight it would be!

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"And so, we arrive at an impasse" Jackson said to the group as the arrived in the next area of the Tower, which was a massive library. Jackson smiled as he snapped his Zombified fingers, opening the closed exit instead of sealing it.<p>

"I offer you a choice. I saw that some of your number chose to stay behind and deal with the others, and I'd like a fair fight this time around instead of having Dempsey, Takeo, and Nikolai using magical powers to best me. If you allow two of your group to stay here, then you may press on" Jackson said as he went invisible.

"Or, you can try and find me, and waste more time as I slow you down" Jackson said as the door closed. Sieger swore and said "You and your games…"

"I'll stay behind. This guy seems pretty smart, and despite his powers, he's just a soul in a shell. Not nearly as much of a threat as he was as a human" Iva said with a smirk as she drew her Afterburner. Juliet looked at Iva, then at Jackson, and then at Nicholas, who smiled at her and said "You want to stay here with Iva, don't you?"

Juliet nodded as she pulled out her chainsaw and said "You're not mad, are you?"

"No…of course not. Just be safe, OK?" Nicholas said as Juliet ran at him and embraced him tightly before running back over to Iva. Nicholas looked at Joe, who looked pained at the thought of leaving Iva behind. The daughter of Nikolai though looked at Joe and said "Look, Joe. If this thing between us is ever going to work, then you're going have to let me handle some things on my own."

"Y-yeah…OK." Joe said after a moment, sighing angrily. He was surprised when he realized Iva had ran over to him and kissed him on the lips, pulling him in close before breaking the kiss. Joe blinked in surprise and said "Uh…"

"Speechless eh? What a lovely change of pace" Iva laughed as she separated herself from Joe, who was now blushing pink. Nicholas rolled his eyes and said "Hey, I let my love interest go without a make-out, you can too asshole"

"Afterwards though" Juliet reminded him. Nicholas winked at her and after one last goodbye the others headed up the stairs while the two young women starred down Johnson, who reappeared in front of them, holding a staff-like blade that was glowing bright green.

"Shall we?" Jackson said as he hefted the blade over his shoulder. Juliet revved her chainsaw with a wide smile and said "Oh yeah!"

Iva opened fire with her Afterburner at Jackson, who vanished on the spot. She growled and quickly sprayed the room, hearing a grunt of pain next to her and jumped back as Juliet lunged at Jackson, who raised the staff-blade to block. Juliet laughed as she gained control of the fight and threw the zombified man back before running him through the chest with her chainsaw. Juliet noticed the man shimmering green, and she looked up.

And saw the mutilated face of Nicholas starring at her in horror.

"What!?" Juliet yelled, letting go of the chainsaw and stepping back in horror.

"Ju…Juliet…You…killed me" Nicholas rasped as blood flew from his mouth. Juliet felt cold raw fear course through her as Nicholas fell to the ground, shimmering green. Juliet fought the urge to throw up in horror at what she had done…she killed him…

What had she _done?_

Iva yelled her name, but Juliet turned away, clenching her fists as she struggled to keep herself from screaming. She had just killed him…

BAM!

Juliet went crashing to the ground and slammed her head against a desk, causing her vision to dim for a moment. She heard the sound of clanging and saw Iva battling with Nicholas's Zombified form, shouting insults at him all the while.

"It's Jackson! He's trying to shock us and gain the advantage!" Iva barked. Iva broke away and slashed at the Zombie, which ducked under her slash and swiped at her with a hand, sending her flying across the room with a yell.

Juliet shook her head, trying to still get over the shock of killing him…

"Juliet! Get your head in the game! Nicholas is scaling the Tower with the others! This is Jackson!" Iva barked. Juliet nodded as the Zombie said "Is that so?"

The Zombie's body burned bright green and suddenly they were looking at a Zombified version of Joe, limping towards them. Iva flinched and said "Damn…"

This however, had the opposite effect on Juliet. Seeing Joe instead of Nicholas and watching the transformation happen before her eyes made the shock of seemingly killing him vanish on the spot. Iva got to her feet and pulled out her Afterburner.

"Juliet…let's kill this bastard" Iva growled. Juliet nodded as she picked her chainsaw off of the ground and said "Smart strategy. Won't work again"

Jackson smiled as his true form appeared yet again, and said "Then we have a duel. En garde!"

Juliet dashed at Jackson, who went invisible. Juliet slashed around, circling the area Jackson had just occupied and was gratified to hear the sound of flesh meeting chainsaw. Jackson snarled in agony, but yelled out even more as Iva opened fire at the spot where he stood.

"Agh…not bad" Jackson growled, eyeing the bits of flesh that had fallen to the floor.

"But I have not yet begun to fight!" Jackson yelled as green flames flickered around him, and Juliet and Iva got ready for another go at the zombified scientist.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p><em>What do you see?<em>

"I see a world…a world filled with pain…filled with hate…indifference, corruption, and malice…"

_Why does this bother you…you once cherished such emotions and made them your own…_

"Because zhee voices vere silenced…I have felt love…and now with zhat ripped away from me…"

_You wish to watch the world burn…_

"Yes…we are so close to zhee end.."

_Very close…just one final piece is needed…and when the time is right…_

"Agartha…zhee gateway will be thrown wide open…and zhee power to destroy this world will be mine"

…_Destruction is not all you have planned…you wish to rebuild…create and make good…_

"Yes…zhis world will be killed…but a new and better one vill replace it…"

_A fool's dream…but whatever destructive lies you have fed yourself can never be our fault…we did not do this…_

"I know…I did zhis too myself…these thoughts are my own…"

_There is no turning back…_

"I know zhee risks! I will not be stopped now by your whispers!" Edward Richtofen bellowed at the Pyramid in front of him. He snapped his fingers and the Pyramid opened, wide. Richtofen pulled off the white Soul Gem around his neck.

"Little one…my heart…Izzy…you will never be forgotten, little one" Richtofen whispered as he reached into the M.P.D. and placed the Soul Gem inside of the device. It slowly closed, and Richtofen shuddered as the device spoke to him one final time.

_A pure and innocent soul…the process is complete…now…we wait…_

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"SAL!" Weasel screamed as the mobster fell to the ground, screaming as the Mobster fell to the ground, screaming as the flames circled around him. Sal fell to the ground, moaning as the flames died away, revealing horrible 3rd degree burns littering his body.<p>

"You bitch!" Billy snarled, unloading several short bursts of gunfire at Sophia, who yelped as some of the bullets tore through her before she vanished in a burst of fire.

"We've got to get out" Marlton moaned as he fell to his knees, the heat making staying conscious difficult. Stuhlinger pulled Russman to his feet and said "Come on! We've gotten out of tighter situations than this!"

"Wait…Marlton…E.M.P. Grenades" Misty murmured as her eyelids drooped from the heat. Marlton gasped in realization and grabbed the final E.M.P. grenade on his belt and pulled the pin, placing it on the ground.

The burst of energy that erupted from the grenade blasted away the wall of flames, and the group yelled out as the electricity surged through them for a few moments. As they gained control of their limbs, they saw Eris rising from the ground, shaking with fatigue. Yena walked out of her shadow and opened fire on Sophia, who was battling Finn, Billy, and Weasel at the same time with two flaming blades as they fought her with their Golden Sporks.

Sophia lashed out at Weasel, only for him to block it and let Finn lunge at Sophia, who blocked it with her second flaming blade. She threw both of the Mobsters off and blocked a stab from Billy, who growled angrily at her and forced her back.

Sophia then threw her weight forward, sending him Billy flying back onto the ground, but he rolled to his feet and hurled his Hell's Retriever, which bounced off of Sophia uselessly. But even as the smile spread across her face, Finn and Weasel lunged at her together. Sophia was then forced back several steps as she frantically blocked slash after slash from the enraged Mobsters.

"You think you can put us down! After everything we went through!" Weasel yelled.

"It'll take a lot more than some miserable broad like you to kill us!" Finn growled as he ducked under a flaming slash and snatched his Hell's Redeemer of his belt, slamming the blade end of it into Sophia's chest. The woman went sailing through the air with a scream of agony and crashed onto the ground as the Redeemer flashed out of existence, only to reappear in Finn's hand.

"I've got to think of something…even with the Hellfire…they're much stronger than I could have ever thought…" Sophia muttered as she shakily got to her feet and looked up, seeing the three Mobsters walk towards her. Sophia shot a ball of flames at Billy, sighing angrily at the men who refused to die.

Billy ducked under a burst of fire that Sophia shot his way and hurled his Hell's Retriever towards her skull, catching her in the chest instead and sending her stumbling backwards from the force of the throw this time. As Weasel and Finn closed in with their Sporks, Sophia wrenched out the tomahawk and summoned a wall of fire to halt their progress. Weasel took aim with the Acid Gat and fired a series of pods into the fire. Sophia yelled out as the pods soared through the flames and latched onto her, exploding violently after a few moments. Sophia shrieked in agony as the acid burned through her skin, despite the power of the Hellfire that surrounded her.

"We've got her on the ropes!" Billy yelled as he ran at her as the flames dissipated. Sophia glared at Billy and said "You really think so, don't you?"

Billy slashed at the ball of flame that she sent his way and stabbed at her, a wide grin on his face as the blade slashed her in the chest deeply. Sophia stumbled backwards with a cry of pain before suddenly lunging forward and stabbing Billy in the chest with the rod of fire in her hands.

"BILLY!" Eris, Finn, and Weasel yelled as the mobster suddenly burst into flames. He fell to the ground screaming, only for a wraith of shadows to suddenly engulf him.

"NO!" Eris yelled as she dove into her shadow. Weasel and Finn lunged at Sophia, who was forced back by the increased ferociousness in their attacks. Weasel slashed Sophia several times with a quick flurry of slashes while Finn lunged forward and stabbed her in the chest before jumping back to avoid a burst of flames that erupted out of the ground. Sophia then raised her hand, only for a shadow tendril to impale her through the stomach and then wrap around her before slamming her brutally into the ground.

Sophia let out an scream as a fireball engulfed her, incinerating the shadows around her. Finn then lunged at Sophia as Weasel took a step back to reload his Acid Gat, and Sophia blocked Finn's slash and quickly jabbed him in the chest with her other flaming blade as it formed in her hand.

"Finn! NO!" Weasel yelled as the Mobster was impaled with the sword made of fire, only to burst into flames a moment later. Eris screamed out in horror and smothered the flames with her shadows, but the damage was done.

"You…you…" Weasel hissed at Sophia, who raised her twin flaming swords into the air and said "See how fate smiles upon me and Edward? Know your place."

Weasel lunged forward and slashed at Sophia, who brought up a sword to block. As she swung around to deliver a backhanded slash to Weasel, a gunshot blasted her hand, dispelling the blade and coating her hand in blood that burned instantly.

"What the-!?" Sophia yelled as she glanced over at the Green Run Crew, where she saw Marlton aiming his Shadowy Veil Utilizer at her. Weasel took advantage of the lapse in her concentration and run forward, stabbing forward with his Golden Spork. Even as Sophia let out a scream of pain, Weasel jumped back to avoid a wave of flames as she wrenched the Golden Spork out of her chest, panting heavily.

Sophia simply hurled the Spork away as hard as she could as Weasel pulled out the Acid Gat, even as the Green Run Crew made their way over to them and opened fire on Sophia, who was visible exhausted by the wounds that she had healed and the one's that she couldn't heal. Weasel fired a series of pods at her as she jumped high into the air, her fire flickering around her.

"No! More! More more!" Sophia chanted to herself, willing the flames around her to burn hotter and greater. She glared hatefully at the final mobster who dared oppose her and Edward and shot towards him like a comet. Weasel tried to get out of the way, but even then the massive wave of fire that erupted from the ground caught him and sent him flying high into the air and crashing down onto the ground, flames ravaging his body.

"Weasel!" Eris screamed as she shot towards Sophia, slamming her into the ground with her fist. Eris began frantically pounding the scientist as hard as she could with her bare hands until a burst of flames blasted her away. The Green Run Crew opened fire on Sophia as she emerged from the hole that Eris had pounded her into, and she charged forward to deal with the remaining fighters.

Stuhlinger however, stayed behind.

He walked towards the final Mobster, one who had suffered far beyond any human had the right to do. He who had been through hell and back, literally, and had finally fallen for the final time. This was a true death…Weasel looked up at Stuhlinger through barely opened eyes and smiled weakly.

"Take it…you know what to do…" Weasel whispered as he held out his hand. A hellish-looking tomahawk flashed into existence in Weasel's hand, glowing bright blue. "Hold onto it to charge it…and then throw…"

Weasel shuddered and closed his eyes as Stuhlinger turned around, a cold look in his eyes as Sophia was knocked to the ground by Eris yet again, only for her to send an arc of fire at the young woman and send her crashing onto the ground, screaming as the flames raced across her.

Misty lunged at Sophia and stabbed her in the chest with her Bowie Knife, yelling out in anger. Sophia staggered back with a yell, only to violently kick her away and send her crashing onto the ground, clutching her chest. Sophia let out a yell as she drew the last dregs of her strength forward.

"This is end" Sophia whispered as she summoned a massive rod of flames she held in both hands. Misty reached for her gun, only for Sophia to bring down the flaming sword with authority.

"NOT A CHANCE!"

Sophia spun around to see Stuhlinger hurl the Hell's Redeemer towards her, and as it did she felt a thrill of horror as she made the decision to dispel the sword and jump to the side, rolling into a crouch due to no longer having the energy to teleport anymore. The tomahawk flew by her, but returned to Stuhlinger's hand a few seconds later. Sophia staggered back as a fist slammed into her face, causing her face to burn with pain and send her crashing to the ground. She looked up to Marlton, fist raised and wearing a Galvaknuckle.

"You will pay dearly for trying to harm Misty." Marlton hissed furiously as Sophia, who suddenly let an explosion fire engulf her and sent Marlton crashing onto the ground, yelling out as he patted down the flames at stung and burned him.

"STU! GO!" Russman barked as he fired several shots with his Sassafras, causing Sophia to yell out as her second wind faded once more as a result of her last attack. The black flames flickered and were replaced by red, yellow, and orange flames once again.

"No…no…I can't…" Sophia whispered as her vision blurred. She staggered forward and shot a burst of fire towards Russman, but Stuhlinger stood in front of his friend, hand raised high as he charged the Hell's Redeemer and said "No…you can and will. You'll die like all the others have…"

Stuhlinger hurled the Hell's Redeemer as hard as he could towards Sophia, who starred at the Redeemer with a look of horror as the tomahawk soared through the flames and dispelled the attack. She tried to force herself to move, but found her body was stuck.

"Why won't my body move!? What's going on!?" Sophia yelled as she looked down, only to see crisscrossing web of shadows wrapped around her. She saw Eris smiling at her out of the corner of her eye with Yena standing next to her, both of their hands outstretched.

"Izzy…Sieger…Edward…I'm so sorry" Sophia said as she turned her gaze back to the approaching tomahawk. She closed her eyes and said "Forgive me…"

The tomahawk slammed into Sophia's neck, severing the connection between her body and head. As Sophia's head flew into the air, her body's flames began to flicker and die. Her head landed lightly on the ground, where the flames began to flicker as well.

Eris looked down at the head and said "We're done here…"

"Looks like it…please…tell Sieger…I love him…" Sophia choked out. Yena stepped forward and said **"As much as your powers corrupted you, you never stopped loving your children and or forgot what they meant to you…we'll deliver the message."**

"Harvey…thank you…"

Sophia closed her eyes and she said no more as she finally ceased to live. Eris sank to her knees and let out a sigh of relief. Stuhlinger laughed and said "I did it...No…"

Stuhlinger turned to Russman, Marlton, and Misty, who stood behind him, smiling slightly.

"We did it…" Stuhlinger said as a wide grin spread across his face.

"**You all fought well. Sophia was a powerful foe, and you performed admirably"** Yena drawled as he helped Eris to her feet. Eris smiled at her Master, and then her face paled in horror as she turned towards the fallen Mobsters, who had fallen in battle.

The remaining fighters made their way over to the defeated Zombie Slayers, who were unmoving. As Eris felt a tear run down her face, she knelt down and said "I'm so sorry…I tried as hard as I could to protect you…"

"Hey…no one lives forever…" Finn said weakly as his eyes inched open. Eris gasped in surprise as the other's slowly opened their eyes.

"So...this is it?" Weasel rasped. Eris nodded as more tears running down her face as the Green Run Crew watched sadly.

"Thank you…you guys were incredible" Misty said to the fallen Mobsters. They had been great allies and helped protect them throughout the day…they weren't all that bad as people either, despite being murderers…she was sad to see them finally meet their end…

Billy laughed weakly and said "You guys weren't so bad yourself…"

"Hey…Eris…what…what's going to happen to us?" Finn asked the shadow woman, who shook her head. Yena, however, smiled and said **"The past can never be undone, no matter how much you wish it so…that said, you all have done so much and for nothing in return…"**

"**You protected, you saved, you healed and fought to defend a world that was not your own…and more importantly…"** Yean trailed off as the Mobster's felt a great warmth spread through them as their bodies glowed gold.

"**You, in the end, felt true regret for what you did. You wanted to change your ways and repent for what you did, because in the end you prove what this whole entire battle is about…"**

"**Anyone can change, given time…Faith that people can become better…that there is still good in the world, despite the darkness that surrounds the world…"**

"**You all have shown why this battle had to be fought…Edward's mind is trapped by the sorrow of losing someone he loved…he believes this world has no hope…no chance of redemption…but you all prove he is wrong…" **Yena explained to everyone as he closed his eyes, the glowing having been too bright for him.

"**You may have slain innocent, but in the end you were able to learn from your mistakes and realize what you did wrong…that coupled with your services here…" **Yena said with a small smile.

"You mean…after all this time…despite everything?" Sal said in a dumbfounded tone as his body glowed bright white. A brilliant flash shone through the night, revealing the four mobsters now transparent and standing over their bodies and wearing…

Wings.

"**You all redeemed yourselves today. When weighed against your misdeeds, you're actions today and your repenting of the past has allowed you a free pass out of Hell"** Yena said as the Mobsters looked at each other in surprise. Weasel laughed weakly before he was clapped on the back by Billy, who grinned widely and said "Insane…I guess in the end, Weasel and Nicholas did all this"

"M-me?" Weasel bleated back, confused and still shocked.

"You made us see what we failed too, Al…thanks for showing us that in the end" Finn said in a low voice to Weasel, who smiled weakly.

"Nicholas…oh shit, what're you guys going to tell the kids?" Sal asked Eris, who smiled sadly at the Mobsters. She had known them for such a short time, but had grown to care for them in that short window of time fate had allowed her. She looked up at them as they slowly floated upwards and said "That you all fell to Sophia, but earned your wings in the end. They'll be happy to know you found peace after everything you went through"

"That works for me…come on guys" Finn said to the others.

He then looked up to the sky and whispered "Angela…I'm coming darling…"

"Goodbye guys! Good luck!" Weasel called to the others, who watched as the Mobsters finally went to where they never thought they'd be in their wildest dreams. Despite what they had done…the hell they had endured and the sacrifice they made to protect the world had overridden the bad…

They could be at peace for now and all time.

"Guys…you know you have to go back too" Eris said to the Green Run Crew. Misty, Marlton, Russman, and Stuhlinger nodded and Yena said **"Maxis will no doubt be distracted in his search for Samantha…and will probably be diverting his powers towards maintaining the connection to Agartha."**

"Meaning you guys have time to recuperate and think of a game plan. Once we're done here, I'll be by to help you guys set things straight" Eris said to the Zombie Slayers, who nodded again.

"Thanks for letting us get a chance to save the world…even if it wasn't ours, it was still nice to see" Misty said with a smile.

Russman nodded and said "I've got to say, I didn't think I'd live to see this all. Thank you, little lady, for giving an old man hope again."

"I…" Marlton swallowed hard before saying "I agree with Russman…You helping us, and even allowing us to escape Maxis's clutches, inspired us to keep at it. We can surely find a way to fix things if we work together"

"Yes…Together…we can fix this" Stuhlinger said softly. Eris smile at the Green Run Crew and said "Thank you…I'm so happy to have met you all. You all have such strong spirits…I promise, we'll find a way to save your world…"

"**But for now…you must go back…"** Yena murmured as he slunk into Eris's shadow. Eris then extended a hand towards the Green Run Crew, who smiled sadly at her, and each of them in turn shook her hand. It was a promise.

One day, she would help them save their world.

But for now…she would have to wait until the fate of this one was decided. As she broke her handshake with Marlton, she raised her hand and caused the shadows around them to warp. Slowly, each one of them were being swallowed by their shadow.

"I'm sorry you can't stay longer…but if you stay…well…" Eris trailed off.

"We understand…" Russman said with a small smile as he closed his eyes. He prayed that by some miracle, he would remember this…he never wanted to forget her…the charming woman who gave them hope…or the battle they had fought and the brave people he had fought alongside today.

"Guys…don't let me forget" Russman said to the others, who nodded. Eris smiled and said "No matter what you forget in your head, your heart will always remember those who are important to you. That I know"

"Heh…kinda cheesy" Misty grinned at the blond. Marlton frowned and said "The heart is not capable of such things, Misty. Its more-"

"Please, don't ruin the moment with your scientific bitching," Stuhlinger snapped, though a small smile was on his face. He turned to Eris and said "You're a hero, you know that right?"

"Please…I'm not hero. I am shadows, nothing more," Eris said with a small laugh. Stuhlinger rolled his eyes and said "Sure, sure. But you're a hero to us, got it?"

The shadows were up to their necks now. This was it…

"Don't ever give up…I believe in you all…stay strong until I come back for you…" Eris whispered to the four heroes as the shadows swallowed them. Eris looked away as a tear rolled down her face and said "Now what…Master Yena?"

"**Watch and wait, little one…we wait in the shadows…and when the time comes when we're needed, we step out into the light"** Yena breathed as Eris fell into her shadow and closed her eyes, letting the darkness engulf her. The bodies of the slain Mobsters were engulfed in shadows as well, taken to a place where the bodies could rest in peace forever.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Argh, damn it Edward" Samantha growled as they pounded up the stairs.<p>

"We've only got a few minutes left before he kills everyone" Nicholas said as he reloaded his Speakeasy. Joe sighed angrily, still torn up about leaving Iva and Juliet to take on Jackson alone, and Sieger said "They're tough girls, Joe. They can manage"

"I hope so" Joe muttered under his breath as the raced up the steps.

"Now all we have to deal with is Oswald" Samantha said as she pulled out the Staff of Magnus and sent a jolt of energy through it, causing it to glow white.

As the group of four made their way to the final room before the rooftop, they were unsurprised to see a single Zombie standing in the room, surrounded in a wraith of crimson flames.

"You know…I didn't ask for much in Group 935…" the man said in a low voice. He looked up towards the roof and said "I didn't ask Richtofen for much, yet did so much for him in return…all I wanted was a world where science flourished…hell, it was what a lot of us wanted"

"Some of us were in it for the power…some had personal reasons…others had personal vendettas that Richtofen could help us with…me? Just science and discovery…"

"We then, over the course of time, realized that our desires would be realized if we followed the goal of Group 935 and truly attempt to improve the world. Our own goals and desires would be realized along the way…But, there's a problem with that idea. The "Human Condition" can only be improved so much. All the abilities and immortality we can create is useless if the world is at war…" Oswald continued.

"That's right" Sieger agreed, nodding his head.

Oswald sighed and said "Sieger…in the end, I want to say I'm sorry…I'm sorry you had to suffer so much…in our grief, we were blind to the pain we put you through…look what the pain and grief did to your mother"

"My mother? What happened to mom?" Sieger asked, worried.

Oswald looked away and said "She was just killed by the others…I'm sorry, Victor"

Sieger flinched and closed his eyes as the sound of his mother's death reached his ears. Oswald sighed and said "She was consumed by the power that corrupted Edward all those years ago…anger and grief twisted her as her strength grew out of control. She was no longer the woman who was your mother…and the woman your father fell in love with"

"What?" Sieger whispered as a tear rolled down his face. Samantha felt her heart wrench at the misery the young man was going through as he fought to remain calm. Oswald nodded and said "She died before she could become a true monster…"

"Oswald…what are you going to do?" Sieger asked in a near whisper. Oswald shook his head and said "In the few short minutes I've been dead, I've realized many things…"

"That at the end of the day…I'm tired" Oswald said to the teens. "I'm tired of grieving for the loss of Izzy…I'm tired of hating, of wanting to destroy this world and rebuild it again. Civilization might just not be salvageable no matter what we do…"

"So here's what I will do. In a few moments that door will open, and you will face down Doctor Edward Richtofen in a battle to decide the fate of the world. Fight him. He will do everything within his power to rip open the Gateway and access the energies within to destroy this world. If he succeeds, then it's all over for you…"

Oswald grabbed the revolver from his belt and said in an acidic voice "Go…I'm done here…Good luck"

Oswald pressed the gun against his skull and pulled the trigger. Sieger cried out as the gore splattered against the wall and Oswald's zombified shell crashed onto the ground. A crimson wraith flowed from the body and soared upwards, towards the void that was Agartha.

"…Sieger?" Samantha whispered. Sieger had his eyes shut tightly and looked ill, as though he were resisting the urge to throw up. Samantha glanced at Joe and Nicholas before stepping forward and grabbing Sieger's hand. Sieger began to shake slightly…and that was when Samantha realized the young man was crying.

"It just never ends…First Izzy, then Uncle Porter, then Kraken, Saem, Jackson, and Oswald…then M-mom…" Sieger hissed as tears streamed from the tortured blue eyes of his. Samantha tightened her grip on Sieger's hand, and suddenly she turned him around and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"It's almost over…I know it hurts…it will always hurt…" Samantha whispered in his ear.

"But that suffering is what makes us human in the end. It what helps us stay alive…that is what makes you different from your father. Your grief makes you want to stop others from feeling the same pain…while your father turns his pain towards destruction, you turn yours towards helping others…"

"Your mother would be proud of you…and I'm sure Uncle Edward is too" Samantha whispered as she pulled Sieger's chin up and starred him in the eyes. Samantha then gasped as Sieger moved his head forward and pressed his lips against hers. It was a light kiss, but Samantha still closed her eyes as Sieger leaned in, deepening it.

"Wow…didn't see that coming" Joe muttered to Nicholas, who shrugged. Samantha and Sieger separated and Sieger said "Consider that a promise that after this…me and you will continue this talk…You're right…I have to stay strong and keep going. We can't stop to grieve when we're so close to the end…"

"I…I…OK" Samantha whispered breathlessly, blushing furiously as she stepped away from Sieger, who was still too tormented by his mother's death to be embarrassed about what he just did. Sieger remained rooted to the spot, trying to regain his cool and his composure for the final fight. Samantha created a Max Ammo for them and spawned Fluffy again to siphon energy from the Hellhound to heal any injuries that they had sustained. The Hellhound collapsed on the ground and fell asleep as soon as the connection between her and Samantha had broken.

"Are you guys ready?" Samantha said as she looked up at the long winding stairway that led to the roof. Sieger, Nicholas, and Joe nodded wordlessly, and Samantha turned around and said "Let's go then"

The group of four sprinted up the stairway, running over possible ways of attack in their heads. Ways that Richtofen might attack them, ways to defend themselves from him, how to help Samantha finish off Richtofen with the Staff of Magnus…

But in the end they ended up remembering the events that took place before all of this.

They remembered fleeing the school as the first Zombies struck, fleeing to the nearby Wal-Mart and Sam's Club before retreating to the nearby Paintball Arena to rest. They recalled being attacked by the Hellwolf and first meeting Samantha and reuniting with Jax. They recalled learning the truth and being tested at the Stadium, only to battle against the Juggernauts Richtofen had summoned to take them out.

They recalled meeting Illuzio, the tortured and seemingly evil jester who in the end wanted to help them against Richtofen by preparing them for what was to come. They remembered meeting Marcus and attacking the military base and their first meeting with Porter and Richtofen. They remembered the experience of seemingly losing John and the horrible pain of grief crashing down on them before fleeing Florida, acquiring the RV and heading north.

Samantha had tested them again in a rundown mansion before Fluffy attacked them, sending Nicholas plummeting off of a bridge and into the cold waters below.

Nicholas ended up being saved by Juliet Starling, who introduced him to Iva, Chan, and Kara, who revealed to him that the legends that were Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki were alive and well, preserved by the Super Soldier serum and exposure to Element 115.

Meanwhile, Joe and the others worked furiously to find a position to hold off Richtofen's forces, seeking shelter in a hospital where the other survivors had met up. There, the group held off the undead while Samantha swapped souls with a girl trapped in a coma, freeing the girl's soul and allowing Samantha to gain a permanent body that made her a normal young woman.

Meanwhile, Nicholas, Juliet, and the OC Crew and their daughters made their way to the hospital to meet up with the others, fought of the hordes of the undead and made a plan to meet up later. They had encountered some of their friends in an Nuclear Plant that was actually an Element 115 Testing Facility, and over the course of their adventures, they encountered Porter, Illuzio, and a strange demonic voice as well.

They distinctly remembered being captured in Slenderman's dimension, and somehow earning the respect of the creature due to their determination to save their friends. They remembered facing down Porter at the Lincoln Memorial, only to fight a massive mud Zombie shortly afterwards.

Samantha remembered the joy she felt in saving Fluffy from Richtofen's control, and how they found John after all this time in Richtofen's D.C Lab, experimented and tortured by still very alive. They remembered hearing the call of Richtofen, explaining his intentions for the world and his "Kingdom". They remembered proving their worth in the ancient City of Babylon, only to fight the Cerberus Zombie and Sophia shortly afterwards.

And they recalled meeting the devil that was Harvey Yena…

Sieger recalled battling with his Uncle, fighting to save Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, Iva, Chan, and Kara. He had gotten a few good shots in and managed to drive off his murderous Uncle and managed to convince the others to head to New York with him.

But Samantha, Joe, and Nicholas vividly remembered fighting Yena after a badly injured Iva brought news of a horrible attack. They remembered fighting tooth and nail to kill him, only for him to easily defeat them and brutally kill Liam with a fatal shot to the chest…They remembered how Judith had grieved…`how they grieved…they remembered the pain…

But they had to move on…they had to keep going…

Samantha remembered finding her father, trapped in a Soul Gem in an abandoned lab as punishment for his sins and attempting to defy Richtofen. They remembered going to New York and joining the survivors in their fight against the undead, only for Illuzio to hurl Nicholas through a portal and for Samantha's old friend Jason to arrive on the scene. The Leader of the Reclaimers began to torment Samantha with guilt as she and the others prepared for an all out war in New York.

Nicholas recalled meeting the Mobsters in a hellish version of Alcatraz and fighting their way through the prison, trapped in a never-ending cycle of undead. He recalled his frustrations with the Mobsters, but remembered how close he grew with them over the course of their adventure. He remembered learning the truth about the Mobster's and how they had killed Weasel…how Illuzio has been the mastermind behind the nightmare they were living in.

And he remembered getting through to them and helping them overcome their hate with understanding and empathy…they broke the cycle…

Joe remembered fighting against the Blizzard Zombie, unable to kill it while the others fought off the undead. Samantha remembered going off to fight Jason alone, only for Richtofen to taunt her as she and him brutalized each other. She then remembered Yena murdering her friend in cold blood…the horror…the shock…the pain…

Joe remembered Sieger's arrival and the reappearance of the Original Crew and their daughters, who had survived Yena's attack and were ready to help save the day. They remembered Yena arriving and killing the unkillable Blizzard Zombie, only to fight them just a few minutes later.

All of them remembered fighting the evil shadow wieldier, only besting him by poisoning his blood. They recalled Samantha's call to arms, rallying the survivors for one last fight in Los Angles, where Richtofen would be waiting for them.

The train-ride…Illzuio's final stand against them…using everything they had against the jester who had nothing to lose…

Sieger's true identity as the son of Edward Richtofen, the man they were trying to kill.

Sieger remembered the pain of explaining himself…the fear and pain of retelling what had happened…and then he recalled the joy he felt at being accepted by Samantha and her friends anyway, despite his linage.

The group remembered the massive fight that had taken place over the course of the day…the lives that had been lost…violence, death, tragedy, reunions…

They remembered Liam…

They remembered Nick…

And now here they were. After everything they had gone through…

It was time to dance with the devil.

Samantha burst out onto the roof of the Tower and saw him, his back turned and looking forward. Threads of energy thrummed from both him and the M.P.D., and the entire rooftop shook violently as Agartha turned bright blue. Samantha shivered as she felt the awesome power of the other realm so close to this one…

"So…here we are" Edward Richtofen said in a soft voice.

"We stand here on the brink of a new age, Samantha…whether I fall today, or whether I succeed and this world is burned away and my world replaces it…things will never be never be the same…"

Richtofen turned away and said "All these years…nothing could ever heal my tortured soul…every day I awake to nightmares…I still remember holding her in my arms as she died…"

"Dad…Izzy loved you. She loved me, she loved Mom, she loved Uncle Yena, Porter, and everyone else. She wanted a world where we could all live in peace…a world where no one has to suffer anymore…but it's a fools dream, dad" Sieger said bitterly, shaking his head.

"Sieger…" Richtofen breathed, surprised at the words of his son.

"But that doesn't mean we can't try and make the world better. We can make a difference…you taught me that yourself. You can change the world and make it better, for not just yourself but for everyone who lives on it too…that was what Izzy wanted. Not a new world entirely…but a world that was reborn anew by those who change it into something new" Sieger continued.

"Mankind has tried and failed to improve this damnable place for thousands of years, yet in the end peace will fall to war and suffering will run rampant. The suffering we have endured is the suffering that mankind has felt for millennia!" Richtofen replied harshly.

"And so I have unlocked the great power that lies within Agartha…with the souls I have captured within the Tower and the M.P.D. and using the Elemental Staffs as a guide, I will open a path to the sacred realm and realize my true power…a power that will allow me to become a God…" Richtofen said as he turned around. He walked a few steps away before glancing back at them.

"As a God…I will first destroy the fools who tried to save their own lives by devoting theirs to my cause…my precious Reclaimers will be the first to die…and the corrupt fools of this planet. Those who are ruled by greed, maliciousness, evil, and their darker natures and those who are a threat to mankind will be snuffed out like flames" Richtofen continued.

"Wait…so you're killing all of the bad people?" Joe asked Richtofen.

"Yes…and no. I vill kill everyone who has a trace of darkness in their hearts…" Richtofen replied coolly.

"But…mankind is naturally like that. We steal, we hurt, we kill…but we also help. We save, we protect, we defend and heal. We're good and bad in a lot of ways" Joe responded.

"This world is really bad, yeah. But there's so much good in it. Look how hard these people are fighting to save it" Nicholas replied.

"They are fighting for their lives, not to protect the world they think still has good in it. In the end, mankind is selfish, evil, and petty. All good is overthrown by the bad…As peace is meant to be broken, just as all treaties will fail, just as all great Utopia's will fail in the end"

"But this…this will be different…Most of mankind will be destroyed in the process, yes…but those who are evil will die first, and zhen it is up to the will of the M.P.D. who will survive after zhat…I care not…I just wish for this world to be destroyed" Richtofen growled at the teens.

"I will create new life from the powers the realm can give me…A new world…the deaths I cause will be meaningless because the good will be reborn"

"So…here we stand. Sieger…will you join me, your father? Or will you side with the girl who has stood against me since the day she stepped inside of the M.P.D?" Richtofen asked Sieger, who summoned Glorious to his hands and pointed it at his father.

"Even if you succeed, it'll be for the wrong reasons. You won't ever get over Izzy's death...have you ever thought about why Izzy doesn't speak to you from within that Soul Gem you had wrapped around your neck!?" Sieger barked.

"She's ashamed that she let her death do this to you…you were supposed to lead this planet to a golden age, to improve the human condition! Izzy wanted you to make the world a better place, not destroy it! She's scared of you, Father…and she has a right to be. You twisted her words with your anger and grief into more destruction" Sieger whispered. Richtofen blinked at the venom in his son's words.

"Mom died before the powers she received could warp her mind any further…I'll…" Sieger trailed off.

"Sophia's demise will not be in vain…I can bring her back" Richtofen whispered fiercely, rage and sorrow evident in his voice.

"No." Sieger said in a serious tone as flames engulfed Glorious.

"No one comes back from the dead…no one who dies deserves the hell of coming back. Just like every single Zombie killed because of Element 115 didn't deserve to come back in the first place" Sieger growled.

"And you stand firm on zhis?" Richtofen asked his son.

"I…Yes…"Sieger said after a moment.

"This world has good in it, Father. You can't just destroy everything because you hate the world…why should everyone have to suffer because of what happened to Izzy? Why should the others have to die because you want to destroy this world and make a better one…you're causing more suffering in the name of something Izzy didn't want…That's why I have to stop you…for Izzy…and for Samantha. And for everyone else who died because of your actions…I'm sorry Dad" Sieger said softly.

"Very well…I am proud of you, Sieger" Richtofen said in a soft voice, taking a few steps back.

"You…are?" Sieger asked, surprised.

Richtofen nodded, a sad smile on his face and said "You stand firm on your ideals like a true man…No matter what happens…I vill always love you my son…even if you stand against me, I will never stop being proud of what you have become…"

"I love you too dad…this is why I have to do this" Sieger whispered. Richtofen tipped his hat and said "I know…But we run short on time…Midnight approaches and our final battle does as well" Richtofen said as his voice gained a familiar tone of confidence and steel once more. Sieger's grip on Glorious tightened, and as Richtofen's body shimmered with energy, both sides prepared themselves for the final battle.

"My world…NO! Izzy's world will be realized! She and Sophia will be reborn from the ashes of this destroyed and wretched planet as I cleanse this twisted world of corruption and evil!" Richtofen yelled as surging energy rippled through the air, sending each of the teens skidding backwards as waves of sheer force slammed into them.

"If killing you is the only way to save you from yourself then so be it, Father! I'm going to end your suffering once and for all!" Sieger yelled as the M.P.D. opened up one final time. The device slowly began to move along the surface of the Tower, brushing past Richtofen, until it locked into place in the dead center of the rooftop platform that they were standing on.

A massive beam of light shot out from the M.P.D. as the Elemental Staff's flashed red, yellow, blue, and purple respectively and fired beams of light into the air. Richtofen slowly rose into the air, his blue eyes glowing ethereally as the energies of Agartha flowed into him. Richtofen's entire body exploded into a harsh green surging aura, his body engulfed in the incredible powers that the M.P.D. blessed him with so long ago.

"_**I am sorry…but this is the end. Come, Samantha and Sieger...Joseph and Nicholas…Let us fight until only one side stands to usher in a new era!"**_ Richtofen yelled as the storm overhead rumbled and the final battle for the fate of the world began.

End of Chapter:

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><p><em>And here we are.<em>

_The final fight…_

_The Mobsters made their sacrifice and found peace, and Green Run Crew have returned to their own world to confront Dr. Maxis, and the survivors now have to dig in their heels and hold out until the world is saved or destroyed._

_How will the fight pan out for Samantha, Nicholas, Joe, and Sieger? Will they save the world or will they witness its annihilation?_

_Stay tuned for the story's final chapter before the epilogue._

_Until then, please review. Show your support and give me your feedback! Let your thoughts be heard!_

_We're so close to the end…and like Richtofen…_

_I won't be stopped now._

_Until next time, FlygonNick out!_


	49. Finale: Tonight We All Die Young

_Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead_

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><p><em>48 chapters…<em>

_Two years, nine months and 1 day, and here we are. The finale…Chapter 49. The final fight._

_It's been a long journey, for me and you guys both. Over the course of this story, I myself have changed a great deal. I lost two very, very precious things in my life over the course of the past few years, shaping me into who I am today. This past month indeed reflects the hardship I went through when my grandmother, who I alluded to in an earlier chapter, passed away. Just 3 weeks ago, my dog died from cancer. My best friend in the whole world for ten years was taken from me…that dog pretty much raised me, and was my brother for ten entire years…_

_This month has been hard…Harder than I can put into words. I still grieve for my puppy…my best friend…_

_But the show has to go on. I had to take a break from writing to cope and deal with what I had to, and thank those of you have been patient with me. _

_So I want to say thank you. For the feedback…for the support…and for standing by me through the good and bad times. It means more to me than I can say. You guys are the absolute best fans and reviewers and readers a writers can ask for. _

_I fucking love you guys._

_Shoutout to Flameus, a Guest reviewer, Dustchu, RandomName3064, DigDugDiamond, stinkytrey, THE Jess, neophytos. vrondis, MetaKnight0011, Trapinchh, Eel3234, Mooman1706, and a new reviewer known as eaglesplayer29. You guys are the best. Seriously._

_Also, once again I want to give a shoutout to the Freelancer Collaboration and strongly urge anyone who likes Red vs. Blue to head to their page and check out their works, especially because I'm in the collab. We're recruiting soon, and anyone who reviews "Phase One: Genesis" or "Phase Two: Betrayal" gets a shoutout on all three stories from me whenever I update. Show your support and take part of the movement that is sweeping the Roosterteeth community._

_The first one of these shoutouts goes to DarkAssassin21, who I'm not sure has reviewed this story but indeed follows and favorited it and is the most recent reviewer of "Phase Two: Betrayal." Thanks for the support!_

_Also, a quick note. Nick had used both his Tombstone and his Who's Who by the time he was killed, it was a scene I hadn't put in where he saves one of the mobster's from a sniper. As for everyone else, it's what was said in previous chapters. I'm saying this because I know people are going to ask questions later._

_I debated for a while whether or not to have this song play as the final fight occurred, but the song fits my story so well and is just too awesome not to put in. So..."Archangel" does not belong to me, it belongs to Treyarch ad Kevin Sherwood. You know the drill, set up the song in another tab and play it when I say to later on in the chapter. It was a bit hard to sync up the fight with it, but I did my best._

_I'll save the rest of the AN for after the chapter!_

_Alright…after all this time, it's time for the finale to "Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead."_

_Let's get this shit done, guys._

_Enjoy._

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><p>Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead Finale<p>

Chapter 49: Tonight We All Die Young

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><p>"<em>In any story, the villain is the catalyst. The hero's not a person who will bend the rules or show the cracks in his armor. He's one-dimensional intentionally, but the villain is the person who owns up to what he is and stands by it."-<em>Marilyn Manson.

"_Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it."_― Ann Landers.

"_We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already."_ ― J.K. Rowling.

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><p>M.P.D. Tower:<p>

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><p>Richtofen fell to the ground and flung out his hands, sending several bolts of energy surging at the teens, who scattered instantly and hit the ground. Samantha and Sieger rolled to their feet and ran at Richtofen, who conjured two surging swords of raw energy and shot towards them. Samantha slashed at Richtofen with the Staff of Magnus, only for him to block it effortlessly and kick her savagely away as he twisted around to block a slash from Sieger.<p>

The two men locked eyes, both a pure blue color, before they broke apart. The two starred each other down before leaping at each other, exchanging a flurry of blows that released waves of fire and lightning with every strike, similar expressions of fury on their faces as father and son clashed.

_"Any ideas?" Nicholas asked Joe as he got to his feet, watching as Richtofen and Sieger furiously exchanged blows with screams of rage filling the night sky. Joe pulled out his Wunderwaffe DG-7 and said "A_few, but it depends on Sieger stripping away that aura of Richtofen's with his Hellfire. Same plan with Samantha, if she can use the Staff to take away Richtofen's energy while the aura is away, than we may have a shot at hurting him. That shield prevents any of our attacks from hitting him, so the best we can do is help the others get a shot at hurting him."

"It's like Porter's aura shield thing, except without an exploit." Nicholas said to Joe, who nodded. The two teens suddenly jumped apart as a massive bolt of energy ripped through where they both had been but a second before.

They saw Richtofen standing tall, with Sieger on the ground, with black flames trailing around his body as he fell onto the hard cold metal of the M.P.D Tower. Samantha suddenly rushed forward and stabbed at Richtofen, who swiftly dodged the jab and kicked Samantha in the chest hard enough to send her flying across the roof and over the edge of the Tower.

"SAMANTHA!" Sieger screamed, voice filled with horror.

"_**Hahaha…children, so foolish...You would never understand what I have lost. This world deserves to pay…"**_ Richtofen hissed as he raised his hands, two balls of surging energy forming in them before he hurled them at Nicholas and Joe.

"Ready?" Joe asked Nick as he drew back his hand.

Nicholas pulled out his Golden Spork and said "Here goes nothing!"

Nicholas lunged forward and slashed at the ball of energy, sending it hurtling back towards Richtofen, with Joe doing the same with the ball of energy that had slammed into his fist. Richtofen snarled as both energy balls slammed into him, sending him flying backwards, his aura flickering for a moment.

"Take that bitch!" Joe yelled as he took aim with the Wunderwaffe DG-7, charging up a shot and firing it at Richtofen, who let out a growl of rage as the blast slammed into him, sending waves of electricity through him.

All of a sudden a sparking green flash appeared next to Nicholas, and Samantha appeared a moment later, scowling at Richtofen as he regarded the teens with a horrible scowl of his own.

"Joe, hit him again while the shield's down!" Samantha said to the teen as she flipped the Staff of Magnus in her grip before sinking into her shadow.

Joe took aim, but Richtofen glanced at him and suddenly vanished as well in a burst of green and black lightning Joe swore softly and glanced around as Sieger said "Be alert!"

"_**No…Beware." **_

Sieger suddenly yelled out as a whirlpool of green lightning enveloped him, with Richtofen materializing into existence a moment later, looking smug. Sieger let out a yell and summoned Fatum, firing a shot at his father and shooting him in the chest, causing him to stagger back with a cry of pain.

"JOE!" Sieger yelled as he fell to one knee, placing a palm on the ground. A small wave of Hellfire enveloped him, dispelling the lightning and allowing Sieger to get to his feet.

Joe fired a ball of lightning at Richtofen, who let out a yell and smacked the lightning aside as if it were nothing. As Richtofen took a step forward, he heard the distinct sound of rushing air and ducked as a glowing blue tomahawk flew over his head. He sidestepped it as it whirled back towards Nicholas, who had drawn his Golden Spork.

"Well? I'm waiting, Doctor." Nicholas said with a small smile as he flipped the Spork in his hand. Richtofen smiled as a sword materialized in his hand, surging with energy.

Joe took aim again and charged up a shot as Richtofen lunged at Nicholas, slashing at him as the smile turned into a gleeful and sadistic grin. Nicholas barely managed to bring up his Golden Spork to block the strike that sent him to one knee with ease, but Richtofen grinned even wider as he pushed Nicholas away and said _**"Look how far we have all come…And all of it will be settled now!"**_

"Yeah…but not the way you think, Richtofen!" Nicholas barked as Samantha appeared out of the shadows, drawing back her hand holding the Staff of Magnus. Richtofen's eyes widened as the Staff passed through his aura and stabbed him in the back, causing the entire Tower to shake with his scream of agony. Richtofen swung his hand around, sending Nicholas and Samantha flying backwards with a wave of force and causing Samantha to yank the Staff free.

"H-how…that Staff!? How did you find…no…Illuzio…" Richtofen hissed as he fell to one knee, his face contorted in pain as black blood gushed from his back. The wound sealed up, but the look of shook and rage remained.

"I hate this," Sieger muttered, shaking his head. Samantha got to her feet and said "I know you do…but we have to kill him, or he'll kill all of us…he'll destroy everything."

"I know," Sieger said as he summoned Fatum and Lux to his hands, both guns glowing white in the strange light that Agartha cast down on them.

"If just one stab from the Staff of Magnus can do that much damage…" Joe said to Nicholas as he helped him to his feet.

"Then we just have to help Sam keep hitting him," Nicholas said as he put away his Golden Spork and pulled out the Porter's Mark II Ray Gun. He regarded the Wonder Weapon and said "Well….here goes nothing."

He quickly took aim as Samantha took a step back, with Sieger and Joe taking aim as well. Richtofen smirked and threw up his hands, creating a wall of static-like energy as the teens opened fire, a barrage of deadly bursts of light and bullets slamming into the barrier. Richtofen cackled and flicked his hand out, causing a tentacle of energy to suddenly snake out and shoot towards Nicholas, who jumped to the side to dodge, but the tentacle changed directions and slammed into him, impaling him violently and causing him to scream out in agony as it lifted him high into the air and ruthlessly slammed him down onto the ground. Richtofen's aura flickered back to life as his eye's flashed bright blue once more.

"Nicholas!" Samantha screamed out as her friend exploded in a series of green sparks, but Richtofen was far from done. He dispersed the wall of energy and made the remnants of the wall form into a spear in his hand, which he hurled at Joe, who held out his hands to try and absorb the blow.

"No!" Samantha yelled as she jumped in front of Joe, thrusting the Staff of Magnus at the bolt and intercepting it. Samantha then swung and Staff and redirected the bolt into the sky, where it soared out of sight.

"_**Impressive, mien Samantha." **_Richtofen said as he summoned a rod of energy that formed into a wicked looking sabre. Sieger opened fire on Richtofen, who swiftly deflected the shots with a quick series of slashes and sent an arc of lightning at Sieger, who fired a jet black fireball at the bolt and cancelled out the attack. Sieger reloaded and unloaded another series of bullets at his father, who suddenly vanished on the spot once more.

"Sieger!" Samantha called to the teen, who smiled.

"Found you." Sieger said as he dispersed Fatum and Lux and summoned Glorious to his left hand as he whirled around, slashing behind him. Richtofen suddenly appeared in a flash of green light, howling in pain as black flames raced down his body as the sword slashed him deeply in the chest.

Sieger then flipped the sword in his hand, gripping it in a backhanded fashion, and stabbed his father in the chest, causing the entire Tower to shake violently as Richtofen burst into black flames.

Richtofen then vanished on the spot…

Sieger drew the sword back and got into a stance, glancing around…There was no trace of his father anywhere…No…He had to be somewhere close…that strike had done some damage…there was-

Sieger suddenly leaned back as a fist materialized into existence in front of him, whooshing past his face and missing him by less than a millimeter. Richtofen, even as he materialized again, twisted in midair slammed his boot into the side of his son's skull with a yell, causing Sieger to go flying across the Tower and crash senselessly onto the top of the Tower. Richtofen landed on the ground with a grunt, holding his healing chest with a grimace of pain, his aura completely gone now.

"You…monster…" Samantha hissed at the Doctor as he admired the blood on his armor.

"_**I am vhat humanity has made me, Samantha. Now come! Avenge your fallen friends! Come at me vith everything you have!"**_ Richtofen barked at the daughter of Dr. Maxis, who let out a yell and shot towards Richtofen with an incredible burst of speed that Joe could barely follow.

"What did I miss?"

Joe looked behind him and saw Nicholas walking towards him, holding an M1911 and a frown. Joe then glanced at the spot here Nicholas had been struck, and saw a Tombstone perk floating above the ground. Nicholas walked over to the perk and reacquired his weapons as Samantha stabbed at Richtofen with the Staff of Magnus, only for him knock the Staff out of her hand with a quick movement and punch her in the chest, sending her crashing onto the ground with a yelp. Samantha got to her feet, holding her chest and panting now, as Richtofen cracked his knuckles, chuckling.

"_**Let us exchange blows zhee old fashioned way."**_ Richtofen said as he shot across the battlefield and closed the distance between him and Samantha within moments, punching her again. He darted forward, even as she flew back from the force of the hit, and grabbed her by the neck before throwing her across the roof of the Tower and into the M.P.D.

"Samantha!" Joe and Nicholas yelled out, opening fire on Richtofen, who disrupted the attacks with a pulse of energy before vanishing and reappearing next to Samantha's still form. Richtofen conjured a rod of black surging energy and with a horrifying smile, stabbed down at Samantha.

"SAM!" Nicholas screamed out.

Richtofen stabbed into Samantha as a spectacular flash of green and blue light blinded Richtofen. Richtofen strained to open his eyes, and after a moment he realized that he had stabbed nothing but the indestructible M.P.D, which was undamaged even from his attack.

"_**Vhere did you go!?"**_ Richtofen roared as the aura around him flickered away for a moment.

"Abracadvre."

Richtofen's eyes widened as a series of green sparks rained down from above and landed next to him, exploding violently and causing him to yell ethereally in agony. Samantha floated in the air for a moment before dropping onto the ground and into the smoke the explosion created. She heard a scream of rage and ducked as Richtofen swung at her with a rod of energy in his hand, only for her to slam her palm into his chest and send a deadly spark directly into his chest, sending him hurtling across the Tower as the point-blank explosion ripped through him. Richtofen righted himself in midair as his aura burst into existence, only for a white burst of light to slam into him from the Staff of Magnus as it appeared in Samantha's hands again, ripping away Richtofen's main line of defense once again.

"We're doing it…" Joe said with a small laugh.

"Maybe…But don't count him out yet." Nicholas muttered.

Richtofen got to his feet as Samantha ran at him, shadows swirling around her as her boots pounded against the rooftop. Samantha kicked off of the ground and soared towards Richtofen, lashing out with a kick that connected with his face and sent him slamming onto the ground, only for him to jump to his feet and punch Samantha in the chest, knocking her into the air. Richtofen grabbed her by the leg and swung her around before slamming her into the ground, only for Samantha to stab him in the chest with the Staff of Magnus, causing Richtofen to scream in agony and loosen his grip, allowing Samantha to fire another spark into him and send him flying away.

"Now! While he's weakened!" Nicholas barked as he took aim with the Porter's Mark II Ray Gun.

Nicholas fired an entire clip at Richtofen, who snarled as the crimson blasts slammed into him. He let out a shout and flung his hands towards them, sending a massive surge of energy at Nicholas, whose eyes widened in horror as the attack rushed towards him. Samantha jumped in front of him and swung the Staff of Magnus, dispelling the brunt of the attack but getting hit with the remainder, sending her falling to the ground with a yell as she jerked and convulsed in pain.

Richtofen curled his hand into a fist and said _**"Does that hurt, Samantha?"**_

The girl in question pushed herself up, growling in response, but unable to get to her feet. Richtofen laughed and said _**"Good…You will suffer, before I kill you. The others will die swiftly, but not you-"**_

"NOW!" Sieger barked. Richtofen blinked in surprise before a ball of lightning slammed into his back, causing him to roar in agony before turning around to face Joe and Nicholas, both aiming Wonder Weapons at him. Richtofen smirked and raised his hand upwards, causing a massive wave of energy to explode at Nicholas's feet, sending him flying backwards. Richtofen then turned around and held out a palm in Joe's direction before he fired a ball of pulsating and deadly energy at Joe, who fired a blast from his WunderWaffe DG-7 at the same time. Both balls of energy collided and created a wicked explosion of lightning that could be seen from all over the battlefield down below.

"_**Agh! Why do I have to keep bantering with you idiots!?" **_Richtofen snarled as he fired another blast at Joe, who threw himself to the ground this time, not having enough time to fire off another shot. Richtofen kicked off of the ground and shot into the air, flinging his hands down at Joe and directing several deadly arcs of energy at him. Joe held out his hands, hoping to absorb the energy, but a whirlwind of jet black flames suddenly writhed into existence around Joe, intercepting the attack. As Richtofen saw this happen, a surge of shimmering white light slammed into him and sent him crashing onto the ground down below with a scream.

"Sieger! Together!" Samantha said Sieger, who nodded as he flipped Glorious in his hand, causing it to burst into flames.

Sieger dashed at Richtofen with Samantha close behind, but the Doctor had gotten to his feet, a livid expression on his face as he summoned two swords of energy once more. Richtofen brought up both blades to block Samantha and Sieger's strikes, only to kick Samantha savagely in the chest and smash his other blade into Sieger's side, dispelling the Hellfire aura and sending him crashing onto the ground. Sieger however rolled to his feet, the massive slash on his side sealing up in moments, and lunged at his father, trading a series of deadly and furious blows with him and shook the top of the tower.

"_**Heh…You're a true Richtofen, my son!"**_ Richtofen laughed as Sieger forced him back a step with a deadly stab, which Richtofen parried with horrifying speed and stabbed back at his son, who blocked it and kicked Richtofen in the chest, sending him skidding backwards.

Sieger snarled and said "Don't mock me, Father! The days have passed where I would've been proud to hear that!"

"_**Very well."**_ Richtofen said as he ducked under Sieger's over-handed slash and jabbed him in the throat with his fist, dispelling the Hellfire aura once more and sending his son falling to the ground, clutching his throat. Richtofen walked over to his son and kicked him in the side, causing him to yell out and roll onto his back, writhing in pain.

"_**You will be reborn too…All will be well, my son."**_ Richtofen murmured as he raised his blade, now pointed at Sieger's heart.

"NO!" Richtofen spun around, sidestepping a stab from Samantha and grabbing her by the throat. Samantha aimed a kick at Richtofen's back, but he simply slammed his head into hers and threw her onto the ground with a disgusted look on his face. Richtofen then turned around, but saw Sieger getting to his feet, Fatum and Glorious already in his hands and aimed at Richtofen. Sieger fired off a shot, but Richtofen swiftly moved out of the way before speeding towards his son, his sword trailing behind him and scrapping the ground, and as he got closer to Sieger, slashed upwards.

Sieger brought up Glorious to block, but the force sent him flying into the air with a yell as Richtofen's body surged wildly as the M.P.D. flashed white. Richtofen's sword flickered for a moment as he looked up into the sky, panting slightly as a small smile appeared on his face.

Agartha suddenly turned black…

Black…Black as death…black as the void…

And then it began.

"W-what's going on!?" Joe yelled as he staggered to his feet, the entire Tower shaking horribly as Agartha turned crimson, bolts of energy spurting from the massive hole in the sky as Richtofen began to laugh.

"_**At last! It has been done!"**_ Richtofen yelled as he threw his hands to the sky. Sending a pulse of energy to the rift in the sky.

"No! We're out of time! Agartha…he's accessing the power within! The Gateway is open," Sieger groaned as he got to his feet as Richtofen rose high into the air.

"_**YES! DESTROY THEM ALL! ALL OF THE FILTH, ALL OF THE CORRUPTION, ALL OF THE HATE! DESTROY ALL OF THE EVIL! KILL ZHEM ALL! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"**_ Richtofen cackled as the aura around him flickered for a few moments.

"He must be feeding energy to Agartha to help keep the connection stable…this might be our chance!" Nicholas said as he got to his feet as Richtofen slowly drifted to the ground, hands still raised. He looked at the children defying him with a cold smile and said _**"It…is done."**_

"_**Within minutes, this entire plane of existence will be purged of all life…no men, women, or children will be spared. All shall die…from the most wicked and corrupt, down to the purest and most innocent…none will be spared. None will be left…this world will be nothing but an empty ball before I destroy it completely…and begin anew."**_ Richtofen said with a laugh, a note of exhaustion on his face.

Samantha's grip on the Staff of Magnus tightened as the screams of people dying echoed from the city below. Every second that passed, thousands fell to the horrible power that was Agartha, controlled by a sadistic man who was driven by hate, anger, and an overwhelming grief.

Richtofen summoned a rod of energy to both his hands and said _**"And now…it is just a matter of time. You vill fall…and so will everyone else on this miserable planet!"**_

"Father…you're not getting away with this." Sieger said as he got back to his feet, gripping Glorious tightly and causing flames to sprout alongside the blade.

"_**Then let us see who can withstand our clash of ideals, my son! Let us fight as the world crumbles away into the darkness of oblivion!"**_ Richtofen laughed as the four teens readied themselves for what was to come.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

Los Angles Battlefield:

* * *

><p>"What's going on!?" Vice yelled as the Reclaimer's screamed horribly in unison, crimson lightning striking them down and disintegrating them into nothingness. The Zombies screamed and charged forward, attacking with even greater ferocity. They were being forced back, even with the aid of the Original Trio.<p>

"Agartha…it has been activated. We are too late." Takeo murmured as he jumped back, landing in a kenjutsu stance next to Nikolai.

"This is the end, eh?" Nikolai chuckled as he took a swig of vodka from his belt.

"Maybe…Maybe not. There's still time for them to kill them…" Dempsey growled.

"It's not over yet! Not while we can still fight!" Kara barked as she ran forward. Dempsey saw a Screecher running at her and jumped back into the fray. Kara fired a stream of bullets at the undead wall around them, even as the screams of the dying increased and even as the battered survivors got ready for…

Whatever came next.

Nikolai jumped onto the roof of a destroyed car, throwing two grenades towards the approaching horde before jumping into it, punching everything in sight and mercilessly mowing down the undead with horrifying efficiency.

Takeo swiftly darted back into the fight, his flaming katana easily ripping through the undead like their skin was made of paper. Chan ran after him, wildly slashing with her blades as well and dismembering the undead with a wild look on her face, as opposed to the fierce calm that Takeo's face wore.

Dempsey tossed the empty Lamentation to the ground and lashed out with his fist, slamming it into violently into the head of another Screecher and sending to oblivion with a yell of fury. He glanced to his side and saw Kara being forced back due to her running out of ammo as well, being forced to resort to a machete that she had acquired. Dempsey saw a Juggernaut Zombie pounding its way towards her, but she hadn't noticed.

"Kara! DROP!" Dempsey yelled as he ran towards his daughter, who threw herself to the ground as Dempsey jumped over her, leaping high into the air as the Juggernaut pounded towards her. Dempsey drew his fist back as the Juggernaut came into range and threw it forward as the Juggernaut threw its fist at him. The two fists collided, and after a moment the Zombie's arm gave way, causing the Zombie to stumble backwards with a growl. Dempsey dropped to the ground as a symtex grenade latched onto the Juggernaut's head, courtesy of his Kara, which caused the Zombie to lower its head enough for Dempsey to punch as hard as he could, killing the Zombie instantly.

"Nice punch Dad." Kara said with a grin. Dempsey shrugged as he walked over to his daughter, hugging her with one arm.

"Maybe…I'm proud of ya. You know that right?" Dempsey said in a low voice.

Kara smiled and said "Of course I know that. It's what kept me and the girls going all this time."

"Hmm?"

"We know that you, Uncle Takeo, and Uncle Nikolai were once a part of something bigger. You're at the root of all of this, just like Richtofen is. You guys…You give us hope." Kara said as she gestured to the others, who were fighting tooth and nail against the rampaging undead.

"You guys are and will always be heroes. We're proud to be your daughters, not just because of who you were and what you did…but what you taught us…How to protect the weak, how to fight with our heads and with honor. How to stand up for what's right…and how to kick ass, of course." Kara said to her father. Dempsey raised a hand and affectionately ruffled her hair, staining it with blood.

"You'll do fine, kid. Now…LET'S KEEP UP THE PRESSURE!" Dempsey bellowed as he turned around to face the approaching horde once more.

"OOORAAAAAAHHH!" Kara bellowed as she and her father charged into the fray once more.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

M.P.D. Tower F2:

* * *

><p>"Just stay down!" Steiner barked as Andrew slammed into the wall with a yell, crashing to the ground a moment later. Steiner regarded his broken and bleeding body with a wince, having an entire arm ripped off and being fairly torn up. However, he regarded Andrew with a grin as he pulled a combat knife out of his boot, jagged and covered in gore. His right arm was dislocated completely and he was low on ammo, on top of the bruises and the cuts he had already been given.<p>

"Not…a chance." Andrew muttered, getting to his feet, his sword point resting on the ground. Steiner chuckled as he sent another tentacle at Andrew, who let out a yell and shot forward, stabbing at the tentacle. Andrew met resistance, but slashed to the side anyway and watched with grim satisfaction as Steiner yelled out in pain. The scientist then darted forward himself and kicked out at Andrew, who ducked under the kick and stabbed at Steiner, who blocked the stab effortlessly with a combat knife and kicked Andrew to the ground.

"You just had to keep going, didn't you? You couldn't just let us burn the world to the ground and become all powerful…Please, indulge me for just a moment…exactly did you hope to accomplish again?" Steiner asked Andrew with a laugh.

"Well…I was going to shove my sword down your throat, for one," Andrew growled as he tried to sit up. Steiner smirked as his last three tentacles hovered above him menacingly. Steiner placed his boot on Gutripper…and Andrew felt a pang of fear…and then he smiled as his hand brushed something clipped to his belt…something Steiner didn't know he had...

"_Steiner is all bark and no bite. He's also got the smallest fuse ever." _Sieger's words rang in his head.

"You're done. You're all alone…You've barely got the energy to get to your feet." Steiner laughed.

"At least I'm not Richtofen's bottom bitch," Andrew said with a small smirk. Steiner blinked in surprise before he let out a snarl and threw himself at Andrew, forgetting his own powers. Andrew pulled out a black pistol and held down the trigger, unloading the entire clip of a Calamity into Steiner's chest and ripping through his zombified flesh like it was nothing.

"W-what? Where did you get that from?" Steiner rasped as Andrew scooped up his sword and ran at Steiner, who growled and flung a tentacle at Andrew, who jutted to the side and avoided the tentacle, and swung as hard as he could with Gutripper at the middle of Steiner's neck.

"N-no! NOT AGAIN!" Steiner screamed as Andrew's sword slammed into his neck, slicing through his neck and sending his head flying through the air and onto the ground. Steiner's body fell to the ground as Andrew turned to the head and tossed a grenade at it.

"Oh…Son of a bitch-" Steiner sighed before the explosion ripped his head apart, and a moment later a purple wraith slowly flowed out from the smoke and floated in front of Andrew before soaring through the ceiling…

"Its going to Agartha…agh!" Andrew yelled as he legs gave out. Andrew fell onto the ground, but after a few moments pulled himself into a sitting position, propping himself against the wall.

"Alright…Liam…Nick…that was for you…" Andrew panted as he closed his eyes and rested against the wall.

_Andrew regarded the fallen form of Nick, who seemed strangely peaceful in death, for a moment before bending down and picking up his Calamity and Jane. He handed the other to Samantha, who silently accepted the weapon. He clipped the gun silently to his belt and got ready to go into the Tower to confront the man who had caused all of this_…

"I just hope everyone else is OK…" Andrew muttered as the Tower shuddered violently.

* * *

><p>M.P.D. Tower F3:<p>

* * *

><p>"Not bad at all! Keep it up guys!" Kraken said cheerfully as he phased out of the wall, his right arm falling off and landing on the ground. He pulled out a grenade and threw it towards the downed form of Jess, who yelped and kicked the grenade away from her as she scrambled to her feet. Kraken was quick though, and was within range in just moments, savagely kicking her in the chest and sending her crashing onto a nearby console with a cry of pain.<p>

"Jess!" Marcus growled, firing his pistol at Kraken as he faded back into the walls.

"Come out and fight you bastard!" Marcus yelled furiously.

"Sure thing!"

Marcus tensed and suddenly sidestepped, avoiding Kraken's boot by a mere millimeter. Kraken soared through the room but flipped in midair, landing on the side of the wall. He laughed as Marcus fired a shot at him, blowing off a small bit of flesh.

"Come now! Is that all you have!?" Kraken laughed as he kicked off of the wall, and landing on the ground. Marcus growled as he tossed his empty pistol to the ground and pulled out a machete, trying to draw Kraken away from Jess.

"Ooh…this is gonna be fun!" Kraken laughed as he shot towards Marcus, who stabbed at him. Kraken phased through Marcus and became solid as he appeared behind him, grabbing him by the arm and twisting it savagely and breaking it, causing him to yell out and fall to the ground.

"See? Told you-" Kraken said before an arrow slammed into his stomach and passed right through him, tearing a hole through his body. Kraken turned around, bending down to pick up Marcus's fallen machete, and regarded the beaten and panting girl in front of him with a smirk.

"Sorry…But orders are orders." Kraken said as he shot forward, ducking under an arrow and grabbing Jess by the neck and throwing her to the ground.

"N-no!" Marcus growled as he tried to get into an upright position. Kraken kicked Jess on the ground for a few moments before he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, so that she was facing Marcus.

"Ma…Marcus…" Jess murmured weakly as Kraken drew his hand back, machete in hand and horror filling Marcus's heart.

"JESS!" Marcus screamed as Kraken slammed the blade through Jess's chest before violently ripping it free. Jess crumpled to the floor facedown as Marcus yelled out again, only for Kraken to violently kick the injured teen to the side.

"How does it feel…losing someone precious? Now you know the pain we, Group 935, have felt…your friends will fall….this world will fall…" Kraken picked up his machete and slammed his foot down on Marcus's ribcage, causing him to scream in agony.

"And in the end…You fall-" Kraken said before he stiffened up. He shuddered as he looked down, and Marcus gaped in surprise as Kraken poked the tip of the arrowhead sticking out of his chest before he said "Well…that's all folks."

Kraken then fell to the ground, his body crumpled onto the ground, disintegrating even as the blue wraith flowed at of his body and towards Agartha, a faint laugh echoing through the room. Marcus looked over and smiled weakly at Jess, who beamed at Marcus and said "Miss me?"

"H-how?" Marcus asked faintly as Jess walked over to him, completely unmarked and looking as though she had never even fought.

"Who's Who. He was so focused on you he didn't even notice me." Jess explained as she knelt down by Marcus and pulled out her Quick Revive kit, and got to work healing Marcus.

"Hey…Jess?"

"Yeah?"

Marcus closed his eyes and said "Thanks for everything."

Jess grinned and said "Don't thank me, thank FlygonNick."

"…"

"Did I kill the mood?" Jess asked Marcus, who simply sighed and passed out.

* * *

><p>M.P.D. Tower F4:<p>

* * *

><p>"And now I'm out of ammo for this. Awesome." John sighed angrily as he put away his Winter's Fury, pulling out his Colt Commando as Saem got back to his feet.<p>

"That…Will be the last time you get a shot in." Saem growled as he picked up another console and hurled it at John, who threw himself to the ground as the projectile flew through the air and slammed into the wall. Judith pulled herself up, eyeing her broken Dead Specimen Reactor with a grimace, and took aim with the Scavenger once more, lining up the sights and firing a bolt at Saem, who exploded with a yell but began to heal form his injuries once again.

"We've got to damage him to the point where he can't recover." John said as he took aim and opened fire on the Group 935 scientist, who growled and began to glow bright silver as he took damage.

"Maybe I can distract him while you try and get another good shot on him….Though he'd just recover again." John muttered as Saem snarled at the two teens as he reached for a grenade and hurled it at them, only for John to shoot it in midair before it reached them.

"He's weakening though, and its taking longer and longer for him to heal his wounds. If I can just hit him in the head again-" Judith began to say before Saem suddenly charged at them with a roar.

"Judith! Get out of the way!" John yelped as Saem reached John and grabbed him by the arm before hurling him across the room, causing him to slam violently into the wall. John fell to the ground as Saem approached him, but noticed Judith taking aim…He just had to keep him distracted so she could get the perfect shot.

"Hey Saem…why did Richtofen bring you back, only to use you as cannon fodder?" John asked with a small laugh.

Saem snarled at John and said "Shut the hell up, worm!"

"No way, I can see right through you. The big bad weapons expert is nothing but a mere pawn to someone like Richtofen-" John began to say before Saem picked up John and slammed him into the wall with a yell, breaking several bones in John's back, causing him to scream in pain.

"Yes…scream for me, kid. I want to make you suffer before I rip your head off." Saem snarled.

"Take it…Just do it…" John rasped as he glanced at Judith, who hadn't fired yet. Saem grabbed John's arm and snapped it in half, causing him to scream in agony as Saem raised his foot and slammed it down on John's kneecap, breaking it as well.

"Yes! It hurts, doesn't it!?" Saem cackled as he kicked John in the stomach, causing John to scream again.

"I…I can't do this. John can't fight anymore…it all comes down to this last shot…its too much…" Judith said as her hands began to shake ever so slightly. She just couldn't do it…the pressure…it-

"_Sometimes you just gotta dig deep and believe in yourself. Ya know?"_

Judith blinked in surprise as a small voice spoke to her in her head, so familiar…

Liam had said that to her one day in band camp, when she was having trouble with a particular maneuver and was getting frustrated. Thinking she could never pull it off, she had stormed off the field. It was Liam that had found her and told her that…

Even if he wasn't here right now…He still believed in her.

Judith took a deep breath and exhaled as she lined up the scope with Saem's head and fired as he drew his fist back one final time. The bolt soared across the room and slammed into the back of Saem's skull and went through the front of his face. Saem's eyes starred at the bolt, now inside of him, and let out a yell before an explosion ripped him apart, spattering the walls with carrion. John fell to the ground with a groan as Judith lowered her rifle, smiling a bit now as she made her way to John to patch him up as Saem's soul flew up to Agartha.

She knew that somewhere, Liam was watching and he was damned proud of her.

* * *

><p>M.P.D. Tower F5:<p>

* * *

><p>Jackson ducked as Iva slashed at him and kicked her in the side before spinning around and turning into a massive anaconda, lunging at Juliet who let out a yell and slashed at the massive snake with her chainsaw, only for him to explode in a shower of green flames.<p>

"Fight like a man, Jackson!" Iva barked.

"Very well. I grow tired of this game as well."

Jackson suddenly appeared in front of Juliet before darting forward, punching her in the stomach and knocking the wind out of her before Jackson spun around, kicking her in the side of the head. Juliet toppled to the ground with a groan as Jackson aimed his Wave Guns at Iva, who opened fire with her Afterburner and disarmed the scientist.

"Clever little girl…Who'd have thought that the most dim-witted of the men who fought alongside Master Richtofen would have produced such an intelligent and skilled daughter?" Jackson laughed as he vanished once more. Iva suddenly sprayed the room with bullets, hoping to hit the hiding scientist, but to no avail.

"I wonder what it'll be like once Richtofen kills you all…Just imagine it, all those people dead…all of your friends…your precious father will dead as well…" Jackson whispered to her.

"Shut up!" Iva yelled.

"Hahahaha…Oh, how easy it is to rile the heartstrings of the weak-minded. You're nothing to me, little girl…"

Iva heard the sound of whooshing and ducked as a combat knife flew by her and embedded itself in the wall in front of her. Iva spun around and opened fire on Jackson, who yelled out as the bullets ripped through him. Jackson's body burst into green flames as he vanished once more.

"This is getting really old!" Iva yelled. Iva then looked over at Juliet, who had gotten to her feet now, albeit dazed.

"You OK?" Iva asked the blond.

"Yeah…I've got a plan." Juliet muttered to Iva, who nodded.

"We've got to surprise him. He can prepare himself each time we hit him, so we can't give him the chance to prepare. We have to catch him off guard." Juliet said to Iva, who smiled widely at that.

"Attack Plan 43?" Iva suggested.

"That'll work." Juliet said as she revved her chainsaw, grinning painfully despite the concussion and room spinning around her. Jackson reappeared next to Iva and stabbed at her with his staff-blade, which she barely blocked, and the two remained locked as their weapons grinded against one another as the two fought for leverage.

"Fools…the lot of you are just fools…Richtofen will change the world, don't you see it? He'll make it was it should be…free of the idiotic heathens that are destroying it," Jackson growled.

"You mean like you?" Iva spat.

"How dare you!?" Jackson growled as he pushed Iva to the ground roughly, drawing his hand back and readying himself to stab the downed girl.

"DASH!"

"What the-AAAAAGGGHHHHHH!" Jackson screamed as Juliet soared towards him, having ran up to him while he was taunting Iva, and stabbed her chainsaw into his chest, ripping mercilessly through his body and through his skull. Jackson's scream echoed for a moment…

And then silence.

"And now…I will collapse." Juliet said as she fell to her knees, sighing as she fell to the ground and watching Jackson's soul float towards the sky. Iva crawled over to her friend, now feeling the effects of the battle with Jackson, and smiled a bit as Juliet starred up at her.

"How do you think they're doing?" Juliet asked quietly.

"They'll be OK…" Iva said as she looked up at the ceiling, which was shaking violently.

"_Please…please be OK."_ Iva thought as she closed her eyes.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile:<p>

* * *

><p>"Keep shooting!"<p>

"Damn it, Clark get back! I've got this!"

"Elena, Mal, Kevin, you three get back! Frag out!"

The group of musicians burst out onto the roof, panting and sporting various cuts and injuries. It had been a spur of the moment decision, to either fight things out like the others as the battle reached its climax…

Or preform at the battle and by the first to sing of humanity's victory, or let this song be their last. Elena walked over to the end of the building, and then smiled at the battle going on below and said "They're fighting so hard. Even Richtofen has to watch us as we fight. Acknowledge us as a threat."

"It's up to those kids now, Elena." Clark said in a low voice.

"Yep." Kevin Sherwood said as he walked through the doorway, Galil in hand. He allowed a few of the technicians to run by and continue setting up the equipment, regarding the battle with a frown.

"Imagine…A world of peace. A kingdom of perfection…Crazy, isn't it?" Kevin said as he crossed his arms.

"Maybe…But even after Richtofen falls, it should still be something to strive for." Malukah said as she looked up at the M.P.D. Tower, and Agartha.

The group began to pitch in, and soon the performance was ready to begin. Elena, Clark, and Malukah stood near their microphones, even as the undead and gunfire screamed around them.

"What if they attack while we're preforming?" Malukah asked the others.

"Then we'll go down together." Elena said softly as she raised the microphone to her lips, a smile on her face as the drummer got ready. One last song. The finale to melodies that had accompanied the story that they had followed for quite some time, and would see play out in front of them for good once and for all

* * *

><p>M.P.D. Tower:<p>

* * *

><p>Richtofen jumped out of range of Sieger's slash while sending an arc of energy at Nicholas, who brought up Aegis to block. The impact still sent him flying backwards and crashing onto the ground.<p>

"_**Why do you fight!? This world has forsaken you! Evil and corruption run rampant while the good suffer! More like Izzy die-"**_ Richtofen began to say before Samantha said "Because anyone can change Edward."

"_**Lies."**_ Richtofen snarled.

"You did." Samantha replied coldly. Richtofen scoffed and said _**"Maybe I have. In the end, it doesn't matt-**_

"No, it does! You've proven our point better than anyone else. You were once a good person, Uncle Edward. You helped my father, you were a good man…You were like family to me!" Samantha yelled at Richtofen, who blinked in surprise. It something that was easy for her to say, but the truth in her words was unavoidable. He had doted on Samantha, and it wasn't just out of malice that Samantha had called him Uncle Edward…

"And then you had to go and touch that evil little Pyramid behind you…and then all of the hate, rage, and pain filled inside of it came crashing down on all of us." Samantha said to the new Leader of Group 935, who looked away from her.

"You directed that hate towards me and my dad…you let that evil thing behind you manipulate your frustrations and fears and anger…You were good, once, Uncle Edward…and then you changed." Samantha said coldly.

"And then he changed again, once Group 935 was rebuilt and Samantha and the others were out of the picture. He met Izzy and fell in love with my mother…you changed again, Father…you wanted to help make the world better, don't you remember? Group 935's goal was to improve the human condition, not destroy it," Sieger said to his father, who closed his eyes.

"_**All I ever wanted…all I ever really cared about…has been torn from me. Again…and again…and again..." **_Richtofen murmured. He then looked towards Agartha and said_** "First my family…and then my pride…then my power…"**_ Richtofen closed his eyes, and for a moment Sieger lowered his weapon.

"_**And after that, my reason for being a better man. Izzy was the light I had searched for. She was the catalyst to my happiness…Sophia…and you, Sieger, would not have been possible without her…" **_Richtofen said softly as he opened his eyes once more, fire in them. A resolve to do what must be done, no matter what the cost.

"_**I may be capable of change, but that does not mean that an entire planet is able to change as well. I have wavered between good and evil…but I know my fate. I will become a god and rip this planet apart bit by pathetic bit!"**_ Richtofen said as his voice became furious once more.

He then threw his hands to the sky and Samantha yelled "Get ready guys!"

_**(Begin playing "Archangel", by Kevin Sherwood, Clark S. Nova, Malukah, and Elena Siegman.)**_

"_Is that…music?" _Nicholas thought as Richtofen suddenly threw down his hands, sending waves of air rippling towards them as the air around them crackled with energy.

"_**ENOUGH TALK! THIS SHALL BE SETTLED NOW!"**_ Richtofen roared as his aura began to glow bright green, his entire skeleton becoming visible as threads of black terrible energy from the M.P.D. and Agartha flowed into him. His aura vanished completely, as the skeletal monster that was Edward Richtofen bellowed furiously into the night, a scream of rage and misery.

_In disguise in the skies,_

_burns a fire in my eyes,_

_and I'm holding the world in my hand._

Samantha shot towards Richtofen, who hurled ten bolts of black lightning at her. Samantha vanished in a flash of green sparks, spinning the Staff of Magnus wildly in her hands as she drew close to Richtofen and slashed at him, cutting him in the chest and causing him to roar as he sent an arc of energy at Samantha, blasting her away.

_So contorted and twisted,_

_condemned and submissive._

_When they kneel they'll know where I stand._

_Yeah!_

"**You've been a thorn in my side for the last time, Samantha!" **Richtofen roared as he lunged at Samantha, only for a plume of black fire to slam into him. Sieger appeared in a burst of flames and stabbed and slashed at his father before kicking him savagely in the chest, sending him skidding backwards with a roar.

_Rise again!_

_On my own…_

Richtofen flung out his arms and sent a tidal wave of lightning at Sieger, who thrust both hands out and retaliated with a flurry of deadly black fire at Richtofen, cancelling the attacking out.

_Now we are!_

_Coming home…_

_It all ends!_

Samantha darted forward as the 115 energies and the Hellfire dispersed, and ran right at Richtofen, who she restrained by quickly ensnaring him with shadows as she flew towards him.

_Painfully and slow…_

_I'll bring them down on my own!_

Samantha slammed her fist into Richtofen's face, sending him flying into the M.P.D, causing him to crash into it with a yell. Richtofen then kicked off of the device, sending an arc of energy at Samantha in midair that sent her to the ground with a scream of pain. Richtofen appeared above her a moment later, grabbing her by the throat and ruthlessly squeezing her windpipe.

"No! Samantha!" Nicholas screamed as Richtofen slammed her violently into the ground, laughing manically before Sieger appeared and stabbed at Richtofen, who let go of Samantha and jumped back, sending an arc of energy at his son, who blocked with Glorious, parting the deadly lightning and sending a spear of flames at Richtofen, who yelled out in agony as the flames ripped by him, searing and burning him. Richtofen lunged at Sieger, only for a glowing blue tomahawk to fly by him and slam into his shoulder, sending him flying back.

_First to go!_

_first to go…_

_Last to know!_

_last to know…_

_Always the only one I control…_

"_**DIE!"**_ Richtofen screamed, sending three bolts of energy at Nicholas, who threw up Aegis again.

_Lashing out!_

_Lashing out…_

The bolts ripped through the shield as Nicholas went to the ground, eyeing the destroyed shield on his arm with horror as Richtofen conjured a sword out of the energies around him.

_Giving in!_

_Giving in …_

_Then letting go to begin again._

Richtofen lunged at Nicholas, who barely dodged the first slash and brought up his Golden Spork to block the second before Samantha jumped in with the Staff of Magnus, slashing at Richtofen and cutting his hip deeply and causing the energies around him to flicker. Richtofen flung down his hands and sent everyone crashing to the ground with raw force.

_Letting go…_

_Letting go now…_

"_**I VILL NOT BE STOPPED! BEGONE SAMANTHA!" **_Richtofen roared as a series of green and black lightning bolts rained from the sky.

_Letting go…_

_My mind's corrupt…_

Samantha dashed and weaved as she ran at Richtofen, lunging at him with the Staff of Magnus, only to be thrown aside with a swat of his hand. Richtofen let out a scream as the energies from Agartha began to swirl around him, making his body grow larger and stronger. However, as this happened, the four Elemental Staffs were released from their pedestals, falling onto the ground and glowing bright white.

"They sense the Staff! Sam, we've got to get the Staff's to fuse their power with Staff of Magnus!" Sieger yelled as he jumped forward, picking up the Fire Staff and taking aim.

_ Our souls corrode…_

_It's how we'll all end up._

Sieger fired a trio of fire balls at Richtofen as Nicholas grabbed the Staff of Ice and fired a burst of icy energy at Richtofen, who roared as the two elements slammed into him.

_Burning down._

_Caving in._

Joe scooped up the Staff of Lightning and fired a bolt at Richtofen, who swung his arm around and sent a bolt of lightning at Joe, who swung the Staff at the bolt and sent it straight at Agartha. Samantha took aim with the Staff of Magnus as she used a shadow tendril to grab the Staff of Wind.

_Die by fire and begin again._

_What breaks my pride,_

_will break your skull._

"TOGETHER!" Samantha yelled as pointed both Staffs at Richtofen and fired them both at Richtofen, with the others doing so a moment later.

_I bring the end,_

_just like an archangel._

Richtofen screamed at the combined force of the Staff's ripping through him, tearing away at his skin and making the energies around him dissipate. As the flames, ice, and lightning faded away Samantha suddenly appeared in his face and drew her hand back before throwing it forward, punching Richtofen in the face and sending him rocketing backwards.

_All the ruptured existence,_

_disdain life persistence._

_The wheel won't be turning for long…_

_No…_

Richtofen righted himself in midair and hurled a ball of energy at Samantha, who screamed out as it slammed into her and sent her crashing senseless to the ground. Joe ran forward with a yell, firing the WunderWaffe at the Leader of Group 935, who growled as the lightning crashed into him. Nicholas ran over to his friend, unloading an entire clip from his Speakeasy at Richtofen as well_._

_And I need!_

_Carrion…_

"_**Foolish children! How bravely you stand up to me and destruction!" **_Richtofen snarled as he sent an arc of lightning towards the two teens.

"Nicholas! Get back!" Joe yelled as he tossed the WunderWaffe to the side and held his hands out.

_Now I am!_

_Coming home…_

Joe yelled out as the energy slammed into the Fists of Thor, but amazingly managed to hold off the massive amount of energy surging towards him. Nicholas gaped in surprise as Sieger rushed over to Samantha to try and revive her.

_Running from…_

_I'm becoming one…_

"_**Impressive. Let's take things up a notch, ja?"**_Richtofen laughed as the energy shooting towards Joe doubled. Joe let out a scream as the Fists of Thor suddenly flashed bright blue and the energy he was holding back rushed forward, breaking off to the left and enveloping his arm. Joe howled in agony as he fell to the ground, his arm disintegrating before his eyes.

_I'll bring you down on my own__!_

"Joe!" Nicholas yelled as he ran to his best friend. Nicholas pulled out a Quick Revive syringe and injected the wound, which at this point was a charred and bloody stump where an arm used to be.

_Yeah__!_

_Letting go…_

"You bastard!" Nicholas yelled as he threw the syringe to the ground and aimed his Speakeasy, firing a stream of bullets at Richtofen, who laughed and held at his hand, charging up a ball of energy that began to pulsate wildly.

_Letting go now…_

_Letting go,_

_Now pain erupts,_

Joe rolled onto his back and tried to sit up, using his remaining arm to prop himself up. He noticed Sieger helping Samantha to her feet, with her and Sieger talking quickly to each other.

"_I hope they've got a plan…" _Joe thought his hand gripped the Staff of Lightning.

_And time is slowed_

_It's how we'll all end up_

Richtofen fired the ball of energy at Nicholas, who pulled out the Golden Spork and slashed at the ball as it soared towards him, with the Wonder Weapon sending Richtofen's ball of energy back at him. Richtofen knocked the ball of energy aside like it was nothing and shot towards Nicholas like a dart.

_Burning down…_

_Caving in…_

_Die by fire and_

_begin again…_

Richtofen was suddenly blasted with a series of fireballs and air blasts before a white bolt of lightning slammed into him, causing him to scream in agony and crash onto the ground. Nicholas looked behind him to see Samantha on her feet with Sieger by her side.

"Quickly! We have to have all four Staffs power the Staff of Magnus!" Samantha yelled.

"_**NO!"**_ Richtofen snarled as he fired an arc of lightning at Samantha, despite the blood streaming down his chest. Sieger threw himself in front of her and slashed at the bolt, but the bolt was too powerful for even him and struck him right in the chest, sending him flying backwards.

_What breaks my pride,_

_will break your skull._

_I bring the end_

_just like an archangel!_

"NO!" Samantha screamed as Sieger crashed onto the ground, unmoving. Richtofen smiled with triumph as he raised his hands to the heavens, causing Agartha to swell and roil and have even more energy pour out of the hole in the sky.

"Samantha! The Staff's! They're our only chance!" Nicholas yelled to Samantha, who nodded. Richtofen then flung his hands down as crimson bolts of lightning rained down from Agartha at Samantha, who sank into her shadow to avoid the strikes who's shockwaves sent Nicholas airborne and falling onto the ground.

_Why do we end up here_

_Live in fire and feel so cold_

_ O O _

"Nicholas!" Samantha yelled as she appearing from the shadows and firing a spark at Richtofen, who was unfazed by the attack as his aura turned black. Samantha snatched up the Staff of Wind at her feet and glanced at Nicholas as Richtofen attacked with the energies from Agartha once more.

_We burn together forever_

_waiting for the one…_

"SAM!" Nicholas yelled, hurling the Staff of Ice at Samantha, who used her shadows to draw the other Staff's together. Richtofen let out a yell as Samantha caught the Ice Staff and pressed the five staffs together as the Staff of Magnus flashed white, and as Samantha fired all four Staff's into the Staff of Magnus, a wicked sonic boom of white light engulfed her, dispelling the crimson bolts of Agartha.

"_**NOOOO!"**_ Richtofen screamed as he threw dozens of bolts of energy at her, only for them to part around her effortlessly.

Samantha's entire body burst into a series of golden light as the four staff's began to circle around her, spinning wildly. The Staff of Magnus shimmered in her grasped as she held it high. The four Elemental Staffs merged with the Staff of Magnus, which was now entirely white. As Samantha leveled the glowing Staff at Richtofen, two snow white wings gracefully sprouting from her back as chills shot down Richtofen's spine.

"_**No…NO!"**_ Richtofen yelled as Samantha smiled widely, the chorus singing in the background as she tightened her grip on the Staff of Magnus, looking over at the downed forms of Sieger, Nicholas, and Joe.

She remembered Liam falling backward as a bullet ripped through his body while Harvey Yena grinned maniacally, warped by the horrors of Element 115 and the grief of losing Izzy…

She remembered Sophia shattering the Soul Gem that had contained Dr. Maxis…her father…the man who had caused them all so much pain, but even then, she wasn't mad at him…she would miss him, despite everything. Despite the hell he had put her through, she still loved him.

She remembered Nick being punched by the very man in front of her, being destroyed by the very touch of Richtofen…She remembered the laughs everyone shared, and jokes played at his expense…in the end, he was a hero like the rest of them…

She remembered all who had fallen at the hands of the Doctor, and knew that the events that had transpired were the actions of a man who had been twisted by anger and grief.

She would end his misery. Here and now.

_Letting go… _

_Letting go now…_

Richtofen fired a nonstop stream of energy at Samantha, but the full power of the Staff of Magnus easily dissipated all of his attacks. Richtofen, for the first time this fight…felt fear.

"_**No…Not after all this…"**_ Richtofen whispered as Samantha lowered the Staff. She suddenly vanished in a flash of light, appearing behind Richtofen and slamming her foot into his back, sending him flying across the Tower.

_Letting go,_

_Our time is up_

"_You're done, Uncle Edward."_ Samantha said in ethereal voice.

_Dust from our bones,_

_this time we don't wake up._

"_**WE SHALL SEE ABOUT ZHAT!"**_Richtofen bellowed as he lunged at her, slamming his fist into Samantha's face. Samantha staggered backwards for lunging at Richtofen, stabbing him in the chest with the Staff of Magnus, but even as he opened his mouth to scream Samantha, Samantha had pulled out the Staff and kicked him savagely in the chest_._

_Finding out_

_Where you've been_

_Wait in silence,_

_and begin again_

Richtofen crashed onto the ground and rolled to his feet, only for Samantha to slash him from shoulder to hip with the glowing Staff, ripping away the power inside of him and causing agony to rip through him.

_I'll take my time_

_to make you fall_

_Pass through your head_

_at just the right angle…_

Samantha slammed her boot into Richtofen's chest, breaking several rips clean in half as she twirled the Staff around and slashed him across the chest before stabbing him in chest and firing a white bolt of energy into his chest, causing him to go flying into the MP.D.

Richtofen crashed onto the cold device, panting and bleeding heavily as he regarded the young woman in front of him, starring him down.

_Falling down!_

_Giving in!_

_Burn the liars and_

_begin again! _

Samantha flipped the Staff in her hands as she kicked off the ground, shooting into the air as she drew her hand back. Richtofen's eyes widened in horror as she drew her hand back and dove at him like a bullet.

_What fills your pride,_

_will make you fall ._

_I am the end,_

_A fucking archangel! _

Samantha thrust her hand forward and stabbed Richtofen square in the chest with the Staff of Magnus, piercing the indestructible M.P.D and sinking the Staff halfway into it. Richtofen screamed as his body slammed into the M.P.D, which shuddered horribly as the Staff of Magnus flashed bright white.

Richtofen leaned forward, reaching towards Samantha, but felt the horrible pain intensify as he fell back, blood flowing from his mouth. The sound of cracking filled the air, and Richtofen's eyes slowly fell on the M.P.D., which to his horror was slowly…breaking?

Cracks were spreading throughout the indestructible device, and as Richtofen looked back at the teens in front of him, another shuddering breath escaped his throat.

"You're done," Samantha whispered as she let go of the Staff of Magnus, which was now stuck inside of the M.P.D. Samantha took a step back and fell backwards, only for an exhausted Sieger to catch her.

"You…fools…" Richtofen rasped harshly. Samantha was set on her feet while Sieger looked at his father with a sad expression, misery and guilt evident on his face.

"Dad…I'm so sorry." Sieger said quietly as he walked close to his father.

"Victor…Why…Why her…why Samantha?" Richtofen asked his son, confusion and hurt in his voice.

Sieger sighed and knelt down to his father, looking him in the eyes. "Because…You ever learned to let go. Let go of the hate. Let go of the pain. Let go of all of the things that keep you from being the person you can truly be, father…You shined like the sun, once…And then you fell once you let pain and grief twist you into this…"

"Maybe…" Richtofen murmured as he reached for the Staff of Magnus, which sparked violently and burned his hand as it made contact with the legendary staff.

"It would seem…as though this is where my legacy will end…the world will continue to rot…continue to suffer…just as I have…Just as Izzy did…" Richtofen said as he closed his eyes, bitterness and anger in his voice.

"_Papa…"_

A glowing white wraith flowed from the M.P.D., flying out and floating around the teens for a moment before floating in front of Richtofen, whose eyes were widened in awe and horror. The white light began to take form, and became a young woman with dark hair and a peaceful and kind face that smiled down at the beaten and dying scientist.

"_Hi Papa…"_ Izzy said quietly to her adoptive father, who shook his head in disbelief.

"All zhis time…Izzy…" Richtofen whispered hoarsely.

"Wait…what? I thought she was dead?" Joe muttered weakly.

"Her soul has been trapped in a soul gem all this time. The gem must have shattered when the Staff of Magnus pierced the M.P.D. and released her." Sieger said quietly, starring at his adoptive sister in shock.

The spirit smiled and _"Papa…You've been through so much, because of me. I'm so sorry, Papa…I'm sorry you had to suffer so much."_

"But why…Why didn't you ever speak to me? I tried…I-" Richtofen coughed violently then, his eyes flashing green for a moment as he took a slow breath.

"_Because you went down a dark path, Papa. I couldn't walk with you, or anyone else, down it. I could only hide and wait for the day that you would see what I truly wanted…A world of acceptance. Of hope, of peace, and love."_ Izzy said as she knelt down to Richtofen. She reached up to his face and gently placed a hand on her father's cheek and said _"But you let my death hurt you, and take you down a path of hate and destruction. You went down that path once again…And took everyone else with you down it as well."_

"You were my world, Izzy…You showed me so much…I-" Richtofen began to say before he was cut off.

"_I know, Papa…But it's time to let go. Let go…and begin again."_ Izzy said as she turned around to face the teens. She looked at Sieger and said _"I'm sorry Sieger…Samantha. Joseph and Nicholas…this was all my fault. Please forgive Papa-No…Please forgive Doctor Richtofen. His cause was just, but the way he chose to go about fulfilling my dreams…was not what I wanted."_

"Izzy…What are you saying?" Sieger asked his adoptive sister.

"_I was a fool…I thought he could learn to forgive and let go on his own. He had bested his past once before, and I thought he could do the same with me…But I was a fool…My death caused so much pain, to everyone in Group 935…You loved me too much…too much to let me go."_

"_Papa…I…I'm so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?"_ Izzy whispered to Richtofen, who closed his eyes.

"Izzy…Of course I do…You wanted to me to become better, like the very world you wanted to change…I just couldn't, though…All I thought about was losing you…losing my hope for the future. I wanted this world to burn…down to the ashes for what it did to you…But in the end, I wanted your world, Izzy…I wanted your death not to be in vain…I wanted your spirit to live on in that new world." Richtofen rasped.

"_I know…But more death and destruction cannot be the soil from which a truly perfect world to grow from."_ Izzy said as she turned to the M.P.D.

"_Looks like we have company."_ Izzy said quietly as she stepped away from Richtofen, who looked at the young woman with confusion.

"_Edward."_

A purple and red wraith floated down from above, landing next to Izzy. Richtofen let out another cough as Sophia stepped forward, gently cupping the side of Richtofen's face with her hand.

"_Our time is over, Edward…We have lived too long. We've ruined this world enough…Its time to let go, and let the world begin again."_ Sophia whispered.

"But…How can the world change without Group 935? H-how…." Richtofen trailed off as Izzy gestured to the teens standing behind her.

"_Our story has not yet ended, Papa. You think that just because your method was evil that the intention was as well? No…They share the same goal as you."_ Izzy said as she turned around and faced the four Zombie slayers.

"_You four…and all of your friends, have come to far. Have suffered for so long…Your journey is not yet done, because I have one final request, on the behalf all of Group 935." _Izzy said to the teens.

"And what would that be?" Samantha asked the ghostly girl, who smiled at her.

"_I don't want all of this pain to be forgotten. Covered up to prevent the world from knowing the horrors that exist in it. Tell our story. Spread the message. There is plenty of labs throughout the world that are untouched. Many experiments and formulas, inventions and the like, still remain…As does our story. Our legacy, our hopes and dreams…Group 935's legacy will live on through you all."_ Izzy said to them.

"So, you want us to spread the word. Make sure that the world learns from this and strives harder for change and peace, right?" Joe grunted as Nicholas pulled his arm around his shoulder, helping him stand.

"_Yes…tell our story, so that this world may learn and grow. The goal of Group 935 is to improve the human condition. To save this world from itself. To allow humans to become perfect, and in turn, make the world perfect."_ Izzy said, turning away from them.

"_It's a fools dream, but we can only make progress if we pursue that which is impossible."_ Izzy said quietly, more to herself than the others.

"We'll do it. We'll do whatever it takes to help this world change. After all of this…how could it not?" Sieger said to his adoptive sister, who smiled at her brother in all but blood. She then looked at Samantha, who sighed.

"All of my life, I have lived in the shadow of Group 935…Now you're asking me to keep it alive, and continue to do so in the name of the very people who have ruined my life…" Samantha said softly crossing her arms. She then looked Richtofen dead in the eyes, her expression unreadable.

"I hated you for so long…I loathed everything about you…You were nothing but a monster to me. But now…When I look at you…I just see a broken wreck of a man, twisted by grief…not a monster." Samantha said quietly.

Nicholas, Joe, and Sieger saw Samantha smile and say "I wouldn't be what I am without you all…In the end, you got what you deserved, Uncle Edward. I let go of my hate for you some time ago…We'll make this world a better place, somehow. What happened today will be the catalyst of change for this world."

"_So many of the bad people in the world died as you all fought. Richtofen's intent with the M.P.D caused a great deal of the terrible and corrupt people to be wiped from world…Maybe with most of the fifth cleansed from the world, the good can maybe shape it into something worth saving, something worth protecting."_ Sophia said quietly.

Richtofen closed his eyes and said "Maybe…Just maybe…"

Richtofen opened his eyes and found himself starring into the dark orbs that were Samantha Maxis's eyes. Richtofen smiled weakly and said "Come…Samantha."

Samantha remained where she was for a moment, and then she took three steps forward before kneeling down, so that she was looking directly at Richtofen.

"We have fought for so long…I have blindly hated and destroyed and ruined for so long…And then I saw the truth. We all have it in us, to be…heroes. I wanted to make this world something pure and special…for Izzy…Not for myself. Maybe on some level…I succeeded…" Richtofen whispered, leaning back and resting his head on the broken M.P.D behind him. The group watched a single tear roll down his face. The group remained silent for a short time, even as Agartha slowly returned to its original state, a swirling blue and white vortex that seemed to be waiting for them.

"Sa…Samantha…Sieger…my son…I leave the world to you two." Richtofen murmured as he opened his eyes once more. "I am destined to die…But you all must carry on our story. Will you do this…remake this world in your own way, so we will not have died in vain?

"Uncle Edward…I would be honored." Samantha murmured. Richtofen laughed weakly and reached out to Samantha, placing his hand on her head. Richtofen then closed his eyes and said "Then accept this…So that you may do what you must."

Samantha gasped as Richtofen's hand glowed bright white, and after a moment she began to glow white as well. Sieger, Nicholas, Joe, Sophia, and Izzy watched on for a moment before Richtofen pulled his hand away, smiling now.

"You will know what to do with that when the time is right…It is my gift to the future…" Richtofen whispered as he closed his eyes. Sieger and Samantha each took one of Richtofen's hands and held them tightly, even as Richtofen's breath rattled one last time…

And then he was still.

Richtofen's body suddenly began to dissolve into a cloud of white particles, his body blowing away into nothingness. At the same time, the M.P.D. suddenly began to crumble away to dust, black waves of horrible and evil energies rolling off of the device as centuries of evil were scattered to the winds. The Staff of Magnus slowly crumbled before their eyes, its sacred power spent.

"_Are you ready, Edward?"_ Sophia said quietly. To their surprise, a flash of white appeared next to them, and the form of Richtofen appeared, smiling at them. He seemed younger, and seemed calm…at peace.

"_Yes…Let us meet our destiny in Agartha…whatever it may be, we confront it together."_ Richtofen said as he looked up.

Sophia and Izzy turned to face Sieger, and after a moment embraced him. Sieger stood there, tears running down his face, and after a moment they separated.

Richtofen looked at his son and said _"Victor…Never forget who you are, and what you have become. The hopes of Group 935 rest with you and Samantha…"_

"I'll make you proud, dad." Sieger said quietly, his voice steady despite the tears.

"_You already have, my son. You will burn like the brightest star, and light the way for a future that we may never see, but will always dream of."_ Richtofen replied to his son.

"I'll see you again…in the next life." Sieger said to his father, who shook his head.

"_There is no next life for us, my son…"_ Richtofen said with a bitter smile. Sieger smiled as well, a tear rolling down his head. Richtofen looked up and said _"Farewell…All of you."_

"Goodbye." Sieger whispered to his family as they began to rise upwards….and up…and up. Soon they were swallowed by the massive abyss that was Agartha, a place Richtofen had looked for most of his life…As the trio vanished, the entire Tower shook as Agartha began to recede back into the heavens, glowing a dull white color.

"So…Now what?" Joe muttered. Samantha turned around and placed a hand on the charred stump that was Joe's arm and began siphoning out the energies inside. A few moments later, Joe relaxed a bit and sighed as Samantha drew her hands away.

"I'm sorry about your arm Joe," Samantha said to the teen, who shook his head.

"I'll manage. It was worth it, in the end." Joe said as he gestured to the remains of the M.P.D.

Sieger nodded after a moment and said "So, what are you two going to do now?"

"Well…I wanted to go home and just play some Skyrim or something, but with my arm now…gone, that isn't going to happen. How about you, Nicholas? You coming home or what?" Joe asked his friend, who shook his head.

"No…Well, not yet anyway…" Nicholas said tiredly, jerking a thumb towards the battlefield below. The others starred at him for a few moments before Nicholas smiled at them sadly.

"We've got work to do." Nicholas said as the Gateway sealed shut, now and forever, taking with it the souls of those who had been captured and those who had started this. It would be a hard and long road to recovery, but the words of Richtofen rang in his ears, and Nicholas found himself smiling.

"Let's go guys." Nicholas said to his weary friends, who nodded and began to make their way off of the Tower, and towards whatever future lay ahead of them. A future of hope. A future of remembrance.

This dawn of the dead was over, the nightmare had ended…

Now was where the rebuilding began. To fulfil the wishes of Richtofen, who wasn't really evil…Just a man who had lost faith in a cruel world that had taken too much from him. But what Richtofen hadn't been able to do was let go. Remember the lives of the fallen and strive to be better person in their memory.

They would carry on his memory. The memory of all of those who had fallen.

But for now they would recover. And then rebuild. And then a revolution would start. A fight to make the world truly better, to make it the world Group 935 had strived so hard for.

It was time to begin anew.

End of Chapter:

* * *

><p><em>And there we have it. <em>

_The Epilogue, which will wrap up everything, will be posted once the first 25 chapters of the story have been completely edited, which may take two months or so._

_So…Thank you everyone. This is not the end, because I'll be writing for many more stories after this. A sequel for this story depends on where Treyarch takes the story, and may or may not happen sometime down the road._

_But, if you like the characters in this story and would like to see more, than I'd like to take this opportunity to announce that my best friend and occasional Beta-Reader JC785 (AKA Joe from this story), is writing an Elder Scrolls story based on Skyrim, featuring some of the very characters you've come to love in this story. If you're interested, then go to JC785's profile and read "Scattered By Destiny", which is a collaborative work done by me and Joe, but mostly Joe._

_And finally, like I said before, be sure to look at the Freelancer Collaboration and show your support. If you're interested in joining up, then feel free to message me and ask any questions you have. _

_SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE AMAZING PEOPLE WHO REVIEWED THIS STORY, AND THE AMAZING READERS WHO MADE THIS STORY SO FUN TO WRITE._

_You guys are the best. Every single review posted is one I have read many times, even the guest ones, and I love them all. I can't exaggerate how much I appreciate your words of praise and feedback. Thank you so much._

_If you didn't get a special shoutout, its purely due to time constraints. There's a lot of you I want to thank, but I'll just get down to the most notable of my reviewers._

_Special shoutout to Dustchu, who his reviewed every single chapter of this story and has offered so much support to this journey._

_Shoutout to Trapinchh for supporting me early on and still supporting this story even now._

_Shoutout to CarriedCoin and Justsomeperson for chatting with me on XBOX Live, shoutout to mybrosdrivemecrazy for her strong support for the first half of the story, and shoutout to RandomName3064 for giving me my favorite review to date in his last review, and most of all…_

_Shoutout to my friends. Though we may have drifted apart as life takes us down separate paths, this story serves as a testament to those memories and god times we had in band. They will always be with me…no matter what._

_So please…review and tell me what you think. Did the story end the way you thought it would? How did it make you feel? What final comments do you want to leave me? _

_This was possible because of you. Please, let me know what you thought of the finale, and the story as a whole._

_Well, I'm done here. I'll be posting the epilogue in roughly two months or so, so be on the lookout for that. _

_Thank you, all of you…for everything. _

_UNTIL NEXT TIME! FlygonNick out!_


	50. Epilogue

_Apocalypse: Dawn of the Dead_

* * *

><p><em>So, you may be asking yourself.<em>

_Why did this take so long?_

_Why the hell isn't the first half of the story revised? Or rather, anything at all?_

_And why the hell am I such a lazy son of a bitch?_

_Well, here's the blunt and honest to God truth._

_Chapter's 5-10 were SO BAD, so mind-numbingly terrible that they have single-handedly prevented me from revising the rest of the story. A story that is longer than the entirety of the Harry Potter series, mind you. _

_See, revising a chapter is one thing. RE-WRITING a bad chapter is something else, and with all of the extra stuff this semester going on and me needing to do well this semester to graduate, well…I just can't afford to devote time to it and to do it right. I'll get to it when I can, but once the worst of the chapters are revised, the others should come swiftly to follow due to them being fairly decent, especially after chapter 30, where its just spelling and grammar fixes and a small additional scene here and there._

_So, hence why the Epilogue is going up anyway._

_In other news, Jak IV has been updated and will hopefully see more updates once I graduate from college, and as for "Second Chances", it won't be seeing the light of day for some time. _

_Trust me, this isn't something I do lightly. If I had time to write anymore, I'd do whatever I could. But what with everything that's happened over the past few months and my busy schedule, maybe some time off will be good for me. I just haven't been the same lately, and I've been really stressed out about school and some personal stuff lately. I'm really glad this story is finished, because now I can focus solely on Jak IV and stuff for the Freelancer Collaboration._

_See, the thing is…I haven't been able to play the games that inspired me to write and haven't been able to sit down and brainstorm in ages, so maybe waiting until I'm done with school is a wise option. My muse is so fickle lately, I just can't get inspired to write with all of this crap going on._

_So…I'm sorry I couldn't handle all of this at once, everyone. I feel like I let you all down, but…Well, I'm trying alright?_

_In other news, I am proud to inform you all, my loyal readers and reviewers, that I will be enlisting in the United States Air Force in about 1 year, and will be serving my country alongside some of the finest men and women in the Armed Forces. As previously mentioned I have always admired the Armed Forces and have always wanted to join them, so…Yeah._

_Now, what does this mean for FlygonNick and the stories you all have come to know and hopefully love?_

_Well, I have spoken to recruiters and have been reassured that once Basic Training is over and I begin my job training, I can essentially resume whatever hobbies I had in my spare time off the clock. This means that I can work in the AF and be able to write regularly with some sense of normalcy. Hopefully this means more frequent updates and even more content down the road, after a few months of delays._

_Nothing is set in stone, though, and I'll be sure to update you guys on what happens, just check whatever stories I update and I'll post new information regarding my situation. But I'm hoping to officially start "Second Chances" once I'm done with Basic Training and reacquire my laptop, and have Jak IV finished and revised before I officially enlist._

_Apocalypse will be revised once I graduate from college and have more free time. Check my profile for updates on which chapters have been revised and which one's are going to be fixed._

_As for "Scattered By Destiny", Joe is the main writer and will continue without me for a while, but he's got a handle on things and we've worked out enough of the plot that its not an issue. If you haven't already, check out his story when you're done with this one. It's "Apocalypse Dawn of the Dead", but with Skyrim. Me, Joe, Jess, and John are the main protagonists in an AU Skyrim World that follows the events of the game, but with a few twists and turns. Its an exciting project and it's a chance to see Joe spread his wings and for you all to see some collaborative work between us._

_And as for the Freelancer Collaboration, I have already written my chapters very far ahead in advance, so there's no issues there either. Please go and show your support of me and collaboration, and make sure to review. I write for Agent Minnesota for "Phase Two: Betrayal" and soon to be appearing Agent Indiana. All reviewers who reviewers who post a review on "Phase Two: Betrayal" gets a shoutout from me on all of my fanfics (except this one because it's done). So please, show your support and go read "Phase One: Genesis" and its sequel "Phase Two: Betrayal." If you want to see more content from me, that's the place to go._

_Shoutout to those who reviewed the Finale, including DigDugDiamond,__ neophytos. vrondis, Lord rage quit, The Soul of Silver (who is an old reviewer who changed their name, so I have no idea who you are), RandomName3064, Dustchu, Mooman1706, CarriedCoin, stinkytrey, eaglesplayer29, Trapinchh, PercyJacksonIAm, three new Guest Reviewers known as Tony Cassanova, Dewdaman, and Soulpwn, and a new reviewer known as ty1967, who is the final person to receive a review shoutout in this story as they are the last person to review before the final chapter was posted. _

_Here's the epilogue to wrap everything together. Its been a trip! Thank you all for the love and support for the past 3 years. I still get your reviews and I read every single one as I get them, and I will always read these reviews and remember the support that you guys gave me._

_Thank you to all past, present, and future readers and supporters of me and my work. You all help make this as fun as it is, and I can't thank you enough._

_Even while I was down, you guys have never stopped showing me how much you love this story and my work, and I have to say that means more to me than I can ever express. I hope I can continue to write for many more years and continue to bring good content to you._

_But for now, we can finally say farewell to this story. Here it is, the end of my final AN. _

_The Epilogue is here._

…_Enjoy._

* * *

><p>Chapter 50: Epilogue<p>

"_Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity."-_W. Clement Stone.

* * *

><p>3 Years Later:<p>

* * *

><p>Nicholas blinked as a drop of rain hit him in the head. A distant rumble of thunder served to completely snap him out of his reverie, and he smiled as the light downpour began. He pulled his hood up over his head and began walking down the sidewalk.<p>

"Bright one minute, raining the next. Shoutout to Florida's bipolar weather system," Nicholas said aloud, shaking his head as the rain began to come down harder. He stepped off the sidewalk and onto the drenched asphalt of the parking lot, making his way over to his pickup truck.

"Three years…Man time flies," Nicholas muttered. He heard the distinct sound of his phone going off, but he decided to let it ring. As the sound of "115" continued to play on his phone, Nicholas's mind began to drift back to the old times. Back when he was still in high school and sat in the band room with his best friends, relaxing and enjoying the simple things like sex jokes and the "Epic Rap Battles of History."

But now he had moved on to college, and had left his friends behind. He visited every now and then and kept in touch with them, but with work and school he had began to drift apart from his friends to his despair.

Both his current and former school were finally undergoing repairs, and he and many other students decided to volunteer and help with things. He was looking forward to sitting down and seeing his friends again, and watch the Bradburn team lose another football game. You'd think that 3 years would make the team remotely less terrible, but you'd be wrong.

Clicking the clicker to unlock his car, he hopped into his truck and turned it on, the truck shuddering to life as he turned the key. He tossed his backpack into the passenger seat and threw back his hood before shifting into reverse. He pulled out his phone and sent the text _"You coming to the game?"_

He pulled out of the parking lot and within minutes was on the road, which had a few cars here and there driving slowly through the rain. The cleanup effort had taken the best part of two years, but those who were able to use a car could drive along the cleared roadways. A UN worker waved to Nicholas as he pulled out of his college, and he returned the wave with a small smile.

He then heard his phone go off, signaling that he had a text, and with a sigh he flipped his phone open and saw it was from Jess, and then closed it again and continued to drive. He braked as the light turned red, and quickly flipped open his phone to read the text.

_Running late. Save a seat for us? :3_

Nicholas smirked and replied _Sure thing. See you guys in a bit._

The light turned green as Nicholas sent the text, and so he put his phone in the cup holder and began to drive. He let his mind wander a bit, remembering the events of three years ago yet again. When he and his best friends banded together for a desperate fight to survive…

It then began to change, evolving into a fight to save the world. After besting most of Group 935 and killing both Zombies and followers to get to Richtofen, they had beaten him and saved the world…

* * *

><p>Flashback:<p>

Three Years Ago:

* * *

><p>"So…You guys actually beat him." Dempsey said with a smirk as Samantha and Sieger walked out of the M.P.D. Tower, with Nicholas close behind and supporting Joe. Andrew, Jess, Marcus, Judith, John, Juliet, and Iva followed them, worse for wear but still standing. The survivors silently watched the three legendary soldiers approached the group. Nikolai embraced Iva and hugged her tightly, murmuring words in Russian and stroking her dirty blond hair in relief.<p>

Nicholas set Joe on the ground said "Do we have anyone here with medical training? This is kind of more serious than a gunshot wound."

"Shut up bitch…I'm fine," Joe muttered, a weak grin on his face and glancing down at the horrible charred stump that used to be his arm. Samantha may have extracted the 115 energies out of his arm and kept him from being killed like Nick was, but the pain had to be excruciating for the teen.

"Damn, his whole arm. Hardcore," Starch said as he glanced behind him, not wanting to look at the grisly wound directly.

"I think I saw a medic guy treating a few of the marines. I'll go get him." Vice offered, and with a nod from Dempsey the teen ran off into the city.

"Couldn't we just heal the wound with Quick Revive?" Marcus asked Samantha.

The daughter of Doctor Maxis shook her head and said "No, the attack was a direct hit from Richtofen and I'm not sure Quick Revive would heal a wound this…severe. It would be like trying to heal a gunshot wound to the heart from a Pack-A-Punched weapon."

A few quiet moments passed until Vice returned with a medic, who began examining the wound and barking orders to the teens, who helped him move Joe into a nearby building where he could treat the wound properly.

"I still don't really get the whole Quick Revive thing," Marcus admitted, earning an annoyed sigh from Samantha.

"Marcus, FlygonNick really wants you to drop this," Serenity piped up.

"I'd rather not, I think he's just pulling shit out of his ass again." Marcus said as he crossed his arms.

"Jess! Silence the nonbeliever!" Nicholas said as he glared at Marcus.

"What? How?" Jess asked.

"I don't know. Just shut him up," Nicholas said to Jess.

Jess shrugged and tapped Marcus on the shoulder, before kissing him forcefully on the lips. Marcus blinked in surprise and then leaned into the kiss as Jess wrapped her arms around Marcus-

"That escalated quickly," Judith said mildly as she sat down on the ground, laughing a little as everyone began to ignore the couple.

"You're telling me…I just can't believe it's all over," Kara said with a small sigh.

"Yes…Uncle Edward is gone. So is the M.P.D." Samantha said as she held out her hands. They began to glow bright green, before the glow flickered and died.

"My powers…They seem to have receded, somewhat." Samantha muttered. She held out a hand and small ball of green swirling energy formed in her palm and fired off, soaring 50 feet and slamming into the side of a building. However, while it damaged the side building, it was not quite as powerful as what she had been doing all day.

"Could it be that you're just tired?" Nicholas asked Sam, who shook her head.

"No…I think with the M.P.D. destroyed and Richtofen dead…My powers will weaken indefinitely." Samantha said as she flexed her fingers.

"But not completely. Despite my father being connected to the M.P.D., you still are what are because of its influence. Well, that and the effects of Element 115 and absorbing the powers of Porter, Yena, and Illuzio. I'm pretty sure you'll keep a lot of your abilities, even if they're weakened." Sieger said to the daughter of Dr. Maxis.

Samantha remained quiet at that, but turned to Dempsey and asked "Do we know how many survived?"

Dempsey looked away and said "Not many. All of the Reclaimers and the Zombies were killed, either from us or the M.P.D., but for the survivors…Well, not many of them survived. Maybe a few thousand people at best."

"So few…" Samantha murmured. A freezing cold wind picked up, blowing ashes and the smell of blood and smoke through the air. The Zombie slayers regarded the wrecked city for a while before Samantha said "We'll have to stick around here for a while. Help burn the dead and figure out where to go from here."

"Well…Whatever happens…I want to say thank you." Sieger said to the group.

"Sieger…Don't thank us. We killed Uncle Edward…Your father. Don't thank us for that," Samantha muttered. Sieger walked up to Samantha, giving her a hard look.

"My father was a broken and tortured man, Samantha. He rarely ever found peace in the time I knew him…You let him find peace, in the end, and for that I have to thank all of you. He was reunited with Izzy and will be with her and mom forever…You saved him, in the end Samantha. And I can't thank you enough for letting go of your hate towards him and letting him find peace." Sieger explained quietly.

"Hate?" Samantha repeated, the words a small laugh. "How could I hate him anymore?"

"What do you mean?" Andrew asked Samantha, who looked up to the sky with a small smile.

"All this time I hated him for what he did to me and my father…But…That changed." Samantha paused for a moment before she turned to her friends and said "You guys showed me the good in people. A good I never got a chance to experience. My life before I met you guys has just been death and destruction and confusion. I never had a chance to grown up. I was cursed to wander this world as a child spirit, alone and tortured with the knowledge that the man responsible for my lot in life was still out there somewhere."

"But then I met you all. You accepted me without question. You all were the first true friends I've ever had. Jax became my host without hesitation. You all agreed to risk your lives to help me stop Richtofen and did whatever I asked without question…You believed in me, and you showed me what true bravery, kindness, and friendship truly was…" Samantha then turned to the New York Crew, and said "Even all of you accepted me without pause. You stood by me no matter what Richtofen threw our way."

"Of course we did. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we like the good in this world. If you were willing to go so far and suffer through so much to try and save it…Well, then we could take the risk too. There are things in life worth fighting for," Starch said quietly, glancing over at the burned and broken body of Zero, covered by a tarp.

"People die and fight for what they believe in every day, Sam. We believed in you, nothing much else to it." Vice said with a grin.

"And because of that…Those bonds of friendship and loyalty and trust, I began to understand that there is still good in this world. That there are people worth protecting, even if you have to make sacrifices. There's light in this world, even as the darkness threatens to swallow it whole. Once I learned of Richtofen's past…About Izzy and the true motivations of Group 935…that began to change."

"Illuzio and Jason wanted me to look past my hate. Look past the pain and see Richtofen for what he truly was. A broken and tortured father who was in pain. Uncle Edward…In the end, he wasn't the monster I thought he was. Just…miserable." Samantha murmured as she sat down on a chunk of rubble.

"And now he's found peace. And he left the world in our hands," Sieger said as he walked over to Samantha and sat down next to her. He gave her a one-armed hug, and Samantha rested her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah…It's a tall order, but I think we can do it." Sieger said as Samantha sighed deeply, a note of exhaustion and wariness evident in her next words.

"As long as you're with me," Samantha murmured, closing her eyes.

"Where are the others, by the way? Finn, Billy, Sal, and Weasel?" Nicholas asked Vice, who looked away. The other survivors did as well, and Nicholas frowned and said "Vice, what happened to them?"

"The Mobsters didn't make it, man. Sophia took them out while the others managed to beat her. But…" Vice trailed off, unable to tell them what had happened.

"They earned their wings," a quiet voice said to Nicholas, who turned around in surprise to find a familiar blond-haired woman with dark red eyes smiling at them.

"Sal, Finn, Billy, and Weasel fought bravely, but in the end were defeated by Sophia. But as a result of their actions today, as well as them repenting for their crimes…they went to heaven and earned their wings, allowing them to escape the bonds of hell," Eris said as she crossed her legs, shadowing whirling around her.

"They…They're gone…" Nicholas muttered, shaking his head. Juliet hugged Nicholas tightly and murmured something in his ear, but he ignored her as he clenched his fists and took a slow calming breath.

"_**They went out like heroes," **_a cold cruel voice said from nowhere. The teens and soldiers shuddered as Yena slipped out of Eris's shadow, smiling to himself. He turned his gaze to Samantha and said _**"So…You killed him."**_

"Edward is gone," Samantha said simply as she hopped off the rock and starred Yena down.

"_**He's in Agartha…Astounding that he would end up there, of all places,"**_ Yena whispered gleefully.

"What do you mean?" Starch asked Yena, who chuckled.

"_**This may be a bit of shock for you, but our work has uncovered many secrets about time, life, and death…But also things on the inter-dimensional level that would blow your little minds. This world is but one of trillions set apart by-"**_

"Enough with the theories, Yena, give us answers!" Samantha growled.

"_**Why should I?" **_Yena asked with a wide smile. Samantha stepped forward, but stopped when Sieger grabbed her arm.

"Don't stoop to his level…Play nice for now, OK?" Sieger muttered in Samantha's ear. Samantha nodded and stopped, though she shot a nasty look at Yena anyway.

"What happened to the guys who were with the Mobsters? Misty, Marlton, Stuhlinger, and Russman?" John asked Eris.

"They had to return to their world. Their timeline…Its in danger, you know." Eris said matter-of-factly to Samantha, who frowned.

"_**Yes…We'll pay them a visit later, Eris. I have some things I want you to look into."**_ Yena said quietly before he slipped into her shadows once more.

"He's still really weak, despite what it looks like. It'll be a few years before he gets his body back." Eris said.

"Can he be killed? For good?" John asked Eris, who shrugged.

"If you can find a way to destroy every shadow in the world, then yes. Until then…he's fine, anyway. He's really mellowed out. It's incredible, really, how much he's changed in the past few days." Eris said cheerfully.

"He killed my boyfriend," Judith said coldly to Eris, who's smile slipped from her face.

"Yes, he did. And you killed many men today as well, young lady," Eris said coldly as she slipped into her shadow.

"Jeez…I know Yena killed Liam, but he and Eris did help us out a lot during this whole crazy quest," Vice said quietly.

"She's defending him! He's nothing but a monster!" Judith shot at Vice, who shrugged in response.

"You know, I look at it like this," Dempsey said after a moment (cutting off Judith), "All of us make mistakes. We've all killed in the heat of the moment. Did things we're really not proud of."

"Sam. You killed thousands of people when you took control of the Zombies way back. You literally raised hell and ruined the world in a fit of anger, but even after all of that we forgave you," Dempsey said to Samantha, who looked away.

"Each of you have killed brothers, father, sisters, and mothers today. Did we have to do it? Yes. Does that make it right? Hell no," Dempsey said as he looked at each of the teens in front of him.

"Yena and Eris are different kinds of warriors. Soldiers from shadows who strike when the time is right," Takeo observed.

"Maybe do not forgive them. But understand that Yena was under Richtofen's orders, and in the end he helped us when we needed assistance," Nikolai said wisely. Judith looked at each of the legendary soldiers briefly before she turned around walked away.

"Should I go talk to her?" Samantha asked Nicholas.

"No…She's confused and hurt that her boyfriend's killer is still at large…I'm not too happy about it either, but they both did help us. We couldn't have made it to Richtofen without them," Nicholas said with a small sigh.

"Now what?" Jax asked Dempsey, who looked at the young man for a moment before looking up at the sky.

"Well…We very well can't let this shit happen again. I think we should try and help the survivors and get the word out that the threat is over. The Zombies are gone, Richtofen's grand scheme has been ruined, and the world has to recover," Dempsey said in a low voice.

"People are gonna panic. Not know what to do…Government is in shamble, millions dead and no one really knows what happened here," Iva said quietly.

"Well, considering the fact that they're alive, they're going to assume we won," John said with a smirk.

"Iva's right, John…We're going to have to figure out a plan for this. Its only a matter of time before things escalate. No law, no reason to stuck together. We need a plan," Nicholas said to the teen.

"First thing's first…We recover and bury the dead," Samantha said quietly, looking over at the two covered bodies of Nick and Zero. Friends…People who had stood by her and fought until the end for what they believed in…

A world worth protecting.

A world that had good in it and was worth braving the hosts of hell for.

A world that Group 935 was committed to rebuilding and making perfect, despite there being no such thing. Nothing is perfect. It was a false dream.

But it didn't mean that they couldn't try and make the world as close to perfect as they could.

"And then we start our work," Samantha said as she closed her eyes, a small smile on her face.

* * *

><p>Present:<p>

* * *

><p>And it had taken time. Time for the world to heal. Time for things to slowly return to normal. Well…As normal as things could get at this point.<p>

Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo had officially gone into retirement, kind of…OK, not really. While they were clearly done hiding in the shadows and were content to relax, they eventually got bored and got back into action.

Dempsey began work for the military again, becoming an instructor of special operatives in the Marines, utilizing his years of experience. Apparently the desire to train with the decorated and legendary Marine was so great that Marine enlistment had doubled just weeks after Dempsey took the position.

Takeo became an ambassador to the United Nations for Japan, under order of the Emperor, and was helping keep the peace and making sure things went well in the United Nations. Apparently him being such a renowned hero carried much weight and respect there.

Nikolai did the same with Russia, which helped their relationships with many countries and prevented any conflicts. No one was more surprised at his level of success with Vladimir Putin than Iva, who would brag about Nikolai whenever she could and openly spoke about how proud of her father she was.

While Nicholas had graduated, the others went about their business and attended Bradburn High, with Judith, John, Jax, and Joe graduating two years after Nicholas did and going to other colleges. The others were in their senior year, and getting ready for the final game of the season.

Juliet began to travel as well, helping Sieger and Samantha as they travelled the world and helping in any way she could. Nicholas and her had broken off their relationship a few months ago, though it was simply due to distance and Juliet's work, and as a result of this the two remained close friends.

Iva, Kara, and Chan had stayed in Florida, helping with the rebuilding process and working on some of the side projects Group 935 had hidden away. Joe was helping them in their endeavors and apparently was making a great deal of progress.

In the meantime, Jess and Marcus had officially begun dating for realsies. Apparently all the crap that happened during the whole, "Apocalypse" thing wasn't official. Marcus had moved down to Florida and attended Bradburn High with the others so he could be with Jess, and the couple was doing well.

As for Samantha and Sieger…

They hit the road.

They began a campaign to change the world, one place at a time. The new Group 935 (consisting of the Bradburn Crew, OC Crew, New York Crew, and Samantha and Sieger) quickly gained enormous support from Americans (and many others across the world), many of whom supported her because of her status as a righteous hero and because of her story.

The story of Group 935. Of Zombies and magic and betrayal and death, and of pain…And hope.

And because of them…The world was indeed changing.

The United Nations had called a large meeting, where the surviving representatives gathered. They agreed to lend aid to America to help with the rebuilding process. Even Russia, China, and North Korea put aside their dislike of America to pitch in. It was strange, in a way, that it took a global crisis like this to bring people together…But it worked.

Richtofen's assault on the world had killed off millions upon millions of people, but oddly enough things came together. Treaties were made and people seemed to be willing to make compromises now when they didn't before. The very worst kind of people, the most corrupt and terrible that contributed to the world's unstable nature, were killed by Richtofen, meaning that cooler heads finally prevailed and rose to power.

Samantha's story and the goal of Group 935 became a powerful source of inspiration for people to want to change the world. People began to even sympathize with Edward Richtofen. Many saw him as a tragic hero of sorts, and an example of what this horrible world could drive people to.

Laws were redrawn, procedures were reviewed, and things shaped up all over the world, particularly in the United States. Crime and law-breaking in general had plummeted to record low levels, while the rebuilding process gave way to new jobs and fresh chances for America to make a new start. It had taken a while, but eventually things began to regain a small sense of normalcy.

Things, for the first time in perhaps recorded history…Were completely peaceful.

America was still recovering of course and it would take years for it to get back on its feet, but things were looking hopeful. People were working together to rebuild the world for the better, and the future looked bright.

Nicholas smiled a little as he drove through the light downpour, and as the minutes lapsed by he began to think of one other event that happened shortly after the fall of Edward Richtofen. One event that helped put these events in motion.

* * *

><p>Flashback:<p>

Two Days After Richtofen's Death:

* * *

><p>Nicholas's head drooped in exhaustion as Juliet continued to quietly snore next to him. He tapped his Speakeasy against his knee and sighed quietly, trying to stave off sleep as the nightmares threatened to envelop him again.<p>

"Mema…I miss you," Nicholas muttered tiredly.

"GUYS! WAKE UP!"

Nicholas's head jerked up as Samantha burst into the room, pulling on her jacket even as she kicked Andrew in the back to wake him up.

"Wasss the fuuugg?" Andrew moaned as he rolled onto his stomach, blinking groggily.

"Sam? What's going on, its…" Juliet checked her phone, which had somehow survived throughout their adventure, and said "Five in the morning."

"I know. But I just thought of something…Something we have to check." Samantha said quietly, walking over to John, Kara, and Chan and tapping them in the chest with her boot to wake them up.

"What about the others?" Nicholas asked as he got to his feet, yawning. Why was he the guy who had to take the first night watch?

"Already up and waiting downstairs. I…I don't know what we'll find, but I have to check." Samantha said as she regarded her friends, now all awake, before saying "Get dressed and geared up and meet me downstairs as soon as possible. We need to move."

"What do you think that was about?" Joe muttered as Iva helped him to his feet. Joe was still a bit out of it, after losing his arm from Richtofen's attack, and while the arm was treated, Joe was still feeling the aftereffects.

"No idea. Come on," Nicholas muttered as he walked downstairs. He nodded to Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo, who were already waiting for them silently. Sieger and Samantha were standing side by side, though Samantha was nervously playing with Sieger's hand, twinning her fingers around his.

"You guys…" Nicholas muttered, shaking his head tiredly but smiling nevertheless.

"What?" Samantha said indignantly, blushing pink.

"Don't let it bother you, Sam." Sieger said quietly. He had been quiet lately, only talking to Samantha and avoiding the others. Nicholas attributed that to shock and grief. He had lost his mother and father in the same day…He felt bad for the guy, and hoped Samantha could help ease the pain a little.

"Alright…So why the crap are we up so early for?" Andrew grumbled as he strapped Skullcrusher to his back and Gutripper to his belt.

"We still have one thing left to do. Something to make sure that the world doesn't forget what happened." Samantha said as she held out her hand. The shadows around the group began to warp and twisted around them, before swallowing the entire group whole and submerging into the ground.

Samantha felt a coldness go through her as she felt the oppressiveness of the darkness seep through her entire being. She didn't know how Yena and Eris could do things like this and live in this…state.

"I feel so violated!" Andrew yelled out, clearly not happy with this.

"That's what she said!" Joe yelled.

"Joe, what the hell?" Iva said angrily.

"You can't get mad at me, I lost my arm." Joe teased.

A soft growl from Iva was his response, though Samantha ignored the people she couldn't see and focused on moving them through the darkness.

Thankfully, Samantha was able to command the shadows to transport them to where she needed to go to, and was quickly learning how to use this skill with ease, thanks to the battle they had just fought in.

She only hoped she wasn't too late. Too late to finally make things right. For Uncle Edward. For those who had fallen in the pursuit of Group 935's goal. She couldn't mess up after all of their hard work…

Samantha willed the shadows away from the group as they appeared in an empty hallway, one that looked abandoned. The tiled floor was blue and white, though it looked faded and shown signs of old age. It was filled with dust and cobwebs that showed that it had been some time since this place had been touched, though several bloody boot prints led to the lone locked door at the end of the hallway covered in chains, locks, and requiring several kinds of identification to be opened.

"Wait…Sam, is this-?" Dempsey began to say before Samantha silenced him with a look.

"Yes. We're inside of the Pentagon…This way." Samantha said quietly as she strode forward, pulling out her Mustang and Sally. She strode ahead of the group, Sieger and Nicholas close behind while the others followed suit. Samantha aimed Mustang at the lone steel door at the end of the hallway, firing four shots at it. The door was blown off its hinges, revealing a pitch black room.

"Samantha…What is this?" Judith asked the young woman, who scowled and wordlessly walked into the room. The others exchanged an uneasy glance and moved forward.

"I don't suppose you could have knocked?" a tired voice said from within the darkness.

"Sam, who is that?" Nicholas asked as the darkness blinded him for a moment, but his eyes began to quickly adjust to the dim lighting.

"No way…That's…" Joe said in surprise as Samantha aimed both of her pistols at the figure, who had his hand raised in the air, as if to push the glowing key on the keyboard in front of him. He was standing at a desk in a room filled with monitors, all of them flashing white and awaiting a single button press before something known as the "Flash" would activate.

"He was going to erase their memories?" Dempsey muttered darkly, clenching his fists.

"Who, Dad?" Kara asked, looking to her father.

"The only man both knows of this device's existence and has access to it." Nicholas said coldly, remembering Samantha story from so long ago.

"That's far enough. Mr. President," Samantha said with a cold smile. The President of the United States sighed and turned to face the daughter of Dr. Maxis, lowering his hand to his side. Samantha's expression hardened as she said "You were really about to do it…Make everyone forget this happened?"

"Yes…I suppose I'm not surprised the first place you'd come after saving the world, is the very place that made it possible for these events to happen again." Obama said as his face contorted into a wretched frown. It had seemed like the Commander in Chief had seen his fair share of combat, as his suit was bloodstained and ripped and his face sported several cuts.

"I knew someone would come for this device," Samantha said, taking a step forward.

"Of course you would…You're quite the prolific little girl, Miss Maxis. President Kennedy seemed to think that you held the key to saving this planet. Nixon thought you were a menace." Obama said as he got to his feet.

"Really? Richtofen has the M.P.D. kill the most terrible people in existence, and Obama is still alive? I don't want to live on this planet anymore," John sighed angrily.

"I'm guessing you're not a fan of mine?" Obama said with a raised eyebrow to John, who scowled.

"No…No I am not."

"John's like…Hardcore Republican." Nicholas said with a smirk.

"How "hardcore", are we talking about?" Iva asked Nicholas.

"John considers Mitt Romney his personal hero." Joe said with a smirk.

"That man is a visionary with a-" John began before Samantha shot John a look, causing him to stop his rant mid-sentence, which is more impressive than it sounds really.

No, I'm serious. John's crazy about that shit.

"My point is, that you have changed the world, young lady. The world heard your call to arms. People of all walks of life came together and fought as one in a way that...Has not been seen before. You united this nation…No, the world, against Edward Richtofen and his forces." Obama said in a low voice, looking at Samantha with a small smile.

"It was one of the greatest and purest speeches I had ever heard in my life. It gave people hope, a reason to keep fighting and not give in…It was humbling, in a way." The President said as he turned away from Samantha, looking at the device in front of him.

"And yet…I can't help but feel ashamed when I say that we have to make everyone forget about this. We have to use the Flash once again, to control the damage and stabilize the country." Obama said quietly.

"The Flash?" Marcus asked, confused.

"It's a special device created by President Kennedy during his presidency. Its designed to utilize electronic devices, usually with screens, and emit a type of bright flash that wipes the memory of certain events from the targets mind. With repeated use over a long period of time, people will dismiss certain events that occur as fantasy while we clean up the mess and smooth out the details," Obama explained.

"Damn…That's something," Marcus said with an impressed tone.

"We have made modifications to it over the years, and it now has a much stronger reach to it. Within months, the entire world will forget all of this ever happened. It will just be a nightmare. Nothing more," Obama said to the teens.

"You think making people forget about this is going to make things better?" John asked incredulously.

"It's for the best that no one knows what truly happened here. It would be the end of life as we know it. Panic, anarchy, and a struggle for science and technology the world isn't ready to have," Obama shot back.

"No." Samantha said coldly, stepping forward. The President frowned, and quickly reached for the glowing key to activate the Flash, only for a black tendril of darkness to wrap around his arm, with several more wrapping around his body.

"No! The world can't know that such forces exist! People will only abuse the science Group 935 has uncovered and use it for selfish gain. They'll try to find and capture you and the others, mass produce super soldiers and Wonder Weapons of their own! The world still isn't ready for this kind of information!" Obama shouted at Samantha.

"Typical liberal bullshit," John spat, earning a smack in the back of the head from Nicholas.

"So, you'd rather the entire world forget about what happened here? Forget about the men and women who fought for their lives? About Group 935 and why they really did what they did? You…You disgust me, Mr. President." Samantha said coldly.

"The world can't know…They just-" Obama was cut off as Samantha threw him aside and aimed Mustang and Sally at the series of monitors before pulling the triggers. Two small balls flew towards the displays and exploded violently, destroying and cracking the screens. Samantha emptied both of the gun's as she fired at the device, filling the room with smoke as Obama let out a yell.

"What have you done!?" Obama yelled as Samantha lowered his pistols.

"I stopped you, of course. This world needs to change. For everyone who died in the fight…For Uncle Edward. This world was brought to the brink of destruction because of men like you, who want to control people and-"

"Richtofen was a madman who threatened to destroy all of us, Samantha Maxis! Why are you defending him?" Obama asked indignantly.

"Because in the end, he was right. His methods of course were terrible…But he was right to want this world to become something better. Its corrupt, terrible, and people die every day for the wrong reasons. And it can be fixed…Is it so wrong to strive to create a better world? How else can people change except by learning from the past and making the future better? Is that so wrong, Mr. President?" Samantha whispered pleadingly to Obama.

"You're asking for the impossible…The world is so entrenched in corruption and hate, the best you'd be doing is delaying the inevitable-" the President began to say before he was cut off.

"Shut up!" Sieger suddenly barked, stepping forward and aiming Fatum at the President.

"My family died for what they believed in…And you're going to make their sacrifices meaningless!?" Sieger roared at the Commander in Chief.

"Young man…Do you know what you're doing?" Obama said in a low voice.

"Sieger, lower the gun. I've got this," Samantha said quietly, flicking her hands out. The shadows around Obama vanished, and President fell to the ground.

"President Obama…You have a choice. The world will not forgot what happened here. The world will face the harsh truth that change needs to come, or else the world's ruin is inevitable." Samantha said quietly to the Commander in Chief, who looked away.

"You're asking for a great deal, Miss Maxis. The world is not so quick to change, you know…Many people will resist," Obama said to the young woman.

"Yes, but a great deal of the people who were putting a stop to peace and change are now gone. Destroyed by Agartha and Richtofen. Those who are left still have a chance to come together to make things right," Samantha said quietly.

"Maybe." Obama said simply. He looked over at the teens behind Samantha, and regarded the three soldiers standing above them with a look of fleeting admiration.

"We will cross the bridge when we come to it. With the Flash destroyed, we'll have to do this your way. We'll have to rebuild, bury the bodies, and then address the nation, and then the world." Obama said after a long pause.

"And we'll be right by you." Samantha said to the President, who blinked in surprise.

"I'd recommend you listen to the girl, Mr. President." Sieger said coldly to the older man, who sighed again.

"Very well…Let's begin." Obama said as he regarded the broken device behind him for a moment, before turning to Samantha, and the future.

* * *

><p>Present:<p>

Bradburn High School:

* * *

><p>Nicholas pulled into a parking space, grabbing his phone and game ticket and stepped out of his truck, locking it behind him. He flipped his hood back over his head, cursing the drizzle that had started and was foreshadowing more goddamn rain to come.<p>

Within minutes Nicholas was walking down a drenched sidewalk and casting a look over at his old high school stadium. Not much had changed, really, but that was how he liked it. He did however, take a moment to look at the large statue that had been erected to commemorate the events that occurred three years ago. As the site of the initial Zombie outbreak of 2011, it was only fitting that a statue be built here to honor those who had fallen in the event.

It was a massive statue of Samantha, sitting atop a pile of rubble while looking up towards the sky. She was dressed in a Group 935 lab coat, two pistols in her hands but a smile on her face. She was surrounded by a group of familiar-looking teenagers, smiling and holding their weapons at their sides. A small golden plaque was on the side of the statue.

_Here stands the heroes who saved the world from destruction._

_Let this statue commemorate their bravery and stand as a testament,_

_To a new world of peace and unity, _

_rebuilt from the ashes of the fallen._

"Vice, Starch, good to see you guys!" Nicholas said with a grin as he suddenly spotted two familiar teens in the stands. They waved at him and moved over so he could sit down next to them.

"Just in time, game's about to start," Vice said quietly, smirking a little.

"Yeah, no kidding. The others are late though," Starch noted.

"Judith and John should've been here by now, and Jess and Marcus said they'd be late. Not sure about Joe though," Nicholas admitted.

"He's been quiet for a while though. I think he's working on some Group 935 stuff on the side," Vice said slowly, and Nicholas nodded. He then turned his gaze to the football field, where the band was leaving the field and the two football teams were getting ready for the first play.

"_**Are you ready for what is to come?"**_ Nicholas heard a quiet voice say, like a whisper in the wind. It sounded hauntingly familiar, though he couldn't place where he had heard the voice before.

"What?" Nicholas said quietly, glancing around. Starch and Vice glanced at him in confusion before the ground rumbled violently. Nicholas got to his feet, scowling at the bad feeling he was having now.

"You guys feel that weird sense of déjà vu?" Vice asked as he glanced around, eyeing the crowd as hushed whispers floated around. The ground rumbled again, even harder, sending several people crashing to the ground.

"_**Its time to begin again…You all thought the pain was over, but you have only just begun to see true carnage!"**_ the voice laughed cruelly in his mind.

Nicholas felt a thrill of horror go through him as a familiar shockwave of green blue energy rippled through the field, causing the football players to go flying off of the field and crash down onto the ground with yells of pain.

"Wh-what…What the…NOT AGAIN!" the announcer screamed as a familiar screaming filled the air. Nicholas hopped out of his seat and flickered out his hand, and within moments a flaming blue tomahawk appeared in his hand as the football field began to tear itself apart, roiling like the sea when ravaged by a storm.

The stadium went still-

A mangled and gory hand shot out of the ground, showing bone and skin that barely clung to the hand. More hands and arms shot out of the earth as Zombies began to crawl out of the ground, snarling furiously as their bright yellow eyes shone in the night.

"EVERYONE RUN!" Nicholas bellowed as he ran down the stairs, vaulting over the railing and landing on the ground. He ran at the fence as the undead ran towards the crowd's, causing them to flee like hell had come.

"Now what!?" Starch asked, glancing around for some kind of weapon. Vice smirked and pulled out a combat knife from his belt, handing it to Starch as he pulled out a long collapsible walking stick from inside his jacket. With a flick of his hand a short blade sprang out the tip of the cane.

"Second verse, same as the first?" Vice asked Nicholas the trio ran towards the football field.

"Pretty much," Nicholas said with a wry smile, jumping over the fence with a yell, with Vice and Starch doing the same a moment later.

"Come and get me you undead maggot bags!" Nicholas yelled as he drew back his hand, charging up the flaming blue tomahawk in his hand before throwing it as hard as he could. The Hell's Redeemer soared through the air, ripping through about 10 Zombie's before flying back to Nicholas's outstretched hand. Nicholas ran right into the center of the horde, cursing himself for not arming himself more.

"How are they even here? Richtofen and the M.P.D. are gone," Nicholas wondered, eyeing the yellow-eyed Zombies with confusion. He flicked open a small pouch on his belt and pulled out his Golden Spork, holding it in his hands like a sword.

"No idea. This makes no sense!" Starch said as he sidestepped a swipe from an undead sales clerk and jammed a knife through his forehead with a growl.

"Why does this remind me of CoD World at War?" Vice wondered as he blocked a slash from a Screecher Zombie only to knock it aside with his cane and stab it in the skull as it spun back around. Vice kicked the Zombie in the head and watched it fall to the ground, limp.

"Bring it, assholes!" Nicholas yelled as he ran at a Nazi Zombie, who swiped angrily at him only to be cut down with a swift slash to the chest from his Golden Spork. Nicholas spun around and slashed three more Zombies in quick succession, downing them as well. His Hell's Redeemer flashed bright blue on his hip, signaling it was ready for use again.

The three Zombie Slayers continued to fight their way through the horde, though they realized with their limited weapons and the growing number of Zombies surrounding them that they were quickly losing this fight.

Nicholas yelled out a Screecher Zombie slashed at his chest, ripping through his jacket and drawing blood. Nicholas threw the Hell's Redeemer into the face of the Screecher, ripping its head off and killing four Zombies standing behind it.

"I could use some form of backup!" Nicholas shouted as he jumped back, glancing around at the Zombies that surrounded at him by all sides, Vice and Starch carried away by the tide of battle.

"DID SOMEONE SAY BACKUP!?" two familiar voices yelled out.

Gunfire erupted from the front entrance, ripping though the Zombies with ease. Nicholas cast a glance at the gate and saw Jess and Marcus mowing down the undead with their Pack-A-Punched weapons. Marcus ducked under a slash from a Screecher and jammed his Cobra into its jaw before pulling the trigger, blowing its maw off. He then unloaded the barrel into eleven more Zombies before emptying the barrel and jamming a handful of fresh bullets into the chamber.

Jess let out a squeal of glee as she jumped on top of the concessions, leaping from the trash can to the open door to the roof top, and began firing arrows repeatedly into the undead swarming around them with a grin on her face.

"Jess, behind you!" Nicholas yelled as a Blade Zombie appeared behind her, looming over her. As she notched another arrow, Jess fell to her knees, dodging the slash from behind that would have decapitated her, and aimed upwards. She let loose the arrow from her bow, with the arrow ripping through the skull of the Blade Zombie and sending it tumbling backwards off of the building and into the dumpster below.

"Awesome! Now we stand a chance!" Starch laughed as he stabbed another Nazi Zombie in the head and shoved it away, flicking the combat knife in his grip. Nicholas saw two figures dart out from the front gate and make their way towards the field, swinging machetes wildly at the undead horde writhing around them

"Judith, John!" Nicholas yelled with a grin, relief evident in his voice.

"You guys would've have happened to bring any weapons with you, would you? We don't keep anything except these on us," Judith asked Nicholas, who shrugged as he held up his two weapons.

"I've got some in my truck. I always keep some on hand in case of an emergency. Gotta keep prepared!" Marcus yelled, turning around and running out into the parking lot. The group continued to fight off the undead hordes for a minute before a roaring pickup truck smashed through the front gates, plowing through the undead as it drove towards the football field. Marcus threw open the driver's door with a yell.

"Here! Take them!" Marcus yelled as he tossed two C275's to John and an Olympia to Judith, tossing some extra ammo to the two teens as well before hopping out of the truck, Cobra and Bowie Knife in hand.

The teens began to push the undead horde back, and after a minute shooting and stabbing at the undead the group heard the sound of lightning crash down around them.

"Hellhounds!?" Jess yelled with a hint of worry in her voice.

"NOPE!"

A wicked burst of orange lightning exploded into existence in front of the group, taking out several Zombies at once, before a figure appeared from within the blast. A familiar-looking teen in an Achievement Hunter hoodie grinned at them before casually stabbing a Zombie in the head as it charged at him, and after a moment he laughed while yanking the blade free.

"Joe!" Nicholas yelled with relief as the lightning around his friend dissipated.

"Wassup bitches!?" Joe yelled in greeting, tossing an orange cube into his backpack before jogging over to his friends.

"What was that thing you had? And how did you get here?" Nicholas asked his best friend.

"Iva made it. Teleportation Cube," Joe said with a grin.

"So…Its like a Future Cube?" Marcus asked, smiling a little.

"Future Cubes. The cubes of the future," Joe replied, smirking a little at the joke.

"Where's Iva?" Jess asked.

"She wanted to stay behind with the other girls. They're working on a project Sieger was curious about. I came alone because they had a breakthrough and couldn't leave." Joe replied, eyeing the undead horde circling them.

"So…Who's first!?" Joe yelled as he ran at the horde, a confident grin on his face.

"Joe! What the hell!?" Nicholas yelled as his friend rushed into the horde with no weapons in hand. A Nazi Zombie charged at Joe head on, snarling loudly in response.

"SURPRISE MUTHAFUCKA!" Joe yelled as he drew his left hand back and slammed it into the Nazi Zombie's skull, crushing it with ease and sending a spray of gore into the air.

"Dude, that's hardcore," Marcus laughed as Joe flexed his fingers. He pulled off the black glove on his hands, revealing a gleaming silver hand. Joe rolled up his left sleeve all the way, revealing a gleaming silver arm made of metal.

"Robotic Neuro-Prosthetic Prototype," Joe said as he flexed his fingers a few times before elbowing a Nazi Zombie in the chest, leaving a massive indent in his chest before Joe kicked the Zombie to the ground with a yell. He then pulled out his WunderWaffe-DG7 and pulled the trigger at the Zombies surging around the group, a small white ball of lightning forming at the tip before it fired off into the crowd of undead. The screams of the undead pierced the night as the Zombies were shocked/vaporized by the blast.

"And this is why I keep my weapons on me!" Joe cackled as he punched another Zombie in the skull, smashing its head like a tomato and causing slick gore to cover his arm.

"Thanks for the assist!" Nicholas yelled as he ducked under a slash from a Screecher Zombie and stabbed it in the throat with his Golden Spork before spinning around and hurling his Hell's Redeemer at a Juggernaut Zombie rampaging towards them. The brute stopped mid-charge as the tomahawk sliced through the Zombie's neck like paper, killing it instantly.

Starch laughed as he acquired Sickle from Marcus's truck, along with an Executioner, and began slashing and shooting anything that got close. He jammed the Sickle through the head of a female Zombie while casually turning to his left and blowing the brains out of another zombie with the pistol.

Judith carefully blew apart the undead with her Olympia, noticing the flames that shot from the gun she realized it was Pack-A-Punched. After realizing that she had obtained Juliet's old Hades shotgun and that Marcus had somehow acquired ammo for it, she ran forward and fired the shotgun, blowing five Zombies apart with a gunshot that burnt them to cinders and covered the grass with charred flesh.

Jess laughed as she put away her bow and pulled out one of the cutlasses she had obtained in the final fight three years ago, slashing and stabbing at the undead as they surged around her. After ducking under the swipe of a Zombie she ducked behind it and stabbed it in the spine before pulling out the blade and stabbing a Screecher in the chest with her sword, grinning all the while.

"That's my girl!" Marcus yelled with pride as he turned to five charging Nazi Zombies and casually blew each of them apart with his Cobra, savoring the feeling of killing Zombies once again. He jammed the pistol into the open mouth of another Zombie and blew its throat apart, severing the head from the body from the inside out with a yell.

Vice glanced up as a Wyvern Zombie dived down from above, slashing downwards at him. Vice smashed the Zombie away with his cane, causing the creature to land on the ground and lunge at him, only for Vice to stab it in the eye and through the head with the bladed tip of his cane. He removed the cane from the Zombie's skull and stabbed out at a Screecher that was almost upon him, jabbing the bladed tip of the cane into the Screecher's throat.

John opened fire on the undead as they charged at him and his friends, blowing apart the Zombies from the chest upwards. John swiftly reloaded, grateful Speed Cola's effects were still active after all this time, and continued to unload on the undead as a small smile spread across his face.

"Would I be a sadist if I said that I missed killing Zombies?" John asked Jess, who nodded in reply and stuck her tongue out at John.

Joe continued to beat anything that came near him with his robot arm, smashing apart the undead with relative ease. Whenever he saw any of the others getting overwhelmed, he'd fire off a shot of his Wunderwaffe DG-7, clearing away the horde. After a few minutes, he pulled out two Five Sevens and began shooting at the undead around him, his robotic prosthetic functioning just as well as his other arm when it came to shooting a weapon.

Slowly but surely, the tide of the battle began to change as the Zombie slayers quickly put down the undead, cutting through their numbers faster than they could spawn in. Nicholas downed five Zombies with his Golden Spork and glanced to his side, and saw Jess and Marcus had joined John, Judith, Vice, and Starch. They stood back to back, fending off the last of the undead horde as they rushed at the teens.

And then the field was silent.

"Is…that it?" Nicholas said quietly, eyeing the hundreds of slain Zombies littering the stadium. They had suddenly stopped spawning...

"So…anyone have any idea why the hell Zombies just attacked?" Joe asked the others, flicking his gory robotic fingers with a smirk of satisfaction.

"No…Though I don't think we should worry about it," Nicholas said after a moment.

"Umm, OK?" Judith said, clearly confused.

"Oh goodie. Care to share your knowledge with the rest of the class?" Joe asked sarcastically.

Nicholas shot Joe a dirty look before saying "Did you notice what color their eyes were, by any chance?"

"Uh, yeah. Yellow. Why?" Joe asked before he blinked in realization and said "Oh, wait. Yeah, they were yellow!"

"Good job Joe! You know your colors now! You're such a good boy!" John said mockingly, causing Joe to smack John in the face with his robot arm, causing John to go crashing onto the ground.

"Anyway! Yeah, I get what you're saying, Nicholas. Kind of weird that she'd do that, though." Joe admitted quietly.

"Wait, so because the Zombies have yellow eyes, we shouldn't worry about them?" Jess asked Nicholas, who nodded.

"Yes. Whoever controls the Zombies generally leaves some trace, which can be seen in the color of the Zombies eyes. Blue is the color for Richtofen while yellow is for-"

"Gotcha," Jess said with a grin, understanding now.

"Alright, here's what I'm thinking," Nicholas said as he lowered his voice.

"So…They haven't lost a step." a woman said quietly as a pair of red eyes watched the teens from underneath the bleachers.

A blond-haired woman stepped out from the shadows and regarded the teens standing in the middle of the abandoned stadium with a smile, her dark red eyes gleaming.

"I guess so. I still wonder whether or not they're ready for what comes next."

The blond-haired woman turned to her side and regarded the man in a black trench coat with pale white skin looking up at the crescent moon in the sky with a smile with his crimson-colored eyes. Two massive pistols were clipped to his belt, while his long black hair flowed in the wind.

"Eris…What comes next will not be easy." Yena said quietly.

"I know that, Master…But it has to be done." Eris replied.

"I wonder why she tested them like that?" Eris asked as she turned to face the teens on the football field again. Yena shrugged in response, and walked over to Eris, smiling at his protégé.

"Few people can fathom what goes on in her mind…I think she just wanted to see if they can still hold their own," Yena replied as he lowered his hand, the shadows around him writhing and twisting.

"Hmm…I guess that makes sense, kind of. Maybe she wants to see if they want to go with her?" Eris asked.

"Probably. They'll most likely end up coming along for the ride some time down the road. Despite what she thinks, she can't keep those kids out of this. She needs their help too," Yena remarked.

"Master?"

"Yes?"

"Why the change?"

"What do you mean?" Yena asked Eris, who smiled a little at the man as he sat down on the steps of the bleachers.

"You used to be such a monster. You hated everything and loved nothing, and wanted to betray everything you used to care about and watch this world burn." Eris began to say, but she stopped after that, unable to find her words. Yena, however, seemed to know what she was thinking because of his reply.

"In the end…We all have the capacity to be heroes, Eris. Be you a child or a hardened solider, every one of us has the capacity for good and evil. To save the world or condemn it," Yena said quietly, resting his hands on his knees.

"It depends on many things. Your upbringing, the lessons you learn that shape your outlook on life." Yena continued, closing his eyes.

"And the people you meet," Eris added, walking over to Yena. The Group 935 scientist chuckled and extended a hand towards his protégé, ruffling her blond hair affectionately. Eris drew closer to her master and nuzzled his neck affectionately, earning a smile from Yena.

"Yes…Even one person can make a difference. One person is able to change the tide in a war. One person can change the world. One person…" Yena murmured.

"You're talking about Izzy and Dr. Richtofen." Eris guessed as she sat down on the ground next to Yena.

"Yes…And no. To tell the truth, I was talking about those kids down there. And Samantha…and Sieger too." Yena said after a moment.

"Each one of them made a difference. Together they helped change the world…Look at it now…They made our dream a reality. No, this isn't a perfect world…But its progress. Progress we never would have dreamed to ever see." Yena explained in a small voice.

"And we have you to thank for that, Samantha." Eris said as she looked to her left. A young woman with long flowing black hair stepped out from the shadows, armed to the teeth and smiling wanly at the two figures next to her.

"I'm amazed you can still control the undead, with the M.P.D. gone," Yena remarked as Samantha cast a glance at him.

"It takes a lot of effort, and I used a bit of Illuzio's magic," Samantha admitted as she sat down on the ground next to Eris.

"So, where's Sieger?" Eris asked Samantha.

"Meeting with the President. He says hi, by the way." Samantha said with a small laugh.

"That boy always surprises me, just when I think that no one can do that anymore," Yena grumbled. The trio fell into a silence that stretched on for a few minutes as they watched the teens on the field talk and compare notes, trying to figure out what happened but not quite noticing Samantha, Eris, and Yena yet.

"So…What do you think of Dr. Maxis?" Eris asked Samantha quietly.

Samantha regarded the two shadow-warriors for a moment before she said "My father…He's changed so much…It's like he's not even him anymore…"

"Yes. We figured you should see what he has become…before you decide on a course of action." Yena said slowly to Samantha, who closed her eyes.

Samantha looked away and said "They need our help though…"

"Yes. But know this. Unlike this world when the outbreak of Zombies was unleashed and Richtofen made his play for power, the other world has already begun to die. You're on a time clock, and you will likely face both of them before everything is said and done." Yena said to Samantha, who looked away.

"I know…" Samantha murmured, clenching her fists.

"Samantha-" Yena began to say before she turned around and yelled "I KNOW!"

Samantha sighed angrily, calming herself down, and said "I know what I'll have to do. I won't like it, but I know…Its so bizarre. I hate this…Its going to be so hard…But I'm the only one who can do this."

"Yes…It will be hard, especially for you. You still want to try and save them? Despite the risks and the heartbreak you will almost certainly face?" Yena asked Samantha, a cruel smile on his lips.

"We all have to take that step. No one ever said the life we live is easy or even right…But the goal of Group 935 was to improve the human condition. That dream has been passed down onto me…And now some of the people who helped us save this world need our help." Samantha said after a moment, looking Yena in the eyes.

"Good…You'll do fine," Yena said after a moment, seemingly pleased with Samantha's response.

Samantha looked up into the night sky, and her thoughts wandered to Group 935.

Porter, the loyal one. Yena, the monster. Illuzio, the wronged magician. Sophia, who had fallen in love with Richtofen.

And Richtofen…A man who in the end proved to Samantha that sometimes you just have to let go of the past and look to the future. You have to let go.

"So…For the sake of formality…What is your answer, Samantha Maxis?" Yena asked Samantha, who closed her eyes and smiled as she turned to face the duo before her.

"My answer is…Yes." Samantha said slowly. Yena clasped his hands excitedly as Eris sighed in relief before she waved her hand, a portal of shadows appearing before her.

"Then let us begin," Yena chuckled darkly.

"They'll be happy to see you again," Eris said with a smile. Samantha zipped up her jacket as she pulled out a Mustang and Sally. She glanced over at the teens reuniting on the football field, and then looked in front of her at the dark void that led to another world.

"You'll see them again. Who knows, they may even join you. I have a feeling they'll want to help you," Eris said with a smile.

"Maybe…How far will you two be behind me?" Samantha asked Yena and Eris.

"We've got to take care of a few loose ends on this end, and then pick Sieger up and send him over to you, and then we'll be right there." Eris promised.

"OK…Let's go then," Samantha said with a sigh as she walked through the portal, vanishing into the darkness. Yena chuckled and waved his hand, and the shadows dispersed into nothingness.

"How do you think she'll react when meets him in person?" Eris asked Yena.

"Not well." Yena replied, a smirk on his face.

"You don't seem bothered by it, Master." Eris said to Yena, who laughed a little as he pulled his protégé into a one-armed hug.

"Speaking of people who make a difference…None of this would have been possible without you, you know," Yena said quietly, setting his chin on Eris's head.

"Hmmm?"

"You see…I was in the dark, for a very long time. I was wrapped up in all of that…Bloodlust and anger. I admit…I was mistaken, to a degree. I hate admitting it, but…I was wrong, little one." Yena said quietly.

"I am a monster. Nothing will ever change that…But you made me see a side of myself I never knew existed." Yena said as he hugged Eris closer to his chest.

"What side of you would that be, Master?" Eris asked Yena.

"My humanity. I began to look deep inside my mind and didn't like everything I saw. I was too wrapped up in my hate. My pain…I had let the darkness overwhelm me, and I refused to let it do so anymore. You…became my Izzy, in a way…I didn't want to disappoint you, or ruin Izzy's memory by sinking even further into the darkness. I became a monster, but regained my sense of purpose. You are my purpose, now, Eris." Yena said quietly.

"An honor I carry with pride. I've seen your memories of Izzy, you know…She's everything good in the world combined into one woman."

"Yes…She was. But…The fact of the matter is that she is gone. But her dream…No, the dream of Group 935 has never seemed so bright. The world is changing, Eris, and all in a way that honors the fallen. It is a world I am glad to see with my own eyes." Yena admitted quietly.

"You've come such a long way since wanting to engulf the world in darkness, Master." Eris whispered.

"Yeah…It kind of sucks, but…What can you do?" Yena sighed.

Eris shook her head and said "You still want to deny that good in you, huh?"

"Yep. I'm going to go on a killing spree later to make myself feel better. Care to join me?" Yena asked Eris.

"I'll pass." Eris laughed.

"Suit yourself, little one."

The pair fell into a silence as the teens walked off of the field, no doubt to do damage control and to make sure any remaining Zombies were taken care of. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Eris spoke up.

"How did this all come about anyway? I mean, I had planned for everyone to come along and help out, but not yet. What changed?" Eris asked Yena.

"Ah, well…I was mulling around that ruined little town in the cave and came across your portly friend with the glasses. He gave me a letter to give to Samantha." Yena remarked casually.

"I wasn't aware Samuel was that close to her."

"He wasn't. But he…Well, let's just say he was a little off at the time." Yena said cryptically.

"How so?"

"You'll see when we return." Yena said with a small laugh.

"Well, what did the letter say?"

Yena smirked and pulled out a bloodstained piece of paper, worn and tattered and written in a messy scrawl. Eris accepted it. She read the letter in the moonlight that the crescent moon provided, and smiled as she read the letter aloud.

_Hello, my friends from the other side._

_I must admit, this is not…How I thought things would go. But things are growing worse in this world, and my time grows short. With me are some of the fighters who wish to make things right. They wish to save this miserable planet before Maxis finds what he is looking for._

_Our ruin._

_His search for Samantha, his daughter from my world, is destroying our planet. While I certainly do not care for the inhabitants of this ruined world, I do care for Maxis's plans. He must not succeed! I will not allow him to get his way, not so long as I can do something. Anything!_

_He wishes the end of us all. He will stop at nothing to find his daughter. He will destroy this world and rip apart the gates to Agartha, which may also bring doom to other worlds as well. Other timelines…I do not know myself how catastrophic the damage Maxis can cause will be, but this is far beyond my abilities. Even with my experience…I do not know how to stop Maxis on my own._

_We require your assistance…Samantha Maxis. Daughter of Ludvig Maxis. Your world, your timeline, was created by my meddling…and you are not the same miserable girl who Maxis seeks. _

_I do not care what becomes of me, only that Dr. Maxis is destroyed. While I am aware that my past experiences do not make me a viable source of trust in your eyes, I am not your enemy. Maxis is far worse than me, driven beyond logic to find his daughter…_

_He is the reason our world is dying. His contingency plan reduced this planet to a charred and broken wreck, while his lies to your allies led to true ruin of the world. He is your enemy…Not I._

_I have felt the change in the wind, even here. You and your friends defeated my other self, and have changed the very world I sought to change from here. While I despise the idea of asking anyone for help…Least of all you, circumstances have forced my hand…I need your help, no matter how much I wish I did not._

_Harvey Yena will find you and explain more to you and your friends. His little friend has become close to my associates, who tell me they have travelled to your world and helped fight my other self and his forces. _

_Yena and Eris will help you get here, should you agree to help us, and then we will begin our dark work. You may not survive the events to come…But you and your friends are the only ones who can help us stop Doctor Maxis._

_I await you, in my world. My timeline._

_Oh, and do make sure to bring plenty of bullets and knives! _

_With _warm_ regards, Doctor Edward Richtofen._

End:

* * *

><p><em>And…We're done.<em>

_This story, after nearly 3 years, is done. _

_Now, because of how I ended the story, I have left it open for a sequel. As you can tell, it concerns the events that happened in Buried and in the "Original Timeline." As for any further details…well, I'm keeping those under wraps. _

_Now, the answer to the question people keep asking me. Will I do a sequel right away?_

_No. I've got other projects I'd like to do, and I just don't know where the story is going right now. Its dependent on what Treyarch does with the story. I also just want to do other things. I have other areas of writing that I want to delve into, so this will have to wait for some time._

_But for now, please bear with me. I have to fix up and finish some of my current projects before I can begin some new ones._

_Expect more news on "Second Chances" with every "Symphony" update, and I'd appreciate it if you guys checked out "Symphony" whenever you can, as that story will be receiving a few updates in the next few months._

_As for the next story after "Second Chances", well…Anything is possible._

_Ideas currently on the table are fanfics on Saints Row, Minecraft, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, and a few choice others. I hope that you guys will continue to follow my stories and continue to support me. _

_Final Shoutout to EVERY SINGLE REVIEW OF THIS STORY! IN ORDER OF SUPPORT! Due to people changing their usernames, I will just go by their current names in the review history thing. I also may have given the same person multiple shotuouts, this is due to some leaving a guest reviewer of using multiple accounts. If I miss you, I'm sorry, but there were a lot of names to go through and it happens. _

_SO! Shoutout to video games and other stuff, Dreadlock223, MidnightAssassin12, JC785, JayP90210, Deathtochuck, Cold secrets, Manifest Destiny, HeartofMC, mybrosdrivemecrazy, Noskansho, PeacefulProcrastination, alex. snow. 72, Pickles for President, Ookami. Aeon, fanficfan32, Trapinchh, El Trombonisto, uig50, Love this, PkMn Trainer Metal N, DeltaG, Justplainawesome, Lord rage quit, StaticBomb93, anonymous, Guest, Anonymous, deltastar 141, Devilbros666, minecraftrules99, nerdyjedi, Guest (AKA Jess), XxPhantom PhangirlxX, Echostar 141, Guest, tjelledge262, The Lone Traveller, I did not by BO, XNewWorld, Guest, CarriedCoin, RandomName3064, the viewer, LSU DUDE, Princess Shahnaz, Guest, JayMan551, CREATOR OF AWESOMNESS, Gimli115, Unkillable, Guest, Guest, Dustchu, hellfire lord, Snake-scent00, Guest, Ghost-407, SILVERBRO13, SnakeNICKS FAV, chuckhater, xpsian, Nerdyjedi27, ZombielandHunter, Knightmare Frame Razgriz, Flameus, Guest (AKA Jason the Beast Master), A.D, Silentwarrior, Darksider, mcnoob, elfgod, Ep1CN00b, Silent elite warrior, Justsomeperson7734, Alec Damon, Jess, katerinavalentine62601, The Zambie Man, Guest, nikolia belinski, 200footdrop, DylanKTB, MetaKnight0011, S4656guy, lanstetil51, Josh G., jlbean, Blackspark, Guest, FinnkissedBilly, AgelessAgera, __Vengeance of One, killz718, Guest, BobbyD, Guest, lolperson2, silverrandombitc, silverrandoman, XxXYoyoyoXxX, Guest, m8camper9, Dogsled shepherd, monkeyface, Guest, eel3234, TMDF-Artyom, DigDugDiamond, Dunka99, The lone doctor, StaticBomb93, Amy Bachemin (AKA Bu11etB1iss115), Its-a-Mii, doomforzombies16, YouHadMeAtCOD, Jlyman, Guest, Mooman1706, Guest, Antwa78, Robert Aaron M. Obong, Guest, Guest, Westy8897, Satin666, PROminecrafter, Enlightened Apostle, Tigger300, HaloSniper1338, Shadow67100, Batman, Dragondude666, Alliance of Blood, Vibrava of Wind, dettmcl, ZeroKIA13, Percy Jackson I Am, Guest, Guest, stinkytrey, Guest, Guest, eaglesplayer29, Tony Cassanova, Dewdaman, Soulpwn, and ty1967._

_And to every single person who has made it to the end of this story, even after I have finished it. Thank you for taking time to read my story and getting to this point._

_Here's the part where I ask you to leave a final review. One last remark. Be it a review on the story as a whole, your favorite moment of the story, what you took away from the story, or a final message to me. I know some of you have done it already with the Finale, but I'd like for you all to do it again for the formality of this final chapter. _

_As always…Your feedback means the world to me. I read and remember all of my reviews, as those are the people who let their opinions of my work be heard. Every kind word or praise, every ounce of support that you all have gave me over these past three years will always been remembered. _

_So for now…I will not say goodbye. Because this is not the true end of this story, and not the end of me. _

_Instead I'll just say this._

_Thank you for everything. You guys are the absolute best fans ever, and I love you guys._

_Until next time! FlygonNick out!_


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